EFFICIENCY OF NATURAL LIGHTING IN OFFICE BUILDINGS ON THE EXAMPLE OF A BUILDING LOCATED IN POLAND

It is important for sustainability to reduce the energy demand of both existing and planned buildings. The requirements for workspace lighting clearly define the minimum light intensity that must be provided. The aim of the study was to verify if the selected office layouts independently fulfill the requirements of the Polish Norm for lighting of workplaces without the use of artificial light sources. The analysis took into consideration standard working hours of office buildings, that is from January to December, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Interpretation of the obtained data allowed to select the layouts that maintain the most stable efficiency of natural daylight.

Open space office: A review of the literature and Hong Kong case studies

BACKGROUND: Open plan or open space office has become increasingly popular but those who promote the concept selfdom refer to health studies or workers’ perceptions of a change in office layout towards an open space arrangement. OBJECTIVE: To review the literature on open plan or open space office layouts in terms of facilities management (FM) with users’ perception in mind and to obtain opinions of users of open space offices of for a better appreciation of the FM issues. METHODS: A literature search of research papers from 2007 in journals using the keywords “open plan office” and “open space office” plus “health”, first in the titles then in the text, was carried out. Thirty-two of those papers, accessible by the authors’ institutions, were consulted together with 5 other works in the Harvard Business Review. The review consulted but excluded papers and reports published or sponsored by commercial firms that were in favour of open space layouts. Case studies were conducted by face to face meetings in confidence with workers in the middle managements of twelve Hong Kong organisations known as friends to two of the authors. Problems as seen by staff are reported and discussed. RESULTS: The literature review reveals that apart from writing that promotes the use of an open plan office layout, a host of scientific works point to the problems of perceived dissatisfaction with such a layout, the nature of the dissatisfaction tending to depend on the actual design. Most workers interviewed disliked the new style open plan layouts, which points to the necessity of consulting workers when such changes are contemplated, as well as monitoring the results of the change once it is in place whether against workers’ wishes or with their support. There is a need for a number of facility arrangements in making a change to open plan that ensures that worker needs for proper lighting, privacy, and indoor health will be met. CONCLUSIONS: If the aim of a change to an open plan arrangement is to promote collegial communications in office, the study sheds light on the extent to which such arrangements may not in practice be suitable for achieving the aim. It follows that further, more specifically sociological studies of workers’ job satisfaction and emotional health in open plan office settings would be worth doing.

Future office layouts for large organisations: workplace specialist and design firms’ perspective

Purpose Office layout arrangements have a significant influence on many important aspects of organisations, and design firms need to liaise with the client to determine the most appropriate design process. The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors design firms consider when designing new office layouts and the nature of future offices from the design and workplace strategist firms’ perspectives. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative study comprising interviews with leading international and nation design firms and workplace strategy consultant firms in Australia. Qualitative data was analysed using a thematic approach, which adopted within case, and across case, analyses. Findings Research identified major factors considered when identifying appropriate workplace strategies. These included the existing and preferred culture of the organisation, the level of flexibility required, functionality and technology requirements, acoustic strategies, sense of community and generation gap between employees. Participants believed future offices would be technology driven, community oriented, sustainability, health and well-being focussed, smaller in size with satellite offices, such as co-working and office spaces. Research limitations/implications This research has implications for industry and academics, as it provides an in-depth understanding of workplace specialists’ and design firms’ perceptions of clients’ contemporary and future requirements from office spaces. It also illustrates what they look at when designing office spaces for large corporates. Practical implications Research demonstrates how the office environment should match with the physical and psychological needs of the organisation and its employees. Findings have practical applications to professionals in human resource management and the design, management, development and valuation of office buildings. Originality/value This paper provides in-depth insights into how design firms and workplace strategists meet organisations’ changing demand for physical spaces, their main considerations in developing new workplace strategies, process followed and nature of future workplace in Australian context.

The Importance of Office Layout for Employee Productivity

This study was conducted to explain the impact of open and enclosed plan office layouts on employee productivity. The subject area for this study was in Amanah Saham Pahang Berhad (ASPA). This study involved 52 respondents from Administration Department, Finance Department, Logging, Planning and development of Forest Department and Investment Department. Data collection method used a questionnaire, and descriptive analysis is used to data analysis. The results showed that the condition of employee productivity was in good condition, but the office layout did not affect employee productivity. Moreover, the results from the findings showed that only enclosed plan office had significant positive relationships and it answered research questions and supported the hypotheses presented in this research study. As a conclusion, this research study helps the other researcher to explore the impact of office layout on employee productivity. This research study result was supported by previous results presented at every research finding.

Does an open-plan office actually work? A workplace gap analysis: importance and perceived support of key activities

Purpose This study aims to investigate the performance of open-plan office layouts and to identify occupants’ concerns in existing open-plan office layouts. Design/methodology/approach Workplace activity questionnaire (WAQ) was administered in the form of an online survey in March 2019, as part of a design briefing process for the expansion of the office facilities located in Bangalore, India, for a Fortune 100 software technology company. A total of 4,810 questionnaires were distributed and 3,877 responses were received (80.6% response rate). After that, 849 incomplete responses were eliminated from the analysis, resulting in a final sample size of 3,028. The questionnaire included 11 key activities conducted by the office workers and established the gap between the workers’ perceived importance and support from their existing facilities using a five-point Likert scale. Findings The findings of this study provide strong evidence that different physical environments influence the satisfaction of occupants. An improvement of the facilities, especially by enabling areas for quiet working, should be prioritized in relation to the other activities surveyed. Also, office workers perceived significantly different support levels for quiet working depending on their department, while there was no significant difference between the workers of different buildings. Research limitations/implications Individual demographic information was not collected because of the possibility of personal identification. There was also a lack of objective environmental measures, such as temperature and noise level. Thus, the quality of indoor environments was unknown. In this study, some respondents mentioned dissatisfaction with indoor environmental quality, including noise, temperature and air quality in their comments. Originality/value In the programming stage of a workplace design process, the WAQ survey tool has value because it renders important insight into the perception of a live workplace, which can then be used to determine priorities for a design effort. It clearly identifies the areas to focus on, ask questions about and develop improvements. Validating its reliability will enhance its credibility and confidence in its use. In addition, the large sample size provides statistical advantages in the data analysis, providing a higher likelihood to find a true positive of the findings of the study. Also, having a relatively high response rate provides an advantage of mitigating the risk of having non-response bias in the analysis.

Modern Ways of Working: Comparing Results of Two Pilot Studies

This article provides a concise look into the theoretical basis and two small pilot studies which serve as the beginning of a further research collaboration, and have been done in 2018-2019 in service industry companies in Riga (Latvia) and Timisoara (Romania). The objective of these studies was to find the respondents’ knowledge about new ways of working (full or partial remote work, co-working spaces, etc.), as well as their personal fit with these types of work, among other questions. Results of these studies show that there is a significant difference between the theory, the respondent answers, and the actions of their organizations. Main recommendations: there is no single correct approach, it has to be aligned with the business strategy and the actual work specifics of various departments or positions in the company. Problems faced by the workforce must also be taken into account, instead of aiming to decrease office costs as much as possible by creating hot-desking or other similar open office layouts.