Today, many organisations are adopting offices that have an open design with or without flexible seating. While advocates of open-plan offices propose that these office types lead to cost savings and aid inter and intra-team communication, opponents argue that these office types are associated with decreased performance and worsened health among employees. This thesis investigates how the type of office (cell offices, shared room offices, small open-plan offices, medium-sized open plan offices, large open-plan offices and flex offices) influences employee health and performance, and whether this is different for different personalities and jobs with different concentration demands. Data were gathered by means of surveys and cognitive tests from five organisations with different office types. In Study I (N=1241), the aim was to investigate the main effect of office type on indicators of health and performance and the interaction effect of office type with the need to concentrate in order to carry out work tasks. Office type alone was associated with distraction and cognitive stress in such a way that cell offices were associated with fewest problems, followed by flex offices, while open-plan offices were associated with the most problems. While employees in open-plan offices and employees in flex offices reported more problems as the need for concentration increased, employees in cell offices reported the same level of problems regardless of the need of concentration. Study II (N=527) investigated how performance on a memory test was affected during normal working conditions as compared to a quiet baseline. There was a negative dose-response relationship between the size of the open-plan office environment and the drop in word recall during the normal working condition. However, Study II also showed that individuals working in cell offices had as high a drop in performance during normal working conditions as did those working in large open-plan office environments. Study III (N=1133–1171) focused on the interaction effect between office type and individual differences in personality. The personality trait agreeableness interacted with office type on the outcome variables distraction and job satisfaction. Specifically, Study III may indicate that as offices get more open and flexible, agreeable people will report more problems. In conclusion, the studies in the present thesis have implications for practice and suggest that office type impacts on employee health and performance, while concentration demands of the job and agreeableness moderate the effects. Although employees report higher level of distraction in open-plan office environments, when performance on a demanding task is measured, cell offices are not as favourable during normal working conditions as self-reported data usually indicate. Organisations should also be aware that, among open-plan offices, small open-plan offices are associated with fewer problems. / Kontorslandskap med eller utan fasta arbetsstationer förekommer idag i många organisationer. Förespråkare för kontorslandskap hänvisar till kostnadsbesparing samt förbättrade förutsättningar för kommunikation, medan motståndare hävdar att kontorslandskap leder till försämrad prestation och hälsa bland medarbetarna. Denna avhandling undersöker om kontorstyp påverkar de anställdas hälsa och prestation, samt om effekten av kontorstyp varierar beroende på de anställdas personlighet och typ av arbetsuppgifter. Data i form av enkätsvar och prestation på kognitiva tester samlades in från fem organisationer med olika typer av kontorslösningar (cellkontor, delade kontorsrum, små kontorslandskap, mellanstora kontorslandskap, stora kontorslandskap och flexkontor). I studie I (N = 1241) var syftet att undersöka huvudeffekten av kontorstyp på indikatorer för hälsa och prestation samt om effekten är beroende av koncentrationskraven i arbetet. Kontorstyp visade samband med distraktion och kognitiv stress på så sätt att medarbetare i cellkontor uppgav minst problem, följt av de i flexkontor, medan kontorslandskap var förknippade med mer problem. Vidare rapporterade anställda som hade arbetsuppgifter som krävde koncentration mer problem i kontorslandskap och flexkontor, medan anställda i cellkontor, oavsett arbetets krav, rapporterade lika mycket problem. I studie II (N = 527) undersöktes hur prestation på ett minnestest påverkades under normala arbetsförhållanden jämfört med en tyst referensmätning i olika kontorstyper. Det fanns ett negativt dos-responssamband mellan storleken på kontorslandskapet och hur många procent sämre medarbetare presterade under normala arbetsförhållanden. Men Studie II visade också att personer som arbetar i cellkontor hade ett lika högt bortfall i prestation under normala arbetsförhållanden som de som arbetade i stora kontorslandskap. I studie III (N = 1133-1171) låg fokus på interaktionseffekten mellan kontorstyp och personlighet. Vänlighet var den enda personlighetsvariabeln som interagerade med kontorstyp på utfallsvariablerna distraktion och arbetstillfredsställelse. Mer specifikt visade Studie III att när kontoret blir mer öppet och flexibelt, så rapporterar människor som skattar sig högt på personlighetsvariabeln vänlighet fler problem. Resultaten i avhandlingen kan få flera praktiska implikationer då den visar att kontorstyp påverkar medarbetarnas hälsa och prestation, medan koncentrationskrävande arbetsuppgifter och vänlighet modererar effekterna. Vidare visar avhandlingen att även om anställda rapporterar mindre distraktion i cellkontor jämfört med i kontorslandskap, behöver inte cellkontor vara lika gynnsamma som självskattade mått visar när prestationen mäts med objektiva mått under normala arbetsförutsättningar, i det här fallet ett minnestest. Slutligen bör organisationer även vara medvetna om att avhandlingen visar en viss tendens att små kontorslandskap är förknippade med mindre problem än stora. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Manuscript.</p>

Dagens föränderliga samhälle ställer höga krav på organisationers anpassningsförmåga vilket i sin tur kräver att utformningen av arbetsplatser ska kunna möta denna föränderlighet. Ett kontorskoncept som vinner mark på alltfler svenska företag är det aktivitetsbaserade konceptet. På en aktivitetsbaserad arbetsplats, som är uppbyggd efter olika zoner, ska medarbetarna kunna välja plats som stödjer den arbetsuppgift som för tillfället utförs. Fördelarna med dessa arbetsplatser framförs vara minskad lokalyta, ökad kommunikation samt större produktivitet. Syftet med denna uppsats är att få en förståelse för hur medarbetarna i en offentlig organisation upplever den aktivitetsbaserade arbetsplatsen. Vidare vill vi undersöka om avsikten med införandet av det nya kontorskonceptet har infriats i medarbetarnas upplevelser. Undersökningen genomfördes på Kungälvs stadshus som nyligen har börjat arbeta aktivitetsbaserat. Undersökningen har en kvalitativ ansats där intervjuer och observationer har genomförts. De framträdande slutsatserna i undersökningen visar att respondenternas upplevelser av arbetsplatsen, i de flesta fall, inte var kopplade till det aktivitetsbaserade kontorskonceptet som sådant, utan istället till den fysiska miljön. Flertalet upplevde att arbetsplatsen fungerade bra i förhållande till deras arbete. Däremot framkom att upplevelsen av arbetsplatsen skiljde sig något åt beroende på respondenternas uppdrag. Det framkom även att medarbetarna inte utnyttjade arbetsplatsens alla resurser och var begränsade i sin rörlighet. Vidare infriades vissa av avsikterna med införandet av kontorskonceptet i respondenternas upplevelser, medan vissa inte gjorde det. Denna undersöknings värde ligger i att det forskningsaktuella läget är begränsat och att de flesta studier som gjorts på området är kvantitativt riktade. Vidare belyser undersökningen, det allt för sällan undersökta, medarbetarperspektivet. / Today’s changeable society requires a great deal of organizations adaptability which in turn puts high demands on the office design to meet this changeability. An office concept that is attaining more attention from Swedish organizations is the activity-based concept. At an activity-based workplace, which is made up by different activity-areas, the employee can choose a workstation that best supports the activity at hand. Some of the uttered pros of activity-based workplaces are the decrease in use of office space as well as the increase in communication and productivity. The purpose of this research is to receive an understanding for the employee’s experience of the activity-based workplace, in a public organization. We will furthermore view if the intentions with the implementation, of the office concept, are shown in the employees’ experiences. The research was carried out at Kungälvs stadshus who just recently started working activity-based. Interviews and observations, with a qualitative approach, were carried out. The major findings of this research was that the respondents experiences of the workplace, in most cases, weren’t connected to the activity-based concept as such. Instead it was connected to the physical environment. The majority of the respondents experienced that the workplace supported them in their work. However, the experiences differed some, due to the employee’s assignment. Another finding was that the employees didn’t use all the resources in the workplace and was restricted in their mobility. Further the research shows that some of the intentions, with the implementation of the office concept, are shown in the employees’ experiences and some of the intentions are not shown. The value of this research lies in the fact that the research in this area is limited and the research that exists is done with a quantitative approach. Furthermore, the research illuminates the, all too rarely researched employee-perspective.

Not available / text

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

published_or_final_version / Urban Design / Master / Master of Urban Design

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

No description available.

The introduction of computers in working life has changed the very nature of many jobs and the entire work situation for a great number of people. How has this affected the individual´s health and well being? With the large increase in the use of computers we have witnessed an increase in reports on negative effects on users´health. The puropose of this thesis is to describe a number of studies on health effects of office computerisation conducted over a period of 20 years. The emphasis of the early studies was on psychosocial factors and stress effects while the focus in the more recent studies was to take into account occupational health in software development. The following conclusions have been drawn: We still face severe problems concerning the computer users´health and work environment. Much of the negative health effects are associated with stress. The introduction of new computer systems can result in an increase in various work-related health risks. These risks are related to several interacting factors, with two of the more important factors being work organisation and contents and design ot the computer system. Current methods, models and tools for system development are insufficient to prevent work environment and health problems encountered in administrative case handling work. To counteract these problems more attention needs to be given to social and organisational factors during system development.