Workplace design for distributed work

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Workplace design for distributed work

• John Willy Bakke, Telenor Research and
  Innovation, Norway

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Starting point A puzzle (two, actually)

• What is the role of workplace design for
  distributed work?
• (and telework is but one example of distributed
  work)
• This question is approached through the more
  general question
• Why are companies (still) interested in workplace
  design, architecture and space solutions?
• in spite of the proliferation of information
  technologies, and the alleged
• Dematerialization of organizations
• Death of distance
• Irrelevance of location / location-independent
  work
• Rise of the virtual firms
• Increase(?) of telework, nomadic work, mobile
  work,
• and a lot of similar developments

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Where teleworkers or digital nomads are seen as
the heroes of the new age
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• This presentation is a meta-analysis of previous
  research projects on
• workplace design
• distributed work

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Two routes for approaching an answer

• Even virtual workers need to be accommodated
  somewhere (the argument from facilities
  management)
• And these somewhere places including the home
  office need to follow standard requirements for
  workplace design, ergonomically speaking
• Space matters for organizational processes (the
  argument from organization studies)
• Workspace is not an empty container for
  activities
• The ordering of space in buildings is really
  about the ordering of relations between people.
• Hillier and Hanson (1984)
• Good office layout contributes much to the
  effective flow of work through an office, and to
  the efficiency of the worker as well.
• L.C. Walker The office and tomorrows
  business.New York, 1930

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Organization studies and the physical environment

• Organization studies, and the very concept of
  organization have been developed through an
  abstraction from the physical
• Cf. Chester Barnard, who reserved the term
  organization for
• that part of the coöperative system from which
  physical environment has been abstracted
• Organization studies can be seen as laying a
  foundation for the dematerialization thesis by
  describing organizations in terms of status,
  power, and (formal) communications channels /
  organizational charts or of promotions, and
  recruitment, of narratives, interpretations, and
  sensemaking all approaches where the material
  and spatial are neglected or tacitly implied
• The profession of Facilities Management is,
  however, making a living out of theories and
  practices about the material workplace

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How does space matter for organizational
processes?

• According to Gieryn (2002), Buildings stabilize
  social life. They give structure to social
  institutions, durability to social networks,
  persistence to behavior patterns
• although imperfectly
• Buildings don't just sit there imposing
  themselves. They are forever objects of
  (re)interpretation, narration and representation
  and meanings or stories are sometimes more
  pliable than the walls and floors they depict. We
  deconstruct buildings materially and
  semiotically, all the time.
• Buildings also symbolize, and they influence our
  perception of reality, to the point of subtly
  shaping beliefs, norms and cultural values
  (Gagliardi 1996)

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Physical structures in the organization

• One notable exception is Mary Jo Hatch (1997),
  who has developed a fairly comprehensive
  conceptual map for the role of the physical for
  organizational functioning
• This map leads onto distributed work

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Distributed work and the physical
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Why does distributed work exist?

• Too often, distributed work is seen as a problem
  that preferably should have been avoided There
  is an idealization of collocated work and
  face-to-face-communication
• Distributed work has a history, such as
• growth, geographical expansion, and wish to
  control facilities costs (the Facilities
  management argument)
• to get closer to the living areas of the
  employees (classical telework / telecottage
  argument)
• to reduce the volume of transportation (the
  enviromental argument)
• to get closer to markets or providers (marketing
  / distribution / cultural affinity)
• to facilitate functional specialization, and
  connect to localized resources (to create
  secluded enclaves, or industrial regions)
• to avoid an introvert organizational culture
• and may therefore be quite advantageous
• and a large-scale organization will function as
  if it was multi-locational anyhow

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Workplace design for distributed work

• For distributed work arrangements, many aspects
  of workplace design are the same as for
  workplaces not seen as distributed.
• Distributed work makes evident the need for
  certain considerations for workplace design
• Good connectivity to other locations
• A degree of workplace flexibility, including
• ease of access to the premises, also for the
  remote workers
• a sufficient number of working places, meeting
  rooms, etc to accommodate a workforce that is
  flexible in numeric terms
• Questions of different qualities and
  symbolizations of the different locations

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Conclusions

• Distributed work is not an exception that
  motivates a specific form of workplace design
• Distributed work is one characteristic of
  contemporary working life that highlights any
  organizations need for
• connectivity (for bridging different locations)
• flexibility of use (for accommodating variations
  in the number of people working in the premises,
  and the different worktasks of those frequenting
  the premises)
• And the theoretical implication is to enhance
  organization studies to encompass the challenges
  from distributed work
• and this is addressed in a forthcoming book -)

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