Integrating Workspace Design, Web-Based Tools and Organizational Behavior

Abstract

OVERVIEW:Industrial research organizations are constantly concerned with maximizing their business value by developing optimum organizational structures and work processes. A current preoccupation is how to capture the benefits of the burgeoning availability of networked electronic tools and the local and global connectivity they enable. An experiment designed to answer these issues was conducted at the Xerox Wilson Center for Research & Technology. Involving real R&D people in an existing organization, the experiment introduced several change agents, including workspace design, and web-based digital tools, together with organizational structures and behaviors. Unexpectedly, the outcome was an emergent “innovation” involving a fusion of these change agents. Positive impacts on organizational behavior and work processes, and factors that proved critical to these outcomes were also identified.