Shared Workplace Research Articles

Communities in Coworking Spaces: Boundary Work and Social Identity Work by Community Managers

AbstractThe use of coworking spaces – flexible, shared workplaces for mobile knowledge workers – has gained popularity among entrepreneurs, small‐business owners, and freelancers over the last decade. Coworking spaces shape a social setting for a community, within which mobile knowledge workers can network, collaborate, and share ideas. This study adopts a social‐symbolic work perspective to explore how founders and community managers create and curate the communities in their coworking spaces. Based on qualitative data gathered from 16 coworking spaces, we elaborate on how founders and community managers can integrate boundary work and social identity work in their social‐symbolic work practices to create a sense of community.

Workspace Guardian: Investigating Awareness of Personal Workspace Between Co-Located Augmented Reality Users.

As augmented reality (AR) systems proliferate and the technology gets smaller and less intrusive, we imagine a future where many AR users will interact in the same physical locations (e.g., in shared work places and public spaces). While previous research has explored AR collaboration in these spaces, our focus is on co-located but independent work. In this paper, we explore co-located AR user behavior and investigate techniques for promoting awareness of personal workspace boundaries. Specifically, we compare three techniques: showing all virtual content, visualizing bounding box outlines of content, and a self-defined workspace boundary. The findings suggest that a self-defined boundary led to significantly more personal workspace encroachments.

Smart disassembly cell for circularity: Turn industry 4.0 technologies for disassembly and recovery of components.

Circular Economy initiatives have introduced a solution demand for the treatment of End of Life (EoL) products, switching from shredding and material recycling to the recovery of modules/components that remain functional. The process needs product recovery and diagnostic, disassembly, and requalification. These tasks are today carried out by human labour due to their complexity and uncertainties concerning the working conditions of the received product. But it implies time and costs that hardly balance the economical balance in developed countries context. Human – Cobot collaborative disassembly are promising solution to overcome the uncertainties without compromising the flexibility and the rate of disassembly operation. The Smart Disassembly Cell for Circularity (SDC2) project aims to provide a semi–automated disassembly solution for EoL electronic products. This paper portrays the requirements for the implementation of a Human-Cobot collaborative cell for electronic products. The goal of this project is to implement a shared workplace where the robot and the worker can work in parallel or share a common task with safe interaction. A literature study on available solutions was made. From there, the study and implementation of the decision system, database and service platform started. This document describes the function of the database and decision system as well as the service platform to establish global communication. MySQL and Python with the FLASK package were used to frame the database and service platform, Genetic algorithm was implemented for providing the robotic disassembly planning solution. A case study using a personal computer and a Power inverter was conducted to verify the development in each stage. The systems are under development with an aim to provide a global disassembly cell which will be able to disassemble various products rather than focusing on a specific product.

Continuity planning for public health crises: Designing workplace redundancies for organizational resilience.

Continuity planning prepares organizations to maintain essential functions despite disruptions to critical infrastructure that occur during crises. Continuity planning is especially important for Public-Safety Answering Points (PSAPs), which must prepare to answer 911 calls and dispatch first responders in all-hazard environments, including public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. However, continuity planning typically focuses on disruptions to cyber-physical infrastructure rather than social infrastructure disruptions that occur when outbreaks of communicable disease limit the ability of essential personnel to perform an organization's essential functions. Reporting findings from interviews with US officials, this study examines how PSAPs decentralized essential personnel by designing redundant workplaces during the COVID-19 pandemic. Realizing existing continuity plans prepared PSAPs to relocate and recentralize essential personnel in a single, shared workplace, officials developed new plans to protect and decentralize telecommunicators across multiple, separate workplaces. To do so, PSAPs achieved passive, standby, and active workplace redundancies that recommend continuity planning objectives and requirements for organizations preparing for future public health crises.

Incidence and Source of COVID-19 Infection Among Health Care Workers in a Tertiary Hospital in South India-A Prospective Cohort Study.

Background:Data for COVID-19 incidence and the source of infection among health care workers (HCWs) in Indian population are limited. The main objective of the study was to assess the incidence of COVID-19 infection and identify the source of infection among the HCWs in a tertiary teaching hospital.Methods:A prospective cohort study was conducted among the 2134 HCWs recruited by purposive sampling from a tertiary teaching hospital from May to August 2020 (4-month period—123 days). Over the 4-month period, all the HCWs who had symptoms or those were close contacts of COVID positive patients were traced and tested using validated COVID diagnostic test (reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction [RT–PCR] test). A semi-structured questionnaire was used to interview each positive HCW to identify the source of exposure of the infection.Results:Incidence proportion was 9.3% among HCWs and was two times higher among males compared to females. Hazard ratio was found to be higher among males and HCWs working in the non-COVID areas. Test positivity rate was found to highest (around 57.8%) among those aged less than 30 years. The most common source of infection was infected HCW colleagues (40.9%) followed by exposure to patients in non-COVID areas (27.3%). Only 5.1% of total infection was found in HCWs who had worked in COVID zones.Conclusions:People working in non-COVID areas, those using shared workplace, dining halls, and staff hostels, must follow strict COVID protocols by using appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and following social distancing measures.

'You can't just put somebody in a situation with no armour'. An ethnographic exploration of the training and support needs of homecare workers caring for people living with dementia.

BackgroundHomecare workers carry out complex work with people living with dementia, while under-supported, undervalued and undertrained. In this ethnographic study, we explore the skills, training and support needs of homecare workers supporting people living with dementia.Research Design and MethodsWe conducted 82 interviews with people living with dementia (n = 11), family caregivers (n = 22), homecare staff (n = 30) and health and social care professionals (n = 19) and conducted 100-hours of participant observations with homecare workers (n = 16). We triangulated interview and observational findings and analysed data thematically.ResultsWe developed four themes: 1) ‘Navigating the homecare identity and role’: describing challenges of moving between different role identities and managing associated expectations, 2) ‘Developing and utilising relational and emotional skills’: boundaries between caring and getting emotionally involved felt blurred and difficult to manage, 3) ‘Managing clients who resist care’: homecare workers experienced clients’ reactions as challenging and felt “thrown to the wolves” without sufficient training, and 4) ‘Drawing on agency and team support’: homecare work could be isolating, with no shared workplace, busy schedules and limited opportunity for peer support.Discussion and ImplicationsIt is important that training and support for homecare workers addresses the relational, emotional and rights-based aspects of the role. Where a flexible, responsive, person-centred service is required, corresponding training and support is needed, alongside organisational practices, taking account of the broader context of the homecare sector.

Cobots and the benefits of their implementation in intelligent manufacturing

The perspective of robotics in intelligent manufacturing becomes with Industry 4.0. Increasing the profitability of production is the main goal, which also depends on the organization of safety and efficiently human-robot interaction in a shared work place. Perspective robotic solutions integrated into intelligent manufacturing makes able to contribute an increase of automation in production with safety compliance. The portability and compactness of robots allow to optimize the production process and improve efficiency. An important stage of robotics was the ability to take robots outside of barriers and place them next to humans. This robotic solutions market is growing up every year. This indicates a high demand for the introduction of robots in intelligent manufacturing. Already today we can see how the main players in automated manufacturing have taken the first steps towards Industry 4.0.

Co-Creating the Workplace: Participatory Efforts to Enable Individual Work at the Hoffice

This paper analyzes the self-organizing network Hoffice – a merger between the words home and office – that brings together people who wish to co-create temporary workplaces. The Hoffice concept entails a co-working methodology, and a set of practices inherent in opening up one’s home as a temporary, shared workplace, with the help of existing social media platforms, particularly Facebook. We discuss both the practices of co-creating temporary workplaces, particularly for workers who lack a stable office and orchestrate flexible work arrangements, and the values and rhetoric enshrined in Hoffice. We collected our research materials through interviews, participant observation, and workshops. Our findings draw attention to i) the practical arrangement of Hoffice events, ii) the participatory efforts to get individual work done, and 3) the co-creation of an alternative social model that encourages trust, self-actualization, and openness. To conclude, we discuss how Hoffice is already making change for its members, and how this is indicative of a politics of care. We contribute to research on computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW) by highlighting grassroots efforts to create alternative ways of organizing nomadic work and navigating non-traditional employment arrangements.

Novel Sensor Selection Method for Tracking Objects and Providing Safe Workplace

The necessity of providing a safe shared workplace for human and industrial automated tools is increasing quickly since they are widely applied to cooperate with workers out of the protective cages. In such a workplace, providing safety is a critical task. In this paper, a network of sensors in a specific setting is applied to sense the presence of the human and track them. The speed and location of the human are extracted using the sensors observation signals. A novel sensor selection method, called target trajectory (TT) is proposed to have a reliable tracking system. Multiobjective optimization method (MO) using AMALGAM method is applied to have reliable localization. The proposed approach can compensate the effect of the uncertainties significantly. The proposed method is applied to track and estimate the location of the human and provide a safe shared workplace by preventing collision. The setting is tested under simulations as well as the practical setting. Results show a very good performance of the proposed method for different scenarios and provide safety by assessing danger field.

The ‘shared workplace’ agenda in Northern Ireland: lessons from local government

ABSTRACTThe study considers the ‘Shared’ Workplace agenda in Northern Ireland, which is a significant aspect of the reconciliation process. Our emphasis is on the capacity of a wide group of work-based social identifications to affect, limit, and frustrate this policy. Specifically, we address the impact of spatial and functional factors as well as occupational and professional characteristics through fieldwork in three local authorities. Interviews were held with a cross section of 65 subjects, each of whom had either been employed by or worked in partnership with one of these authorities. Our study thus contrasts with much of the literature on Northern Ireland, which is concerned with the impact of Protestant/Catholic or Unionist/Nationalist identities on such reconciliation processes in the workplace and more widely. This approach enables us to develop insights about implementation of such agendas, specifically concerning Northern Ireland and other deeply divided societies. In the conclusion, connections are also made between our findings and consociational forms of governance.

The future of integrated facility management: A convergence of business trends is driving dynamic transformation and a new paradigm for integrated facility management in 2016

The last five years have seen more change in the facility management domain than ever before. Several major trends have converged and continue to transform how and where companies operate, and how they manage talent and the workplace. The global financial crisis (GFC) of 2007–8 triggered a major change in workplace strategies, accelerating the rise of the on-demand workforce as companies were forced to economise by deploying a flexible, non-employee workforce. This sudden shift to a contingent workforce drove advancements in mobile devices and smart building technologies that enabled new ways of working and managing shared workplaces. ‘Workplace’ and hence corporate ‘facilities’ have taken on new meaning, now referring to workplaces both within and outside of a company's corporate real estate portfolio as workforce mobility programmes and contingent workers become commonplace. The time is now for integrated facility management (IFM) professionals to re-imagine what their jobs could become as the new world of work continues to take shape.

Office noise: Can headphones and masking sound attenuate distraction by background speech?

Background speech is one of the most disturbing noise sources at shared workplaces in terms of both annoyance and performance-related disruption. Therefore, it is important to identify techniques that can efficiently protect performance against distraction. It is also important that the techniques are perceived as satisfactory and are subjectively evaluated as effective in their capacity to reduce distraction. The aim of the current study was to compare three methods of attenuating distraction from background speech: masking a background voice with nature sound through headphones, masking a background voice with other voices through headphones and merely wearing headphones (without masking) as a way to attenuate the background sound. Quiet was deployed as a baseline condition. Thirty students participated in an experiment employing a repeated measures design. Performance (serial short-term memory) was impaired by background speech (1 voice), but this impairment was attenuated when the speech was masked - and in particular when it was masked by nature sound. Furthermore, perceived workload was lowest in the quiet condition and significantly higher in all other sound conditions. Notably, the headphones tested as a sound-attenuating device (i.e. without masking) did not protect against the effects of background speech on performance and subjective work load. Nature sound was the only masking condition that worked as a protector of performance, at least in the context of the serial recall task. However, despite the attenuation of distraction by nature sound, perceived workload was still high - suggesting that it is difficult to find a masker that is both effective and perceived as satisfactory.

Shared workplace experiences of lesbian and gay police officers in the United Kingdom

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explores the contemporary workplace experiences of lesbian and gay officers who serve across the UK.Design/methodology/approach– Using an online survey, the research asked lesbian and gay officers to share their experiences in law enforcement environments. Acknowledging the changing climate in many law enforcement environments, this respondents here were asked to focus on both positive and negative experiences in the workplace.Findings– The responses of 243 police officers revealed that lesbian and gay officers face barriers to equal employment opportunities similar to those faced by women and other minorities in law enforcement, but lesbian officers appear to experience and witness lower levels of discrimination than gay male police officers. Attitudinal bias against lesbian and gay officers remains a significant problem in the force. Lesbian officers report feelings of tokenism at higher levels than gay male police officers.Research limitations/implications– Future research endeavors should analyze any differences between the experiences of different lesbians and gay men at different levels of visibility within law enforcement, including “out” and “closeted” officers. Research about when officers come out as lesbian or gay – during training, on the force, after they retire – would be insightful in understanding officers’ perceptions.Practical implications– The research suggests that police departments in the UK have made good strides in opening the law enforcement workforce, but continue to face on-going challenges in creating fair, diverse, and representative work environments for lesbian and gay officers. Specifically, agencies should review policies where supervisor have discretion over the employment-related actions. By not meetings the challenges of a more diverse workplace, agencies risk lower job satisfaction, and decreased police effectiveness, especially on community policing environments.Originality/value– This research joins a small, but growing body of research that offers specific barriers and opportunities – as perceived by the officers. As other agencies engage in efforts to recruit and retain diversity police forces, the results of this research can enhance policies and practices, with regards to lesbian and gay officers.

From Groupware to Social Media — Extending an Existing Shared Workplace System with Social Media Features

Abstract This paper investigates major differences between organizational cooperation and social media platforms to identify ways for the evolution of a cooperation platform into a social media platform. This analysis starts with an investigation of existing social media application to identify important characteristics related to organizational cooperation. This is followed by mapping these to traditional cooperation platforms using BSCW for illustration.

Reframing professional development for first‐line nurses

Within a context of healthcare restructuring and a shift toward individualized continuing competency in Canada, this inductive, narrative inquiry explored positive learning experiences of first-line acute care nurses. The written stories of eight self-selected participants were collected and unstructured follow-up interviews were conducted. The stories and interview transcripts were examined using categorical-content and holistic-form analysis, and analyzed in light of literature relating to adult education and professional development in nursing. Emergent themes included life-changing learning and learning through one's own, and other's, experiences. The findings highlight the need to re-frame professional development for nurses in Canada, specifically by valuing and utilizing shared workplace experiences.

Leading global virtual teams

PurposeA new collaborative workplace is evolving which is both global and virtual. Those working in this environment are faced with two major challenges: isolation and confusion. This paper aims to look at what leaders can do to overcome these challenges.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on years of experience of working on and coaching global virtual teams, the author presents ten practical guidelines for enabling such teams to perform at their best. These guidelines highlight the importance of, for example, thinking proactively about the specific conditions faced by the team, applying cultural intelligence, staying person‐centric, establishing predictability, and driving for precise communications.FindingsApplying these guidelines helps teams co‐create a shared workplace that is conducive to efficiency and psychological wellbeing.Originality/valueVirtual global teamwork is only going to increase in the years ahead. This paper provides a basis on which leaders in the new workplace can begin re‐skilling themselves for leading at a distance.

On Human Robot Collaboration - A Survey on Cost Aspects

Collaboration of human operators and automation systems like robots are under development for achieving more flexibility in production and for saving cost when avoiding repeated reconfiguration of the systems. Tele-operation is considered with the aspect of tactile interaction over remote workplaces supporting maintenance. Robots are presented to relieve workers from physical load together with path guiding assistance. Recent research results of robot assistants of workers at shared workplaces are discussed with respect to their implementation in industry.

All-cause and cause specific mortality in a cohort of 20 000 construction workers; results from a 10 year follow up

Background: Construction workers are potentially exposed to many health hazards, including human carcinogens such as asbestos, silica, and other so-called “bystander” exposures from shared work places. The construction industry is...

The ally within: An innovatory approach to networking and staff development

This paper reports on an innovative approach to faculty development where the centralized unit has established a network of locally-based faculty developers. In contrast to the more conventional model of faculty development where centralized units are vested with the responsibility for devising programs for faculty development for the University at large, this model draws on the expertise of faculty already at work in a particular area. Once appointed, the locally-based faculty developer provides support to colleagues in their shared work place and also contributes to the program offered by the centralized unit. This alliance between the centralized unit and the locally-based faculty developer has led to positive outcomes for both parties, and for the University community.