Ever wonder about office design's role creating an effective organization? I've been an advocate of an open office layout ever since working in one at a software startup in 2001. This preference has grown despite my occasional sitings of bear, wild-turkey, geese, and fall foliage from my windowed private office. (Yes, I can also see route 78 when the trees are bare.)
A possible office move led me to think about this a little more seroiusly recently, and I went to the web to see what research was out there. My company's standard calls for internal private offices for managers and cubicles for most other people. The bulk of people in my office are information workers.
My research first led me to Thomas Davenport's Why Office Design Matters, which is excerpted from Thinking for a Living: How to Get Better Performance and Results from Knowledge Workers:
Knowledge workers prefer closed offices, but seem to communicate better in open ones. Of course there is great variation among open and closed office types, but the most extensive research in the area (from Cornell professors Frank Becker and William Sims) suggests that while most knowledge workers prefer closed offices because they are better able to concentrate, they communicate informally and build trust and social capital more easily in more open office environments (even high-walled cubicles, they say, restrict interpersonal communications). They note: "Our research, done with employees in job functions ranging from software development to marketing and business development, indicates that the more open the 'open' plan office environment, the more conducive it is to overall work effectiveness, when communication and interaction are critical elements of the work process." Becker and Sims are undeniably experts on this topic, but I feel that, like many corporate executives, they downplay the need for concentration and quiet when knowledge work is done in office environments.
I hear the last point, that private offices foster concentrated work, from many of my colleagues. But given that many of them now telecommute (is that word outdated already?) a siginifcant portion of their time, I wonder if Becker and Sims emphasis on workplace communication is even more apropos.
In 2001, Becker and Sims published Offices that Work: Balancing Communication, Flexibility, and Cost. The research focused on software development firms and was far-reaching. I focused on the private-office vs. shared office vs. bullpen (open office) vs. cubicle debate. The various choices were rated on several factors. For individual factors, they looked at auditory and visual privacy, satisfaction, productivity, concentration, and isolation. For team factors, they considered learning from colleagues, problem solving, sponteneous conversations, initiating conversations, and team communication and collaboration.
Cubicles are frequently seen as providing a happy medium between bullpens and private/shared offices. Instead, the research found that "cubicles are generally the worst performers on every measure." While workers preferred closed offices, bullpens provided better team environments.
Becker and Sims also discuss how passion influences one's view of private offices:
As we have worked in the different study sites over the past two years another factor has surfaced that influences the data, and the implications for finding practical solutions to pressing organizational dilemmas. That factor is the difference between employees who are passionate about their work, who are inspired and inspire others, and those for whom the work is just a job.
People like Linda Coventry (a pseudonym), the VP of Engineering at one of the study spin-off firms, or Joyce Smith (a pseudonym), the Director of Marketing at another, were bursting with energy and enthusiasm. They attracted and inspired staff with these qualities. At another of our study firms, one which was an internal corporate web-initiative, the workers were bright and committed. But the embers of passion glowed faintly. These emotional states influence employees’ response to their work environment.
Passionate employees inspired by their job focus on the work, and not the work environment. They focus on how the work environment helps energize them, on the opportunities it offers to learn from others and to benefit from being in a firm that has “great people.” They pay relatively little attention to rank and status, or to office size. For those less passionate about their work, such factors seem to be more important.
