The Quest for the Room of Requirement - Why Some Activity-based Flexible Offices Work While Others Do Not

The overarching purpose of this thesis is to develop further knowledge of the consequences of relocating to Activity-based Flexible Offices (AFOs). As workspace design innovations, AFOs are increasingly implemented in organisations. AFOs comprise a variety of workspaces for employees to choose from depending on their preferences or activities. Workspaces in AFOs are shared, instead of every employee having their own desk. Research results are inconsistent regarding employee satisfaction with AFOs, and research into employees’ appropriation of AFOs and organisations’ processes of adopting AFOs is sparse. In response to these knowledge gaps, the thesis aims to explain why some AFOs work while others do not. The thesis builds on five case studies: (i) three cases with recently implemented AFOs, and (ii) two cases with AFOs implemented at least two years prior to the study. Data collection in all the case studies involved semi-structured interviews with employees and facility managers, observations and collection of secondary data such as process overviews, and layout drawings. For data collection and analysis, a theoretical framework was developed and used consisting of Activity Theory, artefact ecology, as well as theories of innovation adoption and appropriation. The findings show that individuals’ usage of AFOs varies considerably due to personal circumstances and work-related preconditions. Drawing on Activity Theory, three types of matches/mismatches were identified in employees’ activity systems: Employee ↔ AFO, Activity ↔ AFO, and Employee ↔ Activity. Furthermore, individuals’ usage preferences and non-preferences highlighted sub-optimal design features in the AFOs: (a) ambiguity and insufficient communication of rules; (b) undesirable ambient features; (c) exposure to stimuli; (d) difficult to interpret workspaces; and (e) dysfunctionality and insufficiency of the collective instruments. In summary, AFOs work in the absence of mismatches related to individuals’ personal and work-related preconditions and sub-optimal design features. The employees’ processes of appropriating AFOs involved first encounters, exploration, and stable phases, during which various types of adaptations occurred: (i) on an individual level: acquired insights, and behavioural, social and hedonic adaptations, as well as (ii) in the AFO solutions: rule-related, spatial and instrument adaptations. Furthermore, the AFO adoption process in organisations varied considerably.\ua0 Procedural shortcomings during the planning process led to a limited understanding of AFO users and thus the sub-optimal AFO designs, while shortcomings during the routinising stage involved restrictions on making post-relocation improvements in AFOs and inadequate Occupational Health & Safety management. To conclude, AFOs work provided (i) they match individuals’ personal circumstances and work-related preconditions; (ii) they facilitate flexibility and shared use of spaces through well-designed rules, workspaces and instruments; (iii) individuals’ appropriation processes reach a stable phase where mismatches are resolved and fruitful symbiosis is achieved in their activity systems; and (iv) the organisations’ process of adopting AFOs is successful both during the planning and the post-relocation routinising stages, leading to a collective sense of ownership among employees

Policies in Activity-based Flexible Offices -‘I am sloppy with clean-desking. We don’t really know the rules.’

Activity-based Flexible Offices (A-FOs) are offices with unassigned desks that provide a variety of workspaces. This paper presents desk-sharing and speech rules identified in A-FOs in four Swedish organisations, the emergence of and compliance with these rules, and their consequences for work conditions. Data collection involved 105 semi-structured interviews, document analyses, and observations. The identified rules were: (1) to remove belongings, (2) temporal restrictions on using the same workstations, (3) temporal restrictions on using scarce zones, (4) restrictions on verbal interactions, and (5) restrictions on phone conversations. The cases with extensive user involvement in their planning process had explicit unambiguous rules. A better compliance with rules occurred when (i) the employees were well-prepared and had a unified understanding regarding how and why to follow the rules, (ii) the rules were explicitly communicated and were regarded as easy to follow, and (iii) following the rules facilitated work and improved work conditions

Policies for sharing workspaces in activity-based flex offices

Policies for maintaining non-territoriality (desk-sharing and clean desk policies) and for maintaining zones with different sound levels vary between activity-based flex offices. Five policies were identified as crucial for making the activity-based office concept work. In cases without explicitly expressed policies employees reported uncertainties and interpretations of how to act in the office

Contextual user research methods for eliciting user experience insights in workplace studies

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute with experiences and reflections on user research methods that we have tested in our studies of users\u27 experiences in office environments. Theory: Previous workplace studies with qualitative data approaches mainly rely on traditional methods such as interviews and observations. Based on user-centered design research, we outline methods that can be used to facilitate understanding the interrelations between users and their surrounding environment. Design: Three methods and their variations were applied in different case studies to facilitate understanding of user experiences in office environments: (i) spatial walkthroughs, (ii) card sorting, and (iii) experience curve mapping. Findings: Spatial walkthroughs were more immersive and provided most insights on the actual context with respect to spatial design qualities. The card sorting enabled exploring user experiences with respect to predetermined aspects. The experience curve mapping enabled understanding the temporal aspects of the user experience. The latter two methods were less immersive and less disruptive in the organisational context than the spatial walkthroughs. The flexibility of these methods allows for tailoring the application depending on the purpose of the workplace studies. We recommend using a combination of these methods to capture a more holistic understanding of user experiences and improving the workspace design to better fit the users. Originality: The outlined methods required user involvement and participation and provided insights for making evidence-based recommendations for designing or redesigning office environments that fit users\u27 needs and preferences

How to make advanced online user studies meaningful

It is of vital importance to explore and understand future users\u27 needs and requirements in the early phases of the product development process. However, in times of social distancing meeting users might not be possible. The project reported on in this paper has investigated the possibilities of conducting advanced user studies online. In total 30 small experimental studies have been conducted. Common digital tools that were used were e.g. Zoom, Teams, Mural, Miro, Snapchat, and Instagram.The data was analyzed in a thematic content analysis by the authors on Mural. Identified challenges were excluding not tech-savvy user groups, missing out on interpersonal interaction and observations, as well as difficulties creating participant commitment and trust. On the positive side were perceived efficiency, a more levelled power distribution between participants, and ease of engagement and data retrieval for tech-savvy users.Identified best practices included lowering social barriers through warm up activities and techniques to support open discussion during workshops. Furthermore, engagement could be supported through private social media groups, regular reminders, as well as clear communication of purpose and goal of the activities

Appropriation of an Activity-based Flexible Office in daily work

In recent years, there has been growing interest in collaborative consumption of office environments and thereby implementation of Activity-based Flexible Offices (A-FOs). Relocating to an A-FO introduces a desk-sharing policy as well as a multitude of new workspaces with different speech policies into the employee’s work context. This paper describes how employees appropriate desk-sharing and speech policies in an A-FO. The data were collected over a period of 6 months in a case organization by means of 18 shadowing sessions. The different ways in which employees appropriated the A-FO solution were (i) adopting, experimenting with, or rejecting the desk-sharing policy, and (ii) modes of interaction arising from spatial configuration and redefining speech policies. The discussion outlines the reasons behind appropriation or nonappropriation of the desk-sharing and emergent speech policies. The insights from this study provide support for organizations considering A-FOs to develop strategies for facilitating individuals’ work in these settings

Activity Theory. A framework for understanding the interrelations between users and workplace design.

Activity theory (AT) is a conceptual framework for the study of human activity. From this theoretical perspective, an activity system is the primary unit of analysis and is broken into three analytical components: (i) the subject - the person, group or organisation being studied, (ii) the mediating tools by which the activity is carried out, and (iii) the object that the provides the meaning and purpose for which subjects engage in activities. As the concept of tool mediation is central to the theory, its application in workplace studies has enabled an understanding of the interaction between employees as users, their activities and workplaces as mediating tools. AT has been applied in workplace studies to examine the implications of relocating to flexible offices, offering a holistic and contextual method of discovery that has informed use(r)-centred workplace design. Qualitative and interpretative research is recommended for examining the components of activities and their interdependencies. To this end, contextual inquiries are recommended, with a triangulation of methods such as interviews, observations and walkthroughs to ensure a comprehensive understanding of activity systems. The chapter concludes with a step-by-step guide for conducting workplace studies, using AT as an analytical framework

A healthy office and healthy employees: a longitudinal case study with a salutogenic perspective in the context of the physical office environment

This two-wave study (time lag of six months and two years post-relocation) investigated ways in which employees’ perceptions of the office environment relate to their perceived health in the long term, drawing on the salutogenic approach to health and the sense of coherence theory (comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness). A mixed-method approach was adopted. The data collection involved semi-structured interviews with employees, plus structured observations. The findings indicate that employees found the office environment less comprehensible and meaningful in Wave 2, while (somewhat) equally manageable. Comprehensibility was influenced by a lack of clear behavioural rules; manageability was influenced by a lack of control over the environment; and meaningfulness was influenced by social environment and lack of personalization. The contextual aspects of the office, including tasks, flexible working culture and the change processes were critical to these findings. This study has demonstrated that negative influences caused by poor design choices do not resolve themselves over time. When there is limited support for one component of sense of coherence, the initial observed benefits wear off and negative influences may spill over into other components. Therefore, office design should be approached with balanced attention to comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness

Visualizing the design process–an educational approach for the synthesis of design diaries

There have been a lot of efforts in the research community for describing the design process and visualizing it in general roadmaps. But when it comes to designers, they have difficulties in explaining how they work and what they do. Since designers draw upon their personal experiences, through time they develop a more or less individual process. The ability to explain and reflect on the design process will not only facilitate self-evaluation for the designers, but also would assist them in communicating with other stakeholders in the product development process. While there are various educational approaches for teaching different design skills, design literature has not provided many examples of approaches for familiarizing the designstudents with reflecting on, and communicating their individual processes. This article reports on such an approach, which aimed to provide the design students with the ability to communicate their design process through documenting self-reflective comments in form generation diaries and synthesizing their self-reflections by visualizing their process

Post-pandemic office work: Perceived challenges and opportunities for a sustainable work environment

The widespread adoption of remote and hybrid work due to COVID-19 calls for studies that explore the ramifications of these scenarios for office workers from an occupational health and wellbeing perspective. This paper aims to identify the needs and challenges in remote and hybrid work and the potential for a sustainable future work environment. Data collection involved two qualitative studies with a total of 53 participants, who represented employees, staff managers, and service/facility providers at three Swedish public service organisations (primarily healthcare and infrastructure administration). The results describe opportunities and challenges with the adoption of remote and hybrid work from individual, group, and leadership perspectives. The main benefits of remote work were increased flexibility, autonomy, work-life balance and individual performance, while major challenges were social aspects such as lost comradery and isolation. Hybrid work was perceived to provide the best of both worlds of remote and office work, given that employees and managers develop new skills and competencies to adjust to new ways of working. To achieve the expected individual and organisational benefits of hybrid work, employers are expected to provide support and flexibility and re-design the physical and digital workplaces to fit the new and diverse needs of employees