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Building on fundamental work on usability of workplaces, this paper aims to extend the perspective of usability as an approach in delivering workplace solutions. To explore the content and implications of usability, the concept is differentiated into two sub-concepts: usefulness and user-friendliness.

The theoretical rationale for the proposed conceptual specification is presented and explored using data from two independent research projects: a qualitative interview study in an office relocation project in Finland and a quantitative survey study of 1,420 office users of 43 buildings in Switzerland. The goal of the empirical research is to capture the elements of user experience connected to usability using the distinction between usefulness and user-friendliness.

The results from both studies show that perceived support of work activities by workspaces in relation to work tasks is the main element of usefulness. User-friendliness incorporates comfort and control as the two most important aspects. Correlations between usefulness and user-friendliness and outcomes of usable workspace design are low for self-assessed performance, moderate for job satisfaction and high for work area satisfaction.

Providing useful workplaces supports users’ job performance while designing for user-friendliness is correlated with user satisfaction.

The differentiation of usefulness and user-friendliness of office environments provides a new way to describe user experience. The integration of qualitative and quantitative research strategies strengthens the research evidence.

The purpose of this article is to review the use of linguistic methods such as narrative and discourse analysis in workplace management research.

Ten journals are reviewed in a time period of six years between years 2004-2010. The journals are categorized into three linguistic methodological journals and seven journals on built environment. Additionally articles were gathered with search words of workplace management, discourse and narrative analysis. Out of the total 2,245 articles, 40 articles were considered to be relevant for this research.

The linguistic methods of narrative and discourse analysis are not recognized in the workplace management research in a comprehensive way by combining the research on built environment to the research on organization and culture. In the workplace management research methods of narrative and discourse analysis were applied to the processes of built environment. Additionally methods were applied to the research of space and place as means of communication and means of identity construction.

Linguistic approach would reveal underlying messages behind evident structures of workplace and give new insights on understanding and developing workplaces both in design and in use.

The linguistic methods of narrative and discourse analysis are rarely used in workplace management research and should be considered as a new resource in the research of WPM.

This article presents a model of employees' rhetorical patterns, which take place during a workplace change.

The method of discourse analysis is used to investigate employees' perceptions of and dispositions to the change. In total, 21 semi‐structured interviews were conducted in two organizations before and after moving to open plan offices.

People tend to frame the change in space by either opposing or conforming ways of making sense. Opposing discourses include rhetorical strategies of social community versus own responsibility, believing in a hidden agenda of management, and distancing oneself. Conforming discourses include social community versus individual opinion, including oneself, and trusting the professionals. Additionally it was found that employees tend to be ambiguous with their messages when interviewed during a workplace change process.

Acknowledging the results of this paper can help workplace managers to make a difference between naturally occurring change resistance among employees and well justified disagreement with the content of the change. Also, the results help workplace managers to understand the rhetoric and behaviour of employees' during a workplace change.

The methodology of discourse analysis is rarely used in facilities management research and is thus a method to be considered in future studies of FM.

The purpose of this study is to examine supply network designs that large service organisations use in the residential-FM sector to respond to the organising requirements of their operating environments.

The study is theoretically grounded in the well-established literature on the organisational design and structural contingency theory. Utilising a framework of generic organising problems proposed by Miles and Snow (1978) and a multiple-case study design, the study elaborates how large service organisations organise and manage their supply networks in the Finnish residential-FM sector.

The study identifies four supply network designs that organisations use for responding to the organising problems inherent in the property and resident services domains in the residential-FM sector. These include regional production organisation, horizontal decentralisation, environment stabilisation and demand – supply pooling, reflecting the type of the service-market domain and the organisation’s service strategy.

The study contributes to the facilities management literature by expanding the field of inquiry from the commercial real estate sector into the emerging field of professional residential facility services. In particular, the study adds to the discussion on supply strategies and design, offering a service provider perspective to the organisation of service supply in housing.