Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this case study is to investigate how the personnel in an organization experienced the process of change when moving from private offices to an activity-based office (ABO) and how their perceptions of change were associated with changes in their satisfaction with the work environment a year after relocation. Design/methodology/approach A comparative pre-post study design and mixed methods were used. Survey data was obtained from 154 employees before the relocation and 146 after the relocation. The data on the 105 employees who responded to both surveys were statistically analyzed. Representatives of different units were interviewed (n = 17) and documentary material was analyzed as complementary material. Findings The personnel’s criticisms concerned the reasons for the change, their opportunities to influence the office design and the extent to which their views were taken into account. Environmental satisfaction decreased after moving to the ABO. The personnel’s ratings of the workplace change process before the relocation were associated with the later change in environmental satisfaction. Based on logistic regression, the degree of agreement with management’s reasons for the change was the strongest predictor of the change in environmental satisfaction. Practical implications Organizations that move from private offices to an ABO should invest in high-quality change management and simultaneously develop both work and facilities. Special attention should be paid to clarifying the rationale for the change to the employees and to providing them with opportunities to influence during the change. Organizations should continue to monitor user experiences and evaluate the effects of the change after the office redesign and should take corrective action as needed. Originality/value This empirical case study is unique as it combined qualitative and quantitative methods and investigated the process of relocation and its outcomes in a one-year follow-up. This approach captured the importance of managing change and assessing the long-term effects of office redesign when moving from private offices to an ABO.
Highlights
Today, work is characterized by a technological revolution, which enables knowledge workers to work independently of time and space (Lee and Brand, 2005), meaning that work is increasingly flexible and multi-locational (Vartiainen et al, 2007; Appel-Meulenbroek et al, 2011; Harris, 2016; Wohlers and Hertel, 2017)
Activity-based offices (ABOs) are an example of modern work environments that organizations adopt to support communication and collaboration, reduce facility costs and reach energy and space efficiency targets (Golden, 2007; Appel-Meulenbroek et al, 2011; Seddigh et al, 2014; Kim et al, 2016; Wohlers and Activity-based work environments vary in terms of office design and the definitions used in the literature (Bodin Danielsson et al, 2015; Lahtinen et al, 2015; Wohlers et al, 2019)
On the other change process hand, the respondents were critical of their opportunities to influence the office design and the degree to which their views had been taken into account in decision-making (58% disagreed on both)
Summary
Work is characterized by a technological revolution, which enables knowledge workers to work independently of time and space (Lee and Brand, 2005), meaning that work is increasingly flexible and multi-locational (Vartiainen et al, 2007; Appel-Meulenbroek et al, 2011; Harris, 2016; Wohlers and Hertel, 2017). Activitybased workspace practices can be applied in offices with assigned desks (Haapakangas et al, 2018), in which case they are referred to as combi-offices (De Been and Beijer, 2014) or multi-space offices (Lahtinen et al, 2015). This type of ABO design has been studied less
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