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The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors that influence effective workplace designs for knowledge workers.

During spring 2016, the employees in a large institution for research and higher education, a large consultancy company and a medium-sized consultancy company (in total 4367 employees) in Norway received invitations to participate in an anonymous online survey about workplaces and facilities. In all, 1,670 employees answered the survey (38.2 per cent response rate). The data have been analyzed with IBM SPSS version 23, among others through use of exploratory factor analysis and two-way ANOVA.

Most respondents at the institution for research and higher education have cell offices. Most respondents in the two consultancy companies have open and flexible offices. This paper indicate the respondents’ preferences or perception of their workstation and the workplace’s fit for their tasks is affected both by the respondents’ type of office and how much time they spend at their workstation during the week. There are also possible age or generation effects.

One methodical weakness in the present paper is that two-way ANOVA has been applied on survey data. Experiments are usually arranged to provide almost equal numbers of observations in each category. This is usually not possible with survey data. However, despite this weakness, the present paper provides several findings that challenge some of the workplace research’s taken for givens.

The present paper indicates that facility managers and others responsible for office and workplace design are advised to take the employees’ tasks and work patterns into consideration when designing workplaces and providing offices and workstations to their end-users. The present paper also indicates that employees require different kinds of support facilities and services depending on what kind of offices and workplaces they have.

This is a large N empirical study among knowledge workers in three organizations, one public administration and two private enterprises. The present paper indicate that provision of offices and workstations with supporting facilities should be differentiated according to the end-users’ work tasks and work patterns.

The study aims to provide insight on the relationship between a newly implemented workplace concept, its intentions, the actual use and ultimately its ability to function as a strategic tool. By addressing the intended and unintended consequences of planned spatial arrangements, the interest lies in studying underlying factors affecting the concepts’ ability to function as a strategic tool.

The case study builds on semi-structured interviews and observational studies from a larger Norwegian organisation that recently implemented an activity-based workplace concept. Concept descriptions and architectural drawings have also been important sources to study how the concept was interpreted and used by different groups.

Taking a socio-material perspective, the findings illustrate that spatial aspects and different concept structures, together with issues such as employee mobility and time spent in the office, different work processes, management style and departmental cultures influenced the way the activity-based workplace concept was perceived and taken into use.

The findings indicate that social and cultural aspects may play a more significant role in the adaptation process than previously emphasised. The article further provides knowledge on how organisations, in planning and implementation of such concepts, may address the right issues to overcome challenges and achieve the higher strategic ends.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how strategic alignment of the corporations’ real estate with the organisational strategy may be used to facilitate change within an organisation’s collaborative culture. The focus is on the interconnectedness between spatial and behavioural artefacts in the transition process to a new workplace concept.

The discussion builds on observational studies and semi-structured interviews with 65 employees in a Norwegian organisation.

The findings indicate that the physical change, when supported by behavioural artefacts as change management actions, paved way for a cultural change towards increased collaboration between employees and across hierarchical levels. However, misalignments between the new workplace concept and existing behavioural artefacts and cultural constructs also restricted the organisation in fully achieving the intended ends.

Applying a socio-material perspective with explicit focus on issues such as management and culture in workplace studies is important to develop better models for strategic use of a corporations’ real estate.

When new workplace concepts are implemented with the aim of effecting organisational change they require support of a focused change management process where both spatial and behavioural artefacts are designed to support employee adaptation to the new concept. By conducting the change as a continuous iterative process, extending beyond the moving process itself, the corporate real estate management (CREM) may add to the success by guiding and steering the organisation in the right direction.

The purpose of this paper is to apply a spatial approach to organizational inequality to explore why unequal opportunity structures persist in an organization despite its commitment to diversity and employing highly skilled ethnic minority employees.

The (re)production of inequality is explored by linking research on organizational space with HRM diversity management. Data from an ethnographic study undertaken in a Danish municipal center illustrates how a substructure of inequality is spatially upheld alongside a formal diversity policy. Archer’s distinction between structure and agency informs the analysis of how minority agency not only reproduces but also challenges organizational opportunity structures.

The analysis demonstrates how substructures of inequality stabilize in spatial routines enacted in an ethnic zoning of the workplace and ethnification of job categories. However, the same spatial structures allows for a variety of opposition and conciliation strategies among minority employees, even though the latter tend to prevail in a reproduction rather than a transformation of the organizational opportunity structures.

The reliance on a single case study restricts the generalizability of the findings but highlights fruitful areas for future research.

The study sensitizes HRM practitioners to the situated quality of workplace diversity and to develop a broader scope of HRM practices to address the more subtle, spatially embedded forms of inequality.

Theoretical and empirical connections between research on organizational space and HRM diversity management have thus far not been systematically studied. This combination might advance knowledge on the persistence of micro-inequality even in organizations formally committed to diversity.

The purpose of this paper is to propose propose a practical framework for the design and measure of active ba and assess whether workplace reformation initiatives actively contribute to promoting knowledge creation by activating ba.

The workplace reformation is first segmented into virtual and physical environments. Then, using the SECI knowledge‐creation process, the effects of each environment as well as their mutual interactions on active ba are analyzed. Next, the case studies of two workplace reformations are introduced, the first using a qualitative analysis and the second the results of a questionnaire survey carried out at three different stages of the implementation.

The effective implementation of workplace reformation in two separate entities enabled the creation of active ba. The influence of the physical and virtual environments on the creation of active ba were significantly different, thus justifying the assumption of the division of such environmental factors. The main factor of active ba generated by a complete workplace reformation was shown to be direct communication.

The two firms studied here belong to the same group of companies, and both departments' workplace reformations were conducted by the same person, whose widely known track record may be seen as a self‐fulfilling prophecy.

Because these two types of workplace reformation reversely impact the emergence of direct communication, and therefore the type of active ba, practitioners could avoid the co‐existence of groups organized under different configurations by simultaneously implementing a workplace reformation across both virtual and physical environments.

This research shows how workplace reformation – achieved with the same people, all things being equal, relatively immediately and inexpensively – can raise knowledge productivity.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between organisational flexibility and individual adaptation in the implementation of integrated workplace concepts. The focus is on the interconnectedness between different concepts and organisational aspects, as well as on overcoming challenges to fully achieve the intended ends.

The discussion builds on a triangulated research design including: semi-structured interviews, observation studies and analysis of secondary material in the form of internal evaluation reports and quantitative questionnaire data.

To fully achieve the intended ends, organisational, cultural and managerial aspects need to be aligned with the interconnected workplace concept. To create alignment, the concept also needs to be supported by a process of continual improvement and organisational learning.

The case study was conducted in one organisation. Additional empirical research is needed to provide more definite conclusions, guidelines and theories.

The findings highlight the importance of applying a socio-material perspective towards implementation and development of integrated workplace concepts. Emphasising change, learning and development rather than standardisation and equality, may, in the end, allow for better concept interconnectedness.

The originality of this study lies in the perspective of studying the implementation of integrated workplace concepts from a socio-material perspective, shedding light on employee and managerial adaptation to different interrelated aspects and measures.

This is an analysis of modern office buildings with high energy efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to focus on how such buildings affects usability for the organizations occupying the buildings.

The analysis combine results from studies of two case projects with a literature review. Case studies include qualitative interviews with key informants, internal post-occupancy evaluations and annual reports from the user organizations. The two buildings are Norwegian pioneers regarding energy efficiency.

The new buildings provide a high degree of usability for the user organizations, including user satisfaction, efficiency and effectiveness. The case projects illustrate the potential in combining improvements for energy efficiency and the usability of buildings. There are synergistic effects in a mutual process of development for the buildings and organizations based upon strategic business goals. Management of the process is crucial in order to succeed.

The study applies the approach of usability to an analysis of energy efficient buildings. Two case projects exemplify potentials and challenges.

Office buildings can be developed to a high degree of energy efficiency by considering the many aspects of usability for the user organizations. Integrating constructing projects into organizational development processes is crucial for the result.

This study contributes to the emerging field, analyzing effects on usability for the organizations occupying energy efficient office buildings. The study also adds to the young field of analyzing the integration of the development of buildings into processes of organizational development by enlightening the potential regarding buildings with high energy ambitions.

The starting point of this study is to examine the open space of the Museum of Islamic Art Park, located in Doha, through the design criteria to find out, qualitively and quantatively, its sufficiency for users. The park area, located by the sea, is one of the most modern open spaces in Qatar's capital and was designed to complement the adjacent Museum of Islamic Art. Beyond a mere park, the design claims to bring together the public with the new urban space.

In this context, the study is aimed at determining the use of the space by analysing its physical features, evaluating the sufficiency of the programme elements' quality and quantity, determining the potential of the research area as a public open space by evaluating its visual life quality and attractiveness, guiding park designs with similar features, and providing a reference for other spatial analysis and evaluation research.

Firstly, literature on the research subject and area was studied. The evaluation criterias were determined by the findings from the literature and by visiting the area and these were used to create the analysis form to apply to the research area. Next, using the analysis forms in the field, the research area was evaluated under General information, Physical and Sensorial analysis. At the end of the study, the existing literature and fieldwork findings were evaluated with a holistic approach. It was found that the space brings together people from all ages and social groups; as well as providing an attractive social environment, the park hosts several urban spatial components in one place. Finally, recommendations were made for enhancing the visual/spatial quality and attractiveness of the area.