Impact of office layout on communication in a science‐driven business

Abstract

Driving innovation and creativity has relied heavily on new information technologies in the last decade. Human capital has certainly had its importance, but how to coordinate human capital in order to push productivity in research and development without compromising individual initiative is still not well understood. In this paper, we provide results showing that geometry of workspace has indeed an impact on communication patterns and may thus be used as a means to drive both innovation and efficient research. In order to be creative, new knowledge has to be created. Communication facilitates knowledge creation. We try to close the bridge between areas of creation of tacit knowledge and transfer of knowledge highlighted by authors like Nonaka, Takeuchi, Konno, von Krogh and von Hippel with the area of communication patterns pioneered by Allen, Hatch, and Stryker, by considering face-to-face (FTF) communication as a first step for socialization, socialization as a means for knowledge creation. In this article, we compare two different office environments within the same site, same activity, same hierarchical level and same company: a traditional cell office area and a new multi-space office, used by people who used to work in cell offices. We observed FTF communication patterns during 120 h in two areas and measured over 2,000 communication events. We found that people communicate three times more often in a multi-space area than in a cell-space area. We also found that the mean duration of communication events decreased from 9 to 3 min when transferring collaborators from a cell-space to a multi-space. Finally time spent without communication increased from 5% to 29% when going from cell-offices to multi-space areasleaving more time for people to work and think on their own. And we found that most communication events during work time in the multi-space took place at the work place and seldom or never in soft sitting areas installed for the purpose of communication.

Appropriation of an Activity-based Flexible Office in daily work

“…Research results are also inconsistent regarding whether A-FOs lead to increased distractions (De Been & Beijer, 2014;Seddigh et al 2014). Furthermore, while some studies report that A-FO solutions lead to increased communication (e.g., Boutellier et al, 2008;van der Voordt, 2004;Vos & van der Voordt, 2002), others report decreased communication (De Been & Beijer, 2014;Kim et al, 2016).…”

Facilities Planning for a Creative Company

“…The previous discussion shows that all the activities held by the enterprise have stages of predominantly individual work as well as stages of predominantly group work. Organizations with multi-space-with many spaces to individual or group activities-are ideal, with places to divergent and FACILITIES PLANNING FOR A CREATIVE COMPANY 445 convergent, individual, or group thoughts (Haner, 2005;Boutellier et al, 2008), in other words, supporting all the stages of the organizational creative process. The existence of multi-spaces breaks the monotony and is positive for creative work (Boutellier et al, 2008).…”

“…The industrial role of the facility layout problem is wide spread and can be found in numerous references in the literature (e.g., Yang, Su, & Hsu, 2000;Chien, 2004;Van Donk & Gaalman, 2004;Wiyaratn & Watanapa, 2010;Ojaghi, Khademi, Yusof, Renani, & Hassan, 2015). Comparatively, there are few studies that deal with the services organizations (Block & Stokes, 1989;Brooks, 1998;Augustin & Brand, 2001;Brennan, Chugh, & Kline, 2002;Boutellier et al, 2008;Danielsson & Bodin, 2008) and none of those has tried to apply layout solution methods to creative facilities yet. In order to accomplish this, the Systematic Layout Planning (SLP) (Muther, 1973) method is used as a mean to close these gaps left by the creative spaces researches.…”

“…Multi-space environments consist of spaces or offices with multiples rooms that have adjustable furniture, adjustable spaces, and atmospheres consistent with the kind of work being performed and with information presentation and retention abilities. These multi-space environments are proving to be a solution that can foster the face-to-face communication, the divergent thinking, and the convergent thinking at the same facility (Augustin & Brand, 2001;Haner, 2005;Boutellier, Ullman, Schreiber, & Naef, 2008;Peschl & Fundneider, 2014). The working space should be planned in a conscious way, instead of an ad-hoc way, and one should consider issues like the organization innovation strategy and hierarchy status of employees (Moultrie et al, 2007).…”

New business models in online hotel distribution: emerging private sales versus leading IDS

“…The physical workplace may be designed to aid collaboration and knowledge sharing both between and within groups (Vischer 2007;Elsbach and Bechky 2007;Coradi et al 2015a;Boutellier et al 2008;Stryker et al 2012). Recently, a team of researchers from Harvard University found that CWs designed to foster workplace mobility can positively affect innovation by increasing the number and frequency of impromptu meetings among employees (Waber et al 2014).…”