Windlinger, LM; (2013) Effective workplaces: contributions of spatial environments and job design - A study of demands and resources in contemporary Swiss offices. Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Offices environments are the stage of knowledge work. Together with job design and the social environment, physical office work environments are an important source of influence on well-being, health, and job performance. However, field research on the effects of office environments is scarce, fragmented and not related to job design. Based on the Job Demands-Resources framework and action-regulation theory, effects of office design, job design, and the social environment are analysed in two field studies. The first study employs a longitudinal quasi-experimental research design with a control group. Data from 6 organisations and 568 (prechange) and 682 (post-change) survey participants were analysed regarding the effects of changes in the office environments on office users’ perceptions, attitudes, and behaviour while controlling for job characteristics and influences from the social environment. The results show that changes in the office environment do not affect job characteristics and social relations. Longitudinal regression analyses show that office noise and privacy affect job satisfaction; workplace appropriateness influences environmental satisfaction, and privacy and work and storage spaces have an impact on individual work performance. Additional cross-sectional regression analyses at both points in time benefit from larger sample size and complement the longitudinal findings on smaller sized effects. In the second study the focus is extended and office building-level parameters’ influences on office users are studied using multi-level model s with data from 39 buildings and 1373 survey participants. The building-level parameters proved to be little informative and variance in the outcome is completely explained by employees’ perceptions. The two studies show that demands and resources associated with the office environment explain substantial amounts of variance in job satisfaction, health, and individual work performance in addition to job design effects and influences from the social environment.

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