Purpose

In the rise of offices designed to support activity-based working (ABW), parts of industry have fully transitioned to open-plan environments and then later to unassigned seating, whereas other parts, such as tertiary education, are still in the process of moving away from individual offices. There are a few relevant studies to understand how occupants from industry sectors with different levels of adoption of ABW perceived environments designed to support this way of working. This paper aims to contribute to the knowledge gap by providing insight into workers’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction from open-plan offices designed to support ABW along with the key predictors of perceived productivity.

Design/methodology/approach

A data set of 2,090 post-occupancy evaluation surveys conducted in five sectors – tertiary education, finance, construction, property/asset management and design/engineering – was analyzed. ANOVA and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were conducted for the survey questionnaires. First, ANOVA tests were conducted for the whole sample with perceived productivity as the dependent variable. A seven-point Likert scale with five theoretical factors was generated with all survey questionnaires. CFA was performed to show the factor loadings. In addition, regression analyses were carried out for each of factor item taken as the independent variable, where perceived productivity was the dependent variable. Key sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction per sector were analyzed and differences between occupants reporting a negative or positive impact on their productivity were also investigated. Finally, open-ended comments were analyzed to show the key sources of dissatisfaction based on open-ended comments.

Findings

Workers from construction were the most satisfied, followed by finance and tertiary education. Occupants from all industry sectors consistently rated their workspaces highly on biophilic and interior design. Distraction and privacy received the lowest scores from all sectors. Open-ended comments showed mismatches between spatial and behavioral dimensions of ABW both for satisfaction and perceived productivity. Interior design was the strongest predictor for perceived productivity for all sectors. Findings dispel the notion that ABW implementation may not be suitable for certain industries, as long as the three key pillars of ABW are fully implemented, including design, behavior and technology.

Originality/value

This paper provides insight into workers’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction from open-plan offices designed to support ABW in different industry sectors along with the key predictors of perceived productivity.

中文翻译：

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旨在满足基于活动的工作的开放式办公室中的人员满意度和可感知的生产率：不同行业的发现

目的

在旨在支持基于活动的工作（ABW）的办公室的兴起中，行业的一部分已经完全过渡到开放式环境，然后又转变为未分配的座位，而其他部分（例如，高等教育）仍在迁移中远离个人办公室。有一些相关研究可以了解来自不同行业，采用ABW程度不同的人们如何感知旨在支持这种工作方式的环境。本文旨在通过了解旨在支持ABW的开放式办公室的工人满意度和不满以及对生产力的关键预测指标，来弥补知识差距。

设计/方法/方法

分析了在五个领域（高等教育，金融，建筑，财产/资产管理和设计/工程）进行的2,090个占用后评估调查的数据集。对调查问卷进行了方差分析和验证性因素分析（CFA）。首先，对整个样品进行了方差分析测试，将生产率视为因变量。所有调查问卷均生成了具有五个理论因素的七点李克特量表。进行CFA来显示因素负荷。此外，对作为自变量的每个要素项目进行了回归分析，其中感知生产力是因变量。分析了每个部门满意和不满意的主要根源，并调查了对生产率产生负面或正面影响的居住者之间的差异。最后，对不限成员名额的评论进行了分析，以显示基于不限成员名额的评论的主要不满根源。

发现

建筑工人最满意，其次是金融和高等教育。来自所有行业的占领者始终对他们的工作空间给予高度的亲和性和室内设计评价。分心和隐私在所有部门中得分最低。不限成员名额的评论显示，ABW在空间和行为方面在满意度和感知生产力方面均不匹配。室内设计是所有部门感知生产力的最强预测指标。研究发现消除了ABW实施可能不适用于某些行业的想法，只要ABW的三个关键支柱（包括设计，行为和技术）得到充分实施。

创意/价值

本文提供了旨在支持不同行业的ABW的开放式办公室的员工满意度和不满的见解，以及感知生产力的关键预测指标。