Abstract
The World Green Building Council (WGBC) advocates improvements in employee health, wellbeing, and productivity in buildings as people are about 90% of an organisation’s expense and well exceed building costs and energy costs. It was reported that earlier research on workplace design primarily focused on physical arrangement of employees’ immediate work area, and ambient environmental qualities of the work area. Building organisation, exterior amenities, and site-planning have been given less attention. Therefore, we examine more closely the health relevance of both proximal and remote aspects of workplace design. Occupational stress is a complex phenomenon that is dynamic and evolving over time. This investigation reviews the existing fundamental conceptual models of occupational stress, workplace design, and connection to nature. It aims to develop an improved model relevant to work place design and occupational stress linked with connection to nature. The proposed improved model is presented with an appropriate causal loop diagram to assist in visualizing how different variables in a system are interrelated. The developed model highlights how connection to nature in workspaces can function as a work resource with a dual effect of improving physical wellbeing and psychological wellbeing.
Highlights
We examine more closely the connection to nature and wellbeing aspects of workplace design
The main aim of this review is to propose an improved conceptual model that incorporates three themes: wellbeing, workplace design, and connection to nature
As suggested by Richardson et al (2017) [63], the consideration of connection to nature introduces a new paradigm in workplace design and wellbeing, two themes that are well developed in the field of ergonomics
Summary
The World Green Building Council (WGBC) provides a compelling business case argument for health, wellbeing, and productivity: “people are 90% of an organisation’s expense and well exceed building costs and energy costs, a small improvement in employee productivity can yield significant value.” [1] (p. 2). The relationships between workplace design and occupational health were examined by Stokols (2011) [2], who reported that they are considered at several levels of analysis: Physical arrangement of employees’ immediate work area, Ambient environmental qualities of the work area, Physical organization of buildings that comprise a particular workplace, Exterior amenities and site planning of those facilities. Stokols (2011) [2] found that workplace design levels 1 and 2 were the primary areas of focus of earlier research, while level 3: building organisation and level 4: exterior amenities and site-planning have been given less attention. Stokols (2011) [2] recommended a thorough examination of the health relevance of both proximal and remote aspects of workplace design in future research. Occupational stress is a complex phenomenon that is dynamic and Buildings 2018, 8, 133; doi:10.3390/buildings8100133 www.mdpi.com/journal/buildings
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