Office operations are on the verge of a major technological transition. The current approach of continually adding newer and faster stand-alone office support devices has not solved long term administrative productivity problems. The transition will focus attention on a total integration of office technologies. This dissertation focused upon the key office technologies currently available in the marketplace and then concentrated on Texas-based public corporations1 use and desire for these tools. The major thrust of this research was to examine the relationship of a company's annual sales, industry type and geographic operation type with its present level of technological sophistication, strategies toward office systems and the optimum office configuration.

This thesis deals with shift of the functionality of office suites in the era of cloud computing. The author examines the changing concept of office application software in the time of commercial software and the time of cloud computing and concludes that office applications are shifting their functionality from simple tools replacing just a calculator or typewriter into core corporate tools that affect the way how people communicate and collaborate.

An employed individual will spend between a quarter and a third of his or her waking life at the workplace. An estimated 40% of those in South Africa who are employed full-time work in offices. With the amount of time spend in buildings, the physical conditions in the workplace are important determinants of satisfaction, comfort, well-being, and effectiveness and can even play a role in mental health. The physical environment in offices should therefore be carefully planned, designed, and managed. This qualitative study, sought to develop an inter-cultural office design framework for South Africa combining Eastern and Western design principles. Specifically, it sought to obtain a better insight into design principles which can enhance the well-being of office workers; inter-cultural, gender neutral and age neutral design principles which can be applied in a South African context. To be able to answer these questions an intensive literature review was undertaken investigating both the Eastern design principles as expressed in feng shui and Western design principles as expressed in Environmental Social Science. The design principles of these two traditions were compared and all aspects where the two traditions did not support each other were included in the in-depth interviews. Twenty-five in-depth interviews were conducted By relying on various design cultures (e.g. Eastern and Western) an environment can be created which are pleasing and can enhance the well-being of the users. Underlying design principles are universal, but the symbolic expression thereof can differ from culture to culture. One of the conclusions from this study is that three quarters of design principles are v universal. There is no one size fits all solution and compromise is necessary from all involved. The compromise applies to the roughly a quarter of design aspects where subgroup differences have been detected. Any design should take individual and group difference into account. The only way to do this is to get proper input from all stakeholders at all stages of the design. It is critically important that the input starts before the design process commences. There are many design principles which can be implemented to improve the quality of work life of office workers in the South African context. Design can for example play a very important role in encouraging and facilitating formal and informal interaction in the workplace – bridging the gap between heterogeneous groups. Without forcing relationships, design can assist in naturally integrating heterogeneous groups. The physical environment must support the image and identity which needs to be communicated, facilitate communication and enable task accomplishment. Most of all it must become a place with which employees can identify and where they can develop a sense of place. From this study it can be concluded that not only form follows function but also that aesthetics follow function – a principle that design should be based on the primary purpose of the building, the workspace based on the needs of the stakeholders and from this starting point aesthetics will flow. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Consulting Psychology)

Today, as a result of the improvements especially in the area of medical sciences, conditions of life have changed and the work period has been prolonged. Currently more than one generation has been living together, and even working together. In recent years, it is observed that generationally diverse environments and product or services addressing multi-generational user groups have attracted the attention of particularly the marketing sector and this attention to the generational diversity has become a trend in the design field just as it has in many other areas. This study analyses the design assets of the office environments from the perspective of the important characteristic of the workforce, namely the generational diversity. Designing the office environment by taking only the current and future generations into consideration is not a sufficient way anymore. So, office designers are expected to consider also the older generations existing at the same environment. This trend towards generational diversity has started with the designs and arrangements of home environments / later, due to the advantages it has provided for the organizations&rsquo / success, it has gradually spread towards the designs of office environments. In this study, the work habits of generations have been analyzed initially and then it has been related to the office environments and work cultures. At the end of the study, the effects of multi-generational workforce on the office environment design assets have been discussed.

Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2016-08-08T12:41:40Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) dissertacao-mestrado-jcpf.pdf: 6512881 bytes, checksum: 0e42b481cf73ab357ca212b410fbd5ee (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-08T12:41:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) dissertacao-mestrado-jcpf.pdf: 6512881 bytes, checksum: 0e42b481cf73ab357ca212b410fbd5ee (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-29 / Prever o sucesso de um filme e, por consequência, seu sucesso nas bilheterias tem uma grande importância na indústria cinematográfica, desde a fase de pré-produção do filme, quando os investidores querem saber quais serão os filmes mais promissores, até nas semanas seguintes ao seu lançamento, quando se deseja prever as bilheterias das semanas restantes de exibição. Por conta disso, essa área tem sido alvo de muitos estudos que tem usado diferentes abordagens de predição, seja na seleção das características dos filmes como nas técnicas de aprendizagem, para atingir uma maior capacidade de prever o sucesso dos filmes. Neste trabalho de mestrado, foi feita uma investigação sobre o comportamento das principais características dos filmes (gênero, classificação etária, orçamento de produção, etc), com maior foco nos resultados das bilheterias e sua relação com as características dos filmes, de forma a obter uma visão mais clara de como as caracaterísticas dos filmes podem influenciar no seu sucesso, seja ele interpretado como lucro ou volume de bilheterias. Em seguida, em posse de uma base de filmes extraída do Box-Office Mojo e do IMDb, foi proposto um novo modelo de predição de box office utilizando os dados disponíveis dessa base, que é composta de: meta-dados dos filmes, palavras-chaves, e dados de bilheterias. Algumas dessas características são hibridizadas com o objetivo evidenciar as combinações de características mais importantes. É aplicado também um processo de seleção de características para excluir aquelas que não são relevantes ao modelo. O modelo utiliza Random Forest como máquina de aprendizagem. Os resultados obtidos com a técnica proposta sugerem, além de uma maior simplificação do modelo em relação a estudos anteriores, que o método consegue obter taxas de acerto superior 90% quando a classificação é medida com a métrica 1-away (quando a amostra é classificada com até 1 classe de distância), e consegue melhorar a qualidade da predição em relação a estudos anteriores quando testado com os dados da base disponível. / Predicting the success of a movie and, consequently, its box office success, has a huge importance in the motion pictures industry. Its importance comes since from the pre-production period, when the investors want to know the most promising movies to invest, until the first few weeks after release, when exhibitors want to predict the box office of the remaining weeks of exhibition. As result, this area has been subject of many studies which have used different prediction approaches, in both feature selection and learning methods, to achieve better capacity to predict movies’ success. In this mastership work, a deep research about the movie’s main features (genre, MPAA, production budget, etc) has been done, with more focus on the results of box offices and its relation with the movie’s features in order to get a clearer view of the organization of information and how variables can influence the success of a film, whether this success be interpreted as profit or revenue volumes at the box office. Then, in possession of a movie database extracted from Box-Office Mojo and IMDb, it was proposed a new box office prediction model based on available data from the database composed of: movie meta-data, key-words and box office data. Some of these features are hybridized aiming to emphasize the most important features’ combinations. A features’ selection process is also applied to exclude irrelevant features. The obtained results with the proposed method suggests, besides a further simplification of the model compared to previous studies, that the method can get hit rate of more than 90% when classification is measured with the metric 1-away (when the sample is classified within 1 class of distance from the right class), and achieve a improvement in the prediction quality when compared to previous studies using the available database.

Research report is submitted in partial fulfilment to the requirement of the degree of Master of Science (Building) in the field of Property Development and Management, to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Construction Economics and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, 2016 / The purpose of this study was to explore the type of office spaces in South Africa together with the presence of generational and cultural/ethnic differences in employee’s perception in the office environment on particular aspects. The research was carried out as a single case study of an office using private consultancy firm, located in Johannesburg, South Africa. Questionnaires were sent out to employees based in various segments within the firm. The study showed that the leading office typology is open plan/group office spaces as opposed to all other office configurations within the firm, such as private/cellular offices. The case study highlights the trade-off between collaboration and privacy in the primary office typology, open plan office spaces. The findings demonstrated that no significant differences exist between the different generations’ and cultures’ ability to conduct activities which are influenced by personal and interpersonal aspects of the office spaces. Furthermore, findings illustrated that no generational and cultural differences exist in the environmental, personal and design aspects of the office space. Lastly, findings showed that generational and cultural differences do exist in group cohesion and intension to stay. The main limitation of research is the small sample size which may have resulted in an untrue reflection in the generalisation of the population. The paper’s findings add to the cultural and ethnic differences experienced in open plan offices on personal/interpersonal, environmental and design aspects. Further studies need to explore the possible theoretical links between the workspace, group cohesion, intension to stay and productivity for South African office using firms. Keywords: generational differences, cultural/ethnic difference, employees’ experiences, collaboration, privacy, team work / MT2017

I Sverige har distansarbete blivit allt vanligare, vilket har resulterat i fler tomma ytor på kontor. Ekonomiska fluktuationer och pandemin har också visat att behovet och efterfrågan på kontorsutrymme kan variera betydligt, vilket skapar samhällsekonomiska problem genom vakanta kontorslokaler. Därför behövs det lösningar för att göra kontorslokaler mer attraktiva för användare. Genom att förstå hyresgästers preferenser kan fastighetsägare anpassa sina lokaler för att erhålla hyresgästernas lojalitet. Målet med undersökningen är att ta reda på deras förväntningar och preferenser när det gäller kontorslokaler i Sverige. De faktorer som primärt undersöks inkluderar läge/tillgänglighet, arbetsmiljö, kontorsutformning och externa faktorer som pandemin. Vårt arbete fokuserar på att sammanfatta hyresgästers preferenser för att bidra till utvecklingen av kontor och göra dem mer attraktiva i Sverige. Denna studie undersöker sex olika hyresgästers preferenser för kontorslokaler i Malmö, i kombination med tidigare forskning om ämnet. Vid val av metod för datainsamling har vi även fokuserat på semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultaten visar att hyresgästerna generellt hade liknande preferenser, inklusive läge/tillgänglighet, arbetsmiljö och anpassning till hyresgästens verksamhet. En bra inomhusmiljö och funktionella kontor var också viktiga faktorer för de flesta. Innovation och flexibla utrymmen betraktades som optimala för dagens arbetsplatser, och en effektiv kontorsutformning bör möjliggöra flexibilitet samtidigt som den säkerställer koncentration och integritet för alla anställda. Dock kan preferenser påverkas av både interna och externa faktorer, inklusive en osäker ekonomisk situation och pandemins konsekvenser. / In Sweden, remote work has become increasingly common, leaving more empty spaces in offices. Economic fluctuations and the pandemic have also demonstrated that the need and demand for office space can vary significantly, causing socio-economic problems through vacant office spaces. Therefore, solutions are needed to make office spaces more attractive to users. By understanding tenants' preferences, property owners can adapt their premises to obtain tenants' loyalty. The aim of the survey is to find out their expectations and preferences regarding office spaces in Sweden. Factors primarily examined include location/accessibility, work environment, office layout, and external factors such as the pandemic. Our work focuses on summarizing tenants' preferences to contribute to the development of offices and make them more attractive in Sweden. This study examines six different tenants' preferences for office spaces in Malmö, in combination with previous research on the subject. In selecting the approach for data collection, we have also focused on semi-structured interviews. The results show that tenants generally had similar preferences, including location/accessibility, work environment, and adaptation to the tenant's business. A good indoor environment and functional offices were also important factors for most. Innovation and flexible spaces were considered optimal for today's workplaces, and an efficient office layout should enable flexibility while ensuring concentration and privacy for all employees. However, preferences can be influenced by both internal and external factors, including an uncertain economic situation and pandemic consequences.

Kontoren har ekat tomma sedan pandemins start och många har blivit tvungna att arbeta hemifrån. Arbetsgivarna står nu därför inför en stor utmaning i att få tillbaka sina anställda till kontoret utan tvångsmedel. Hemarbetet har gett smak för ökad kontroll och frihetsgrad över arbetsplatsen och har därför blivit en mer bekväm och trivsam plats att arbeta på jämfört med kontoret, men de sociala tillfällena med kollegor uteblir hemma i vardagsrummet. Vilken roll kommer kontoren ha i framtiden, blir kontoret det sociala vardagsrummet för de anställda? Enligt Christina Bodin Danielsson påverkar miljön på arbetsplatsen vår hälsa och välbefinnande. Beroende på hur vi utformar kontoren, kan vi påverka hur de anställda trivs, mår och presterar på arbetsplatsen (Arbetsplatsenifokus, 2020). Forskningsfrågorna som arbetet ska ge svar på är (1) På vilket sätt har de utvalda komponenterna betydelse för utformningen av ett kontor för att uppnå ett socialt hållbart och trivsamt kontor? och (2) Hur kan ett befintligt kontors rumsliga design utformas för att öka social hållbarhet och trivsel? Syftet med kandidatarbetet är att utifrån en utredning av arkitektoniska aspekter, belysa huvudkomponenter som är viktiga vid utformningen av kontor. Samt konceptuellt applicera dessa på ett befintligt kontor genom ett gestaltningsförslag. Under arbetets gång kommer vi ha ett nära samarbete med Hitachi Energy, som är stationerat i Landskrona. Genom enkäter, intervjuer och platsbesök får vi förståelse över hur kontoret ser ut idag och vilka önskemål de anställda har på utformningen. Arbetet har landat i ett gestaltningsförslag för hur deras kontor kan utformas för att skapa en mer socialt hållbar och inbjudande arbetsplats. Studien visar på att kontorets utformning har stor betydelse för hur de anställda mår, trivs och presterar på arbetsplatsen. Vi hoppas genom kandidatarbetet kunna bidra med kunskap för att göra kontorsmiljöer mer socialt hållbara. Resultatet av pandemins påverkan på kontoren är ännu obesvarat, men det förväntas landa i en kombination av hemarbete och att arbeta på kontoret. Stor vikt kommer därför behöva läggas på att kontoret blir den sociala knutpunkten för de anställda. Med fler platser för de sociala tillfällena och fokus på samhörighet mellan medarbetare, bidrar vi till högre kreativitet och engagemang. / The offices have been empty since the start of the pandemic and many have been forced to work from home. Employers therefore face a major challenge in getting their employees back to the office without coercive measures. The home office has increased employees’ control and degree of freedom on the layout of the workplace and has therefore been experienced as a more pleasant workplace than the office, but at the same time social interactions with colleagues are lacking in the home office. What role will the office play in the future? Will the office become the social livingroom for employees? According to Christina Bodin Danielsson, the workplace environment affects our health and well being. Depending on how the office is designed, we can influence how the employees feel and perform (Arbetsplatsenifokus, 2020). The research questions are (1) In what way a series of selected components are important for the design of an office in order to achieve a socially sustainable and pleasant office? and (2) How can spatial design of an existing office be developed to increase social sustainability and well-being? The purpose of the bachelor thesis is, on the basis of an investigation of architectural aspects, to highlight the main components that are important in office design and conceptually apply these to an existing office through a design proposal. During the work we have had a collaboration with the company Hitachi Energy, based in Landskrona. Through surveys, interviews and site visits, we gained an understanding of what the office looks like today and the employees’ wishes about the design. The work has landed in a design proposal of how the office can be designed to create a more socially sustainable and inviting workplace. The study shows that the design of the office is of great importance for how employees feel comfortable and perform in the workplace. Through the bachelor thesis, we hope to be able to contribute knowledge to make office environments more socially sustainable. The result of the pandemic’s impact on the office is still to be defined, but it is expected that it will lead to a combination of working from home and working in an office. Great emphasis will need to be put on the office becoming a social hub for the employees. With more places for social interaction and a focus on togetherness between employees, the office could also allow higher creativity and commitment.

This thesis examined the future office by interviewing 16 participants according to the Delphi method. Participants were given the opportunity to share their individual opinions related to ten introductory questions. All participants then continued the interview by participating in a feedback session that would form the basis of a future scenario for the office. According to the participants, the spread of Covid-19 has been a catalyst for the office's development. Environmental focus is high in the future when employees can take meetings from any place they prefer, instead of traveling the world to meet customers. Efficiency enables work regardless of workplace and thanks to digital tools and platforms, the employee can work anywhere at any time. What was somewhat more difficult to discern was the development of demand for offices. Although there were some aspects that all participants agreed on, it was possible to distinguish a lot of aspects that they thought about in different ways. There were different opinions from each stakeholder group regarding demand, rental levels, vacancies and other market factors that drive the market forward, as well as who will win and lose if the market moves on to a market characterised by flexible work. / Detta examensarbete undersökte det framtida kontoret genom att intervjua 16 deltagare enligt Delphi-metoden. Deltagarna fick möjlighet att dela sina individuella åsikter tillhörande tio inledande frågor. Alla deltagare fortsatte därefter intervjun genom att delta i en feedback- session som skulle ligga till grund för ett framtida scenario för kontoret. Enligt deltagarna har spridningen av Covid-19 varit en katalysator för kontorets utveckling. Miljöfokus är högt i framtiden när anställda kan ta möten från vilken plats de helst föredrar, istället för att resa världen för att träffa kunder. Effektivitet möjliggör arbete oavsett arbetsplats och tack vare digitala verktyg och plattformar kan medarbetaren arbeta var som helst när som helst. Det som var något svårare att urskilja var utvecklingen av efterfrågan på kontor. Trots att det fanns en del aspekter som alla deltagare höll med varandra om gick det att urskilja en hel del aspekter som de tyckte mycket olika om. Det framkom olika åsikter från varje intressent angående efterfrågan, hyresnivåer, vakanser och andra marknadsfaktorer som driver marknaden framåt, liksom vem som kommer att vinna och förlora om marknaden går vidare till en marknad som kännetecknas av flexibelt arbete.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1979 F65 / Master of Science