Should Your Company Transition from Traditional Private Offices to an Open Office Plan?

The vast majority of corporations in North America have considered changing from traditional, private offices to some version of an open-plan office. Based on a great deal of scientific research on the influence of the physical environment on human motivation, performance, and job satisfaction, this paper explores the advantages and disadvantages of making this transition for your organization. It includes tips on how to make this change as painless as possible at your company, including psychosocial change management strategies that have been successful for many corporations.

TRADITIONAL, OPEN, OR SOMETHING IN BETWEEN?

Attempting to monitor the trends in office design can be difficult at best. It seems that with every decade come “new” recommendations on how best to design environments to support office workers. For better or for worse, over the last few decades the various trends “to and fro” among traditional, private offices; landscaped offices; cubicles; and open offices has afforded researchers a cornucopia of information. A number of consistent findings appear to be emerging from this work, although certainly more research is needed to corroborate these conclusions.

The link between the physical environment and office work has been explored in numerous ways over the last few decades. Studies have focused on the role of such variables as density, openness, lighting, color, and partitions as determinants of office workers’ attitudes and job performance. Four clear implications from this material can be summarized as follows:

• The psychosocial dimensions of office design and operation are at least as important as the physical aspects of these environments.
• The perception of individual control over one’s work area must be emphasized when designating office environments.
• A broad perspective for intervention that involves multiple levels of the organization can be far more effective than isolated design solutions.
• A functional analysis can improve the ultimate office design solution.