22 research outputs found
Sociaal welzijn op kantoor vraagt om méér dan een goede koffiecorner: Beyond the Coffee Corner
No full textOp 4 Oktober promoveerde Susanne Colenberg aan de TU Delft op haar studie BEYOND THE COFFEE CORNER - Workplace design and social well-being. Het proefschrift is helder gestructureerd en zowel theoretisch interessant als relevant voor de praktijk.Real Estate Managemen
Towards an interdisciplinary employee-workplace alignment theory
No full textMany theories from different research disciplines apply to workplace design and management. This chapter describes a first attempt to integrate 21 of those theories into an overall employee-workplace alignment (EWA) framework, as a starting point towards developing a grand EWA theory. Through concept mapping, the tacit knowledge underlying each theory was made explicit in three to five statements that were sorted by 22 experts. By performing multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis, the statements were grouped into eight concepts that reflect the essence of the 21 theories within three regions of meaning: ‘Need-Supply Alignment’, ‘Cognition and Behaviour’, and ‘Organisational Context’. The framework created from the eight concepts connects the different theories in many ways. A further discussion of the three regions and underlying concepts of the framework, in relation to existing workplace research and theory, identifies many research gaps that need attention before the EWA theory can be fully developed. The chapter ends with implications for practice and some closing words for the entire book. © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Rianne Appel-Meulenbroek, Susanne Colenberg, and Vitalija Danivska.Peer reviewe
Forenet: A Context-sensitive Tool To Measure Social Wellbeing At The Workplace
No full textSocial wellbeing at work by definition incorporates the feeling of belongingness, having satisfying social interactions and relationships with others (Fisher, 2014). During the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home has raised our awareness that positive social interaction with colleagues or peers is crucial to our wellbeing and the lack of it might lead to negative effects like exhaustion (Meyer et al., 2021). It has been researched that positive social wellbeing at the workplace can boost mood, increase productivity and performance (Dutton and Heaphy, 2003). Thus there is a need to measure and monitor the social wellbeing of employees at work for organisations like TU Delft. Supervised by Annemiek van Boeijen and initiated by Susanne Colenberg, this project aims to develop a tool that measures social wellbeing at the workplace. Recognizing the fact that the tool design could face challenges including different contextual influences and diverse needs and values of stakeholders, a design challenge was formulated to design a context-sensitive tool that can enable adaptation to different local contexts in order to meet different needs. The focus was put on the measurement form design instead of the content like what to measure. To tackle the challenge, this project followed a design process using the model of Double Diamond(Design Council, 2019) and Basic Design Circle (van Boeijen et al., 2020). To explore, methods of literature study and participatory research were combined to understand existing measurement tools and investigate stakeholders’ experiences. By synthesizing insights from the research, main problems were identified and a design vision was formulated. To inform the concept development, a list of design requirements were developed based on the theoretical architecture of the approach, Context Variation by Design (Kersten, 2020). Guided by the design vision and the design requirement, concept development was conducted starting by defining a basic framework of a continuous system. During the development, two rounds of ideation were executed both with reflections and idea convergence in the end. With the first ideation, possibilities were explored and a design direction was selected. The second ideation was used to design a more concrete concept that aimed to create a supportive network. With the clear concept, a final design was created and introduced, the app Forenet. With the app, employees could help improve social wellbeing at the workplace by sharing anonymous opinions. HR officers can use this app to customize how employees provide those opinion data and collect and track data about their social wellbeing over time. The final prototype was developed through Figma and stimulated into animation for design evaluation. With evaluations with employees and HR officers, what could be opportunities, challenges and drivers for its implementation were identified. Strategies to implement the design at TU delft context and a using manual for HR officers were proposed. In the end, recommendations for future development were also suggested.Strategic Product Desig
Interior design features predicting satisfaction with office workspace privacy and noise
No full textBackground and aim - Lack of privacy is a prominent issue in contemporary offices. This study aimed to identify interior design features that jointly influence satisfaction with privacy and noise in the office workspace, and estimate their predictive power. This knowledge can inform strategic workplace design. Methods - Eight design features were defined that were expected to influence visual, acoustic and physical privacy, noise from other people and acoustic quality, and which would be easy to report for users. Data were collected through an online survey among office workers in the Dutch public sector (N = 323). The joint impact of design features on the experienced privacy and noise was calculated through ordinal regression analysis. Results - The data indicate that small, relatively isolated rooms predict privacy and noise satisfaction better than privacy screens, soft flooring, and visibility control. Workspace soundproofing increases satisfaction with sound privacy and acoustics, but it does not reduce noise annoyance. Originality - This study operationalizes architectural privacy along several dimensions and from a user perspective, and hierarchically relates them to specific workspace satisfaction outcomes, generating actionable insights for workplace designers. Practical and social implications - The study can serve as a source for evidence-based workplace design and management that aims to balance user needs for privacy and quiet against their need for social interaction. Currently, this balance is especially important because hybrid working may increase the need for informal interaction at the office while there still is a need for privacy and quiet spaces. Type of paper - Research paper (full)
Identifying interior design strategies for healthy workplaces – a literature review
No full textPurpose: It is widely recognized that interior office space can affect health in several ways. Strategic and evidence-based design, including explicit design objectives, well-chosen design solutions and evaluation of results, aid realization of desired health effects. Therefore, this paper aims to identify possibly effective interior design strategies and accompanying design solutions and to provide examples of effectiveness measures. Design/methodology/approach: A literature sample of 59 peer-reviewed papers published across disciplines was used to collect examples of workplace design features that have positively influenced workers’ well-being. The papers were grouped by their health objective and design scope successively and their theoretical assumptions, measures and findings were analyzed. Findings: Four main workplace design strategies were identified. Design for comfort aims at reducing or preventing health complaints, discomfort and stress, following a pathogenic approach. It has the longest tradition and is the most frequently addressed in the included papers. The other three take a salutogenic approach, promoting health by increasing resources for coping with demands through positive design. Design for restoration supports physical and mental recovery through connections with nature. Design for social well-being facilitates social cohesion and feelings of belonging. Design for healthy behavior aims at nudging physical activity in the workplace. Originality/value: By drawing complementary perspectives and offering examples of design solutions and effectiveness measures, this paper encourages workplace designers, managers and researchers to take a transdisciplinary and evidence-based approach to healthy workplaces. It also serves as a starting point for future empirical research.Design Conceptualization and CommunicationReal Estate Managemen
Beyond the coffee corner: Workplace design and social well-being
No full textPositive social interactions and feeling connected with people around us are fundamental human needs and crucial to our well-being. This dissertation explores how interior office design could foster workers’ social well-being. The research indicates that to enhance social interactions and a sense of belonging, factors like atmosphere, diversity, and privacy may be more important than a fancy coffee corner.Design Conceptualization and Communicatio
Expected user needs towards the post-Covid office: better support of social interactions and concentration
No full textBackground and aim – While remote working is not a new phenomenon, Covid-19 has forced many office workers to work from home for long consecutive periods. Recent research shows that while most of them say they can work productively from home, many feel less connected to their colleagues. This study explores how these experiences may influence employees’ needs towards the office workplace.Methods – Cross-sectional data were used from an online survey among four Dutch public sector organisations conducted between November 2020 and February 2021. These data include perceptions of 567 office workers regarding their workplace, both at home and at the office, and their motivations for working at the office.Results – The survey data show that the main reason to (want to) work at the office has shifted from meeting expectations to the need for informal social interaction. On the other hand, many still need the office for doing concentration work. Although the home workplace feels more comfortable, ultimately it is not rated better than the office workplace. The respondents indicate several shortcomings of their current office regarding support of socializing, belongingness, and privacy. Originality – While in the media different assumptions have been made about consequences of Covid-19 for future office use, few empirical studies have been conducted to substantiate these expectations.Practical implications – This study shows that Covid-19 has increased the need for in-person interaction at the office without decreasing the need for silence, and indicates how offices could better support socializing balanced with concentration work. Type of paper – Short research paper.Design Conceptualization and Communicatio
Workplace affordances of social well-being: a conceptual framework
No full textThe prolonged working from home during the recent pandemic has increased awareness of the social function of the office: employees missed informal social interaction with co-workers, face-to-face meetings, and spontaneous encounters. If the trend of hybrid working persists, one of the main functions of the physical office will be to support face-to-face interaction and social bonding for increasing well-being, innovation, and organizational commitment. This short paper explores how workplace design could support the social well-being of its users based on established theory in the field of environmental psychology. First, individual social well-being at work and social workplace affordances are defined. Next, workplace affordances for social well-being are deducted from theories on the psychology of space, such as Space syntax theory, Privacy regulation theory, Behavior setting theory, and Place attachment theory. From this analysis, three categories of workplace design features are induced which could support social well-being at work: interaction affordances, privacy affordances, and identity affordances. A conceptual framework is presented that connects social well-being components to these three categories of affordances. This framework can serve as a starting point for the collection of empirical studies, the deduction of specific social affordances from design practice, and the development of design strategies for enhancing social well-being in offices.Design Conceptualization and Communicatio
Identifying the main constructs for an interdisciplinary workplace management framework
No full textThis second book in the series focuses on the role of workplace management in the organization and the tasks that workplace management needs to consider. The 18 theories that are presented in this book and applied to workplace research discuss management aspects from the organization’s perspective or dive deeper into issues related to people and/or building management. They all emphasize that workplace management is a complex matter that requires more strategic attention in order to add value for various stakeholders. The final chapter of the book describes a first step towards integrating the presented theories into an interdisciplinary framework for developing a grand workplace management theory.Design Conceptualization and Communicatio
