An Activity Based Workspace Project: A study to explore how actual user behaviour reflects original design intention

Today, many organisations are implementing Activity Based Workplaces (ABW), which offer an open and transparent workspace with flexible seating configurations to enhance numerous work activities. Whilst many researchers propose the ABW facilitates interaction, collaboration, concentration, privacy and distractions, existing literature also evidences inconsistencies and contradictions as to the benefits and the potential to enhance specific behaviours. Human behaviour can be unpredictable, it is influenced by a diverse range of factors, i.e. attitude, emotion, culture, values, accordingly, users’ perceptions, use and needs are often not aligned with the presuppositions and expectations of designers and leadership teams. The success of the ABW implementation is commonly assessed through satisfaction and productivity, with negligible focus on how the workspaces are being used in comparison to design intention expectations. This study explores the events, factors and characteristics of an activity based workspace, which users consider facilitate positively or negatively upon their day to day activities. Through its objective to understand how individuals use the workspaces, as against original design intention, this study brings a new focus within workplace research. It explores, through the lens of the individual, how they adapt the workspace to best meet their requirements, compared with the conventional benchmark of how workspace impacts users. The repertory grid technique, an innovative method within workplace research, was used to enable individuals to share their tacit thoughts and meanings explicitly, enhancing the understanding of the congruency between the original design intentions and actual use. Key findings revealed, through the exploration of preferences and needs, that participants frequently used workspaces in ways which were not assigned by the original design intention, appropriating them in accordance with their preferences and needs. Daily work activities were dynamic and predominantly aligned with a more informal way of working. Motivation to collaborate was perceived as a fundamental component of their job role and self determined, and not purely shaped through the provision of collaborative spaces. The findings advocate a need for continued detailed inquiry and a deeper understanding of ABW workplace features and characteristics, which either enable or hinder daily working activities, through contextual user behavioural feedback. A framework is presented which introduces a more user centric approach to the ABW design implementation process, through the exploration and in-depth assessment of user perceptions and meanings of how they use and adapt to the workspace. Design decisions are simply hypotheses of desired performance parameters, therefore fundamental to the design process framework is the commitment to measuring their success. This study also offers two original contributions to knowledge and practice. The first, through the repertory grid technique, which encompasses a robust and structured approach to elicit findings. This method acknowledges the uniqueness of individuals, delivers in-depth understanding which adds value to the design process and enhances the assessment of project success. Secondly, through a different study approach which explores how individuals’ use, adapt and modify the environment to meet their personal needs, preferences and activities. The unique findings, through the understanding of congruency between the original design intention and actual use, challenge and add to existing workplace design knowledge and practice

Challenges Facing Military Organizational Cultural Reform: A study of the 2004 Air Force Materiel Command Reorganization

The purpose of this research was to measure the success of the Product Center (PC) portion of the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) reorganization initiated in 2004. The purpose of this study is threefold, 1) to determine if the 2004 AFMC Product Center reorganization has met General Martin\u27s four intended objectives, (2) the reorganizations effects on AFMC employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment and (3) to gather some general opinions about the reorganization overall. The literature review consisted of a detailed look at the history of AFMC, areas of organizational culture, and gathering detailed information regarding the 2004 reorganization itself. This research measured the success of the PC portion of the reorganization to date; assistance was solicited and provided from HQ AFMC/A8M in development of the survey instrument for such measurement. Upon completion of development, electronic dissemination of the survey instrument was utilized to send it to the three AFMC PCs. Survey results were summarized and the overall conclusion reached that the AFMC PC reorganization initiated in 2004 has had little or no impact to date based on the opinions of PC employees who responded to the survey. Recommendations for further research avenues are also discussed

The Philippine \u27diasporic dividend\u27: Maximizing the development potentials of international migration

The annual Globalization Index produced by A.T. Kearney and ForeignPolicy magazine has consistently evaluated remittances as the prime feature of the Philippines’ performance in the global economy. Index results from 2004 to 2007 reveal that “remittances and personal transfers” are the main strengths of the Philippines’ role and participation in globalization, ranking either first or second in these categories. This is a significant record considering the Philippines remains at the bottom of the standings in other categories, such as foreign direct investments and investment income (A.T. Kearney, 2004, 2005, 2006 2007). It must be noted, however, that such globalization surveys do not provide the end-all indicators of Philippine socio-economic performance.Nevertheless, economic analyses on the Philippines by multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund reached similar conclusions—while there is growth, the sup-posed benefits of job generation and poverty reduction are still not happening. The service industry is the best-performing sector of thePhilippine macro-economy and governance problems still prevail (Bocchi, 2008; Fujita and Seshadri, 2007).In light of the Philippines’ current socio-economic environment it seems that overseas Filipinos and their remittances have made a difference in their home country by driving a consumption-driven economy, buffering financial reserves, filling up domestic employment short falls for the bulging labor force, and easing possible socio-political conflicts(Opiniano, 2004a; International Monetary Fund, 2007; Aldaba, 2007;Opiniano, 2007).It is not surprising, then, that the Philippines has become the globalmodel for managing the exodus of her citizens (International Organization for Migration, 2005:242). But what are the returns to the country?In recent years, business leaders like Doris Magsaysay-Ho have been asking critical questions on how international migration by Filipinos can be calibrated into the general scheme of things in the Philippines (Opiniano, 2006a) In this period of Philippine socio-economic history and of international migration movements by Filipinos, what future besides the exodus awaits the country (Opiniano, 2004:52)? Can this archipelago, a global leader in managing international migration attain a significant diasporic dividend amid continuous overseas mobility (Opiniano, 2007a)? This paper aims to answer these questions by using an economic- based approach, specifically through the framework of the diasporic dividend. It first contextualizes the discussion by briefly describing the Philippine socio-economic and political situation. In view of continued overseas migration, the authors propose a framework that discusses the various channels in which a Philippine diasporic dividend can be achieved in the medium to long term period. The paper ends by enumerating constraints in achieving such a dividend, as well as presenting the challenges that face various stakeholders, especially overseas Filipinos

The power of commitment and the shadow of bureaucracy: factors affecting organisational culture in UK defence equipment and support, 2008-2014

This research exposed some of the factors that affected organisational culture and group behaviour in Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) from its inception in 2007 through to 2014, when it became a Bespoke Trading Entity. The factors that were examined included organisationally legitimised personal, social and geographic identity, and linguistic difference and group size. Metaphor was also used by group members to describe the relationship they had with their groups. Group size was another factor that affected group behaviour. Finally, the effects of socio-technical induction and socio-cultural integration were seen to be additional factors that allowed cultural drag to occur within DE&S. The research was an insider ethnographic study that used a qualitative, multi-factorial approach which encompassed 6 years of observations, 124 interviews, and included the analysis of appropriate DE&S policy documents. This thesis is considered to be unique because no research of this nature, or at this level, has been carried out in DE&S, the Defence Procurement Agency (DPA) and the Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO). In addition, no studies have investigated the organisational culture of DE&S, apart from Kirke (2007a unpublished), Kirke (2010), which was a published article that was informed by that pilot study. The factors that were identified combined to produce both an organisation that possessed multiple organisational cultures and one single ethos which was that of delivering equipment to troops and supporting the troops, described as ‘front-line-first’. There was also an organisational culture that was affected by both the socio-technical and socio-cultural interactions of its members and of unconscious behaviours. All of those factors acted together as a system of interactions, with different factors taking primacy depending on the organisational context, no single factor being consistently more important than any other. The ethos of “front-line-first” was embedded within the DE&S organisational culture as a value which may have been used as a metaphor for the primacy of the overarching organisational culture of supporting the front-line

Learning from lockdown - Assessing the positive and negative experiences, and coping strategies of researchers during the COVID-19 pandemic

With the disruption of nonessential research due to the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers faced unexpected changes in their work and personal life. We assessed what challenges researchers encountered during lockdown and whether gender, career level, discipline, and job-permanency influenced their experiences (negative and positive), thereby collecting empirical material which could provide valuable information for future mentoring/supporting practices. Data were collected between July-August 2020 via an online-survey, and answers from 210 respondents (78% female, 21% male, 1% non-disclosed gender) working in Animal Behaviour and Welfare (ABW, 57%), other biological sciences (37%) or social sciences (6%) were analysed. Respondents were post-graduate students (35%), research associates (35%), and professors (22%) or classified as ‘other’ (8%), and overall fixed-term (55%) and permanent (45%) jobholders. We expected that early career researchers, non-permanent jobholders, and female respondents would report more challenges/less positive experiences during lockdown. Due to the widespread impact of the pandemic, we predicted no effect of academic disciplines. We found great inter-individual difference in the experiences reported by the respondents, with some reporting adaptation to a new routine within a week (31% of the respondents) and/or greater efficiency working from home (19%) while others felt less efficient working from home and/or experienced a greater imbalance towards work (30%) and/or increased personal responsibilities (24%). The most commonly reported challenges were the lack of informal contact with colleagues (63%), a loss of focus due to worry or stress (53%) and/or unsuitable working environments (47%). Postgraduate students, research associates, non-permanent jobholders and ABW researchers reported more work-related challenges (p = from 0.03 to <0.0001) and were more likely to worry about the future (p = from 0.0002 to <0.0001) than other career levels, permanent jobholders, and researchers from other disciplines respectively. We found no gender effect (p = from 0.006 [NS due to Benjamini-Liu correction for multiple comparisons, 24 metrics tested] to 1.000), except that female respondents reported more personal changes affecting their ability to work than male respondents (p = 0.037). On a positive note, most respondents (83%) perceived positive changes during lockdown and 60% reported one or more coping strategies during lockdown, with exercising/outdoor activities and interacting with family/friends most commonly reported. Based on our findings, we provide recommendations for overcoming the reported Covid-19-related challenges which could further deliver valuable guidance for supporting/mentoring schemes and activities fostering a more resilient research community

Moving Right Along: Examining The Venture Gestation Process For Black Women Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship is becoming one of the most sault after professions due to factors such as locus of control, flexibility, need for achievement, autonomy, and escaping corporate America. Many have come to realize that some of the most common reasons for pursuing entrepreneurship are not as convenient as expected. In fact, some of the inequalities experienced in corporate America are also experienced during venture creation. This is more so apparent for marginalized groups such as people of color, people with disabilities, and women. This study explores the barriers faced by African American women during the venture creation process and some of the contributing factors that play a role in successful creation of new ventures. This study will explore two of the more popular avenues to gaining access to experience social capital and human capital, what the experience of Black women entrepreneurs have been in terms of gain access to those forms of capital, as well as how this particular group of entrepreneurs are creating ventures inspire of the challenges. The results revealed that there was a statistically significant negative relationship between gendered racial microaggressions and individual factors among black women xii entrepreneurs. The results expand the findings of Lewis and Neville (2015), A. M. Jones (2020), Sue (2010), Capodilupo et al. (2010), and other researchers in the literature who concluded with the negative impact microaggressions have on Black women to include the also negative impact on Black women entrepreneurs during the venture creation process. The results also reveal that although the moderating effect of superwoman schema on the relationship between individual factors and venture gestation activity was not significant, the findings show a pattern of moderation. However, a recent study concluded that the superwoman schema can negatively impact both the mental and physical health of Black women (Woods-Giscombé et al., 2019). The findings from this research is two-fold, entrepreneurs can utilize the study to create a playbook for eliminating risk associated with their encounters with microaggressions while presenting researchers with preliminary data around microaggressions in the field of entrepreneurship. Future research should explore other control variables to determine whether moderating effects exist between the individual factors and the levels of superwoman schema

The Influence of Indoor Environment Quality on Academic Productivity in the Open-plan Workplace

This study investigates the effectiveness of the open-plan office layout for academic work within higher education institutions and aims to determine which aspects of Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ) impact upon academic productivity within this context. A multiple case study methodology was adopted, to explore the effects of six IEQ factors on academics’ satisfaction, motivation, mood and productivity. The results indicate that academic workplaces have specific design needs in order to support academic work activates