Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to provide a holistic and systematic understanding of a fundamental issue within open plan office designs: the sustainability of two extremely contrasting requirements, concentration and collaboration, in the same workspace and work environment at a given time. A literature review is presented, along with initial suggestions for potential improvements in knowledge work organizations. Design/methodology/approach -A thorough range of fields, including those outside the built environment, are investigated for their contribution to findings on distractions, especially auditory distractions and their impacts. Findings -This research underpins the need for cost analysis of the impact that distractions have on knowledge workers. Provisions for appropriate and adaptable workspaces are needed to meet the dual needs of collaboration and concentration on complex tasks in order to maximize worker contribution and value. Research limitations/implications -Additional field research on improved workspace is needed to confirm the hypothesis of savings from reduced or adaptation from auditory distractions. Practical implications -As knowledge work grows, the evaluation of workplace architecture and design must include analysis of the needs of knowledge workers. The sole consideration of cost savings in real estate and facilities ignores the tremendous cost of human capital. This reduces overall value and profitability of the organizations choosing to ignore the workspace needs of their workers. Originality/value -The paper provides a new and original review of multi-disciplinary research on the impact of distractions, especially auditory distractions, providing the groundwork for analysis of total costs of auditory distractions in the workplace.

Up until now, the process of obtaining spatial information for facilities management (FM) has been very laborious and tedious, even with the use of computer-aided facility management tools. The proposed research utilizes BIM based workflow to capture object attributes such that the building data created in a BIM model may be brought seamlessly into Facilities Management system rather than recreated. The proposed system not only imports geometry of walls, doors, windows, columns, and so on, but also retrieves attribute data associated with these objects. Therefore, queries can be executed to obtain -needed information, generate graphical or data-based reports, and identify interesting trends in facilities operations and maintenance for appropriate management. Since the proposed approach is objectbased, the system will automatically calculate or display the area of each space, and add additional information about each space such as occupant information, capacity, type, equipment and so on. Open BIM standards are used to retrieve or store information in a BIM model as that will facilitate the exchange of information between different FM systems. A prototype of the proposed system was developed in collaboration with the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC) FM department. The prototype was tested for its applicability and flexibility for the UNCC FM operations and maintenance management. INTRODUCTIONEven though computer technology has progressed significantly over the past decade, the process of obtaining spatial information for facilities management (FM) continues to be very laborious and tedious. The general practice of collecting and storing data from a constructed facility is through the handover process, where the

PurposeAuditory and visual distractions originating in the workspace have been shown to negatively impact the performance of knowledge workers on complex tasks. The paper aims to theorize that an adaptable workspace (AW) can mitigate the negative impacts on performance.Design/methodology/approachA conceptual multi‐attribute utility model is presented to facilitate decision‐maker's choice between a static and an adaptable workspace. A mathematical model is presented to evaluate the net present value (NPV) of deploying AW in a knowledge organization. The significance of valuation model is an integration of costs of distractions into the NPV calculations. Negative impacts of distractions are modeled as performance costs. The model also captures the costs of deploying AW so that a comparative benefit of adopting AW over a static workspace is recognized.FindingsThe significant positive results for NPV justifies investments in AW over a standard open workspace with the exception for distraction‐free work environments. These calculations can be performed to compare a number of alternatives so that an informed decision is made for the type of a workspace to be designed.Research limitation/implicationsAuditory and visual distractions originating from workspace surroundings are only part of the complete list of distractions in a workplace, but are considered for this model because these are cited as significant problems in knowledge organizations. The model variables are identified based on the existing literature; further development is proposed for future research.Originality/valueResearch to quantify the value of elimination of distractions can have practical and valuable applications for facility decision makers, architects, engineers, and knowledge organizations.

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