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The workplaces of researchers in different disciplines

Mervi Tuulikki Huhtelin (Department of Civil Engineering, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland)
Suvi Nenonen (Department of Civil Engineering, Tampereen Teknillinen Yliopisto, Tampere, Finland)

Journal of Corporate Real Estate

ISSN: 1463-001X

Article publication date: 14 March 2019

Issue publication date: 22 May 2019

438

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study whether researchers from different disciplines have different requirements for workplaces.

Design/methodology/approach

A literature review aimed to understand the academic workplace requirements of different disciplines. The empirical data were gathered by a national survey conducted in Finland. Open-ended questions accumulated answers, which were analysed and clustered.

Findings

The analysis implies that the majority of researchers in all the disciplinary categories required places that support both concentration and interaction. When comparing those researchers who asked for a place that only supports either concentration or interaction, the majority of those working in soft-pure disciplines required spaces to support concentration and those in soft-applied disciplines required spaces to support interaction. Researchers from hard disciplines – both applied and pure – consider places supporting concentration or interaction to be equally important.

Research limitations/implications

The weakness of this study is the generalisability, as this survey was conducted in Finland. The analysis emphasised diversity between disciplines without analysing diversity within disciplines.

Practical implications

Facilities and real estate managers can gain a deeper understanding of the academics’ workplace requirements, which in turn can help them to enhance workplace support of productivity at the same time as cutting real estate costs.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the body of research on academic office design.

Keywords

Citation

Huhtelin, M.T. and Nenonen, S. (2019), "The workplaces of researchers in different disciplines", Journal of Corporate Real Estate, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 36-54. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCRE-11-2017-0043

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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