The productivity tax of new office concepts: a comparative review of open-plan offices, activity-based working, and single-office concepts
Gerlitz and Hulsbeck systematically reviewed the relationship between office concepts and individual and organisational performance, searching publications between 2005 and 2022 and narrowing 429 papers to 46 empirical articles, organised around seven dimensions including office concept, personality fit, satisfaction, health and control. Their findings run against the direction of the last two decades of office design. Activity-based working, where nobody holds a fixed desk, negatively affects performance and also affects employee satisfaction and health. Open-plan offices can reduce real-estate costs but produce lower performance, which the authors describe as a productivity tax that outweighs the initial cost saving. Activity-based working retains potential to enhance collaboration and interaction where management is professional and proactive about it. In most cases, and for knowledge workers in particular, the single office was the environment in which employees showed the best individual and organisational performance. This vault notes that the last finding carries an unresolved selection confound.
Gerlitz and Hulsbeck systematically reviewed the relationship between office concepts and individual and organisational performance, searching publications between 2005 and 2022 and narrowing 429 papers to 46 empirical articles, organised around seven dimensions including office concept, personality fit, satisfaction, health and control. Their findings run against the direction of the last two decades of office design. Activity-based working, where nobody holds a fixed desk, negatively affects performance and also affects employee satisfaction and health. Open-plan offices can reduce real-estate costs but produce lower performance, which the authors describe as a productivity tax that outweighs the initial cost saving. Activity-based working retains potential to enhance collaboration and interaction where management is professional and proactive about it. In most cases, and for knowledge workers in particular, the single office was the environment in which employees showed the best individual and organisational performance. This vault notes that the last finding carries an unresolved selection confound.
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73, 1889-1926. Systematic review narrowing 429 papers to 46 empirical articles; open-plan can reduce real-estate costs but leads to lower performance, imposing a productivity tax that outweighs the saving; activity-based working negatively affects performance, satisfaction and health while retaining collaborative potential under proactive management; for knowledge workers the single office is associated with the best individual and organisational performance. doi:10.1007/s11301-022-00316-2
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- The Office That Stopped People Talking, Why We Work
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The source
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11301-022-00316-2
DOI: 10.1007/s11301-022-00316-2