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The purpose of this paper is to report and discuss research that sought to explore how the individually purposeful nature of new employee workplace learning might be understood through its conception as epistemological agency, that is, the personally mediated construction of knowledge.

Using a sociocultural constructivist perspective on learning as necessary action‐in‐context, the ethnographic study investigates the working and learning actions of three new employees through the first months of their employment.

This paper proposes that the actions of its participants can be interpreted within a framework that accounts for the major influences on their learning as mediational means. It suggests that these mediations comprise an individualised workplace agenda that is purposefully managed by the new employee. Epistemological agency is defined and presented as a conception of learning that captures the new employees taking charge of the conduct and accomplishments of their actions at work, that is, their self‐management of learning.

The findings are significant because they indicate how the personal agency of the new employee learner can be accounted for within the process and product of workplace learning. In doing so they help illuminate the role of the individual within social conceptions of learning and agency.

This study aims to reflect on the future of work dimensions through the new concept of inclusive organizational behaviour (IOB) and its practices.

This work is a reflective concept development paper that focuses on new dimensions of organizational behaviour (OB) exploring IOB practices in the new workplace which can broaden the concept of OB that fits into the future of work.

The IOB practices will adapt and help in adapting to the new work dynamics that can create more humane and stimulating workplaces, thereby benefiting society at large. Individual positive psychological traits, team dynamics and a fusion of digital corporate culture with a human-centric approach and sustainability are highlighted in the redefined IOB, expanding the concept of OB from the three levels of analysis (individual, group and the entire organization’s behaviour) in the new normal post-COVID situation.

Limited research studies are being conducted to investigate the future of work dynamics in the new standard post-COVID environment, which is dominated by digitization. The lack of literature and the changing situations that impact OB are the limitations.

Corporate houses, policymakers and leaders who understand the workplace dynamics in the post-COVID scenario can effectively leverage the insights from this work and may chalk out a road map for future work through IOB practices.

This research extends knowledge pertaining to IOB practices and the changing dynamics that need to be followed in the future OB practices.

Sustainable Accommodation for the New Economy (SANE) is a two‐year EC‐funded research programme considering the combined impact of the new economy on people, process, place and technology to identify new ways of accommodating work. Its focus is on the creation of sustainable, collaborative workplaces for knowledge workers across Europe, encompassing both virtual and physical spaces. The key operational goal of the project is to develop a unified framework for the design of sustainable workplaces in Europe. This multidisciplinary framework will generate designs that will allow distributed organisations to take full advantage of coming advances in location‐independent computing and ubiquitous networking SANE will broaden the range of workplace design parameters to include consideration of degrees of privacy and relations between physical and virtual spaces. By embracing considerations of public and private space, the workspace environment model developed will locate the office environment in the wider context of the sustainable urban development and the regeneration of European cities. This paper describes the work currently being undertaken by the SANE project’s Space Environment Modelling work package, which is led by DEGW. This work package focuses on the architectural aspects of the human environment in organisational settings. Other key theoretical packages are Human Environment Modelling, which examines communications and interaction in physical and virtual environments, and Processes and Tools, which will examine current and likely future technology tools and processes to support the distributed workplace.

Workplace agility is emerging as the highest priority for the providers of workplace services and infrastructure. ‘Agility’ means continuously improving work and the infrastructure that enables it. An agile workplace is one that is constantly transforming, adjusting and responding to organisational learning. Agility requires a dynamic relationship between work and the workplace and the tools of work. In that relationship the workplace becomes an integral part of work itself ‐ enabling work, shaping it and being shaped by it. This paper focuses on defining workplace agility and discusses the triggers that prompt agile workplace making. Strategies for creating agile workplaces are discussed and the idea of ‘rehearsing’ change is introduced. This paper is excerpted from ‘The Agile Workplace’, which introduces the business and technology forces that drive and enable agile work. The report includes chapters about change management, organisational responsibilities and performance metrics.

This study aims to examine the extent to which organizational dissent predicts perception of workplace bullying. As previous studies have reported inconsistent and sometimes contradictory results regarding the interaction between the reporting of bullying and demographic variables, these variables are examined in the New Zealand context. Organizational communication research provides considerable insight into the ways individuals make sense of and resist workplace bullying through juxtaposition with the concepts of dissent and intragroup conflict.

A nationally representative sample of managers in New Zealand (n = 239) was conducted. Surveys included demographic questions and the following measures: Organizational Dissent Scale and Negative Acts Questionnaire Revised Scale.

Key results and indications for further research are highlighted by the third model in this study. First, workers who reported they engaged in either articulated dissent or latent dissent were more likely to perceive workplace bullying. Second, workers who are more likely to express contrary opinions in the workplace are more likely to recognize, acknowledge and tolerate less positive interactions in the workplace such as bullying.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to analyze dissent and bullying in the New Zealand context. Second, this research raises the question of whether there is a conflation of work-related bullying behaviors and bad leadership styles that may not be targeted (e.g. authoritative leadership and micromanaging). Finally, communication research provides a distinctive contribution by exploring the narrative form of worker responses to perceived bullying. In this manuscript, the authors examine potential predictors on the perception of workplace bullying in the context of New Zealand, particularly focus on the relationship between dissent and the perception of workplace bullying.

The purpose of the study to explain employees' “perception of change” from the socio‐psychological and behavioural point of view, and the consequences of this for the employee's ability to adopt new environments.

This study is implemented using a three phase‐longitudinal approach which was conducted over a one‐and‐a‐half‐year period in order to monitor the process of place attachment (and detachment), starting two months before the relocation and ending four months after relocation. Interpretative phenomenological analysis is used for analysis and interpretation of the qualitative data.

The relationship between physical environment and social and environmental psychology has been the central issue. In workplace change, while the attachments that no longer work for people are broken, there is a need to build new connections, which can support people through this transition.

There are pragmatic and strategic resource management implications arising from the study. Further study of affective relationships that all employees have with their workplace will aid in appropriately designing and managing facilities (services and programme).

The previous studies indicate that the existing literature lacks a unifying framework for understanding the relationship between people and places and the emotional significance of the physical environment for regulating the employees' work behaviours. Having exposed the inadequacy of workplace change management approaches in explaining and understanding the employees' resistance to change in their experience of the move process, considering place attachments in workplaces proposes a reappraisal of both employees' experience and evaluation of the move process. It provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the significance of employees' attachments to their workplace and offers guidance on managing workplace change from procurement, design to provision of workplaces.

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 research in the field of Indigenous peoples and the espousal of their cultural values in the work environment is recognised as being important as a means of overcoming workplace inequities. The purpose of this paper is to examine research about Maori, the Indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand that may inform future enterprises for the long-term prosperity of marginalised Indigenous peoples.

This study reviews the literature on unique cultural dynamics of whanau Maori (New Zealand Maori family/community) study practices and the importance of work/home/life balance. Furthermore, it considers strengths-based community enterprises that can lead to sustainable prosperity for Maori.

The review yielded three theoretical principles that explain mana (sociocultural and psychological well-being), which can be generalised across multiple contexts, with the workplace being one of these contexts. These principles of mana create a contextual match with whanau external realities; an experiential match of a mana empowerment framework that transfers to the study context and an interpersonal understanding of being understood and empowered within the study context.

The literature review has been limited to research from 2005 onwards and to research that investigates Maori, the Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand. Although the review of the literature has these limitations, the review may be of interest to other studies of Indigenous peoples worldwide.

The key factors are interwoven, and their importance is considered in relation to the development of positive and supportive environments, which link to job retention, satisfaction and productivity in the workplace for Maori. This, in turn, can have beneficial knock-on effects for not only the New Zealand economy but also more importantly for enhancing sustainable livelihoods for upcoming generations.

Tied together, these factors are paramount for cultural, social and ecological benefits for nga rangatahi (young Maori adults) and the wider community in the workplace.

The literature review’s value and originality derive from a dearth of recent research on supporting nga rangatahi (young Maori adults) for sustainable prosperity.

Many organisations have increased collaborative performance by introducing new technologies and new processes; by integrating these with innovations in the working environment they can catalyse additional and sustained improvements in collaborative performance. If planned, designed and managed as an integrated system encompassing people, process and place issues, the workplace environment can be a powerful catalyst for business change.