FM Puzzle: Sick Building and Sydney`s Open-plan Offices

Presents analytical findings of sick building situations in Sydney’s open-plan offices. Aims to ascertain facilities managers’ perceptions of sick building impacts on discrete aspects of workspace management, with a view to raising general awareness. A total of 100 open-plan offices in the Sydney CBD were studied, and collated data analysed using partial correlation. Significant associations were found between sick building syndrome and certain aspects. However, management control played moderating roles in some of the associations. Concludes that, with management control, sick building syndrome may be perceived as critical to only a limited workspace aspect. The implication is for sick building syndrome to be largely generalised as inconsequential to many aspects of work environment in Sydney, probably following the Hawthorne management ideology. © 2001, MCB UP Limite