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Administrative processes play a crucial role in various sectors, often contributing to cost overruns and delays. While lean concept has been extensively applied in many industries, there is a recognized need for further research on the integration of lean in administrative processes. To address this research gap, this study aims to systematically analyse the implementation of lean in administrative processes, providing a sector-wise comparison to explore its prospects for the construction industry.

A systematic literature review was conducted by adapting the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses method. Eighty-six research papers are subjected to descriptive and content analysis on different tools applied in lean integrated administrative processes in health care, education, public administration and other sectors.

The research study reveals common lean tools irrespective of sector. Moreover, specific tools used for a particular sector are analysed. Out of the various lean tools and techniques, value stream mapping, 5S and Kaizen are highly acknowledged tools in every sector of lean intervention. Furthermore, ECRS is applied explicitly in the education sector. Furthermore, it is noted that Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs and Customers (SIPOC), 5whys, load levelling and control charts are identical to administrative processes in lean health care. Furthermore, Spaghetti charts and Kaikaku are only adapted to administrative processes in the public administration sector, and causal loop diagrams are used explicitly in administrative processes in the construction sector.

This study contributes to research by developing a guideline to design lean intervention for a lean-integrated administrative process in any sector which still needs to be transformed into lean. Hence, this study will be a cornerstone for incorporating lean principles for administrative processes in construction sector.

The health, well-being and productivity (i.e. WELL) of office building occupants are vulnerable to poor office environments. Therefore, this study aims to identify new features and concepts of office buildings in supporting occupants’ WELL. To achieve that aim, this study: explores new WELL features for office buildings, develops new WELL concepts for office buildings and examines the influence of the newly developed WELL concepts on existing WELL building standard (WELL v2) concepts.

The first phase involved ten experts to assign weightage for health, well-being and productivity. In the second phase, 206 questionnaire survey data were collected from office building occupants throughout Malaysia. Exploratory factor analysis established new WELL concepts for office buildings. Partial least-squares structural equation modelling examined the influence of the newly developed WELL concepts on the existing WELL v2 concepts.

Two new WELL concepts were developed: “space and services”, consisting of sufficient space, workstation privacy, office layouts, building automation systems, cleanliness and information technology (IT) infrastructure, and “building security”, consisting of security systems and safety at parking lots. Here, “space and services” influences all existing WELL v2 concepts, and “building security” influences the water, nourishment, mind and community concepts of WELL v2.

This study uncovers holistic WELL building concepts to support occupants’ health, well-being and productivity with additional new features and concepts for construction industry policymakers to establish holistic building assessment tools.

This study aims to explore the application scenarios of metaverse offices in organizations, including immersive work experiences, weak social networks and virtual meetings. Based on the exploration of this application scenario, this study discusses four levels of organizational change that will be brought about by the future metaverse office, such as the inter-enterprise ecological collaboration model, distributed autonomous organization, flexible leadership and individual belongingness. The metaverse office has some special advantages over traditional office models, but the metaverse office still raises some issues, such as privacy, security, addiction, equity and usability. These issues brake the widespread adoption of metaverse technologies. The study recommends that researchers take these issues into account in future metaverse research and development.

This study surveys the relevant literature by means of a literature review in order to analyze how metaverse technology can be applied to teleworking. Two databases including Web of Science (https://www.webofscience.com/) and Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com) were selected for this study. Keywords such as “teleworking and metaverse” were used, and 18 publications were found to be relevant to the study. After excluding duplicates, less relevant and older literature, only 14 articles could be used as references for this study. Based on the exploration of this application scenario, this study discusses four levels of organizational change and issues that will be brought about by the metaverse office of the future.

It presents the application scenarios of the metaverse office in organizations, including immersive work experience, weak social networking and virtual meetings.

The pandemic triggers a desire for contactless working. The three main applications of the metaverse office also have a practical value which has been proven in some high-tech companies. It is foreseeable that an efficient, electronic and personalized office model will be enthusiastically adopted by society. Metaverse office will gradually step into people's view in the future.

The concept of the metaverse office has rarely been touched upon by theoretical research, although the technology is gradually becoming known. Even its application to teleworking has only recently been reached by some organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to map and describe the activities taking place in the academic workplace. It considers whether academic work is something completely different from traditional knowledge work and identifies differences and similarities between the two.

The data was collected through in-depth interviews with thirteen academics from different disciplines at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology within a case study approach. A document analysis of the university’s disciplines was carried out in advance of the interviews.

Four important similarities between knowledge work and academic work and three distinctive features of academic work were identified. Balancing the need for interaction and concentration is most important for both knowledge work and academic work, and the most prominent differences are the academics’ constant alternation between supervision, teaching, concentration work and administrative tasks, as well as some academics’ close links to practice. Academic work is not completely different from knowledge work, and learning from experiences from other sectors can be valuable when designing workplaces for academic staff. It is necessary to understand the activities taking place in the academic workplace and at the same time plan for future flexibility.

This study contributes to the research on workplace design for academic staff to better understand the characteristics and variations of academic work and differences in academic cultures and traditions. This will contribute to a better understanding of how workplace design, work processes, technology and how the institution is organised can support the university’s visions and goals.

Due to e-commerce growth, technological advancements and environmental concerns, developing a more nuanced service portfolio has become a critical issue for last-mile logistics service providers. Concurrently, consumers are adopting new modes of consumption. This paper aims to investigate the potential for last-mile logistics service providers to act as intermediaries in access-based consumption and to revitalise their service offerings through product-service systems – a pioneering strategy not executed in the market yet.

This strategic customer foresight study uses a quantitative survey of 1,000 respondents and an online focus group comprising 10 early adopter consumers to investigate emerging last-mile service models. Potential service concepts were identified through the survey, and two distinct concepts were subsequently selected for evaluation and co-development within the focus group. The research was conducted in partnership with an SME logistics company in Finland.

The consumers expressed selective interest in access-based consumption related to the proposed offering of essential household goods. Young adults and consumers in early middle age living in the city centre emerged as the most potential user groups. Economic reasons and short-term needs were the primary motivations for adopting access-based consumption.

The study showed that engaging consumers in a customer foresight process is viable for SMEs innovating their offerings and demonstrates how the process works in practice.

Documented cases of customer integration into foresight processes are rare in earlier research, and this paper extends the knowledge base through a multidisciplinary examination of future consumer behaviour in the last-mile logistics domain. The paper also expands the limited literature on the role of logistics in access-based consumption.

The world of work is constantly changing. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced working from home, and there is an increasing demand for flexibility regarding the workplace. There is little empirical evidence on the mechanisms and factors that influence employee outcomes, such as productivity and turnover intention, at the workplace and at home. In addition, it is unclear whether the workplace characteristics that influence employee outcomes vary between different nations due to country-specific circumstances. The paper aims to address these two issues.

The research model applied in this study is based on the job demands-resources (JD-R) and environmental demands-resources models using German (n = 429) and USA (n = 507) survey samples. Partial least squares structural equation modelling is used to analyse the influence of workplace characteristics (isolation, family–work interference, equipment/facilities and skill variety) on employee outcomes (satisfaction, burnout, productivity and turnover intention). Additionally, a multi-group analysis is used to explore group differences in the factors influencing satisfaction, burnout, productivity and turnover intention between employees in Germany and the USA.

The results reveal that significant determinants of productivity and turnover intention include isolation, family–work interference, equipment/facilities and skill variety. Isolation and equipment/facilities are identified as the most important demands and resources of the home workplace. Some significant differences are found between Germany and the USA. The positive effect of isolation on burnout is significantly stronger in the USA than in Germany, whereas the positive effect of family–work inference on burnout is stronger in Germany than in the USA. The negative effects visible for the relations between burnout and satisfaction, and satisfaction and turnover intention are stronger in Germany than in the USA. The positive effect of burnout on turnover intention is stronger in the USA compared to Germany.

The study adds empirical evidence to the JD-R theory by analysing the influence of the home workplace characteristics on employee outcomes in different countries for the first time using a multi-group analysis. In addition, the study reveals new insights into the differences between the knowledge workforces in Germany and the USA by uncovering how key factors influence employee outcomes such as productivity and turnover intention, partially carried by varying length of experience in work from home between both of these countries. Insights from this study can support corporate real estate managers to make better decisions on the design of employees’ home workplaces and the integration of work from home into the company’s workspace concept.

Meetings with colleagues are an essential activity in workplace collaboration. The iterative nature of collaborative work demands spaces that team members can access quickly and easily. Creating suitable meeting spaces will become more critical if the hybrid work model continues and the workplace environment becomes the hub for face-to-face collaborative time, learning and training. Workspace and fit-out is expensive so it is crucial that the investment in meeting spaces supports employees’ collaboration activities.

This paper presents a case study of a corporate organisation undertaken in New Zealand to investigate how employees from two business units use their workspace to collaborate within their own team and across other teams in their organisation. The study uses ethnographic techniques, including participant observation and in-depth face-to-face interviews.

The findings show that the frequency and nature of small group work in collaboration was underestimated in the initial planning of the new workspace. Although participants found the design and fit-out of the formal meeting rooms supportive of collaborative work, the meeting rooms were in high demand, and it was difficult to find a room at short notice. The breakout spaces were confusing because they lacked key design attributes identified by the participants as conducive to small group work. Design shortfalls together with fit-out features perceived as supportive of collaborative work are identified.

The research reports on employees’ perceptions and experiences across two functionally diverse business units, reflecting their different needs and concerns.

Corporate real estate management (CREM) is complex due to an increasing number of real estate (RE) added values and the tensions between them. RE managers are faced with trade-offs: to choose a higher performance for one added value at the cost of another. CREM research mainly deals with trade-offs in a hypothetical sense, without looking at the characteristics of the RE portfolio nor the specific context in which trade-offs are made. The purpose of this paper is to further develop the concept of real estate value (REV) optimisation with regard to tensions between decreasing CO₂ emissions and supporting user activities.

Mixed method study. REV optimisation between user activities and energy efficiency for police stations in the Netherlands built between 2000 and 2020 is analysed. This is complemented by interviews with an RE manager and senior user of police stations and analysis of policy documents.

The characteristics of the police station portfolio indicate no correlation between user activities and energy efficiency for the case studied. This is complemented by interviews, from which it becomes clear that there was in fact little tension between supporting user activities and energy efficiency. The performances of these two different added values were optimised separately.

This study combines different scales (building and portfolio level) with different types of data: portfolio analysis, document analysis and interviews. This creates a comprehensive image of whether and how the Netherlands police optimised the two RE values.

This paper aims to explore the impact of COVID-19 on office space in Johannesburg. This study further explores the role of changing work practices in the office sector in South Africa because of the pandemic and its impact on future office space use planning and management.

To understand the footprints that the COVID-19 pandemic has left on the office space market in Johannesburg, this study uses semi-structured interviews, which were administered to corporate office users, and a thematic analysis was adopted to understand the views, perspectives and expectations of office users.

The study showed that space users perceive COVID-19-induced remote working as having benefits, opportunities and challenges. A notable shift in office space utilization has emerged, with employees increasingly opting for roles that permit remote work. This newfound flexibility, accommodating both on-site and remote work, often makes working from home more appealing than traditional office environments that may no longer align with users’ preferences for office spaces.

The study is limited to Johannesburg, South Africa, and may not apply to other African markets. Ten in-depth interviews were conducted, and analysis and results were deduced; this may be considered a limitation of this study.

The pandemic’s impact has brought about irreversible changes, compelling policymakers and business leaders to strategize and prepare. This proactive stance aims to prevent avoidable challenges for employees and companies during future pandemics. A thoughtful approach to the post-pandemic world can usher positive changes in the office and property sector. This includes the coexistence of both remote work and on-site working models.

This paper provides valuable insight into some of the outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa that are essential for future office space use planning and management. The insights from this study extend the literature and provide novel knowledge based on an office sector in the “global south.”

Positive experiences with working from home (WFH) during the Corona pandemic (COVID-19) have motivated many employees to continue WFH after the pandemic. However, factors influencing employees' WFH intentions against the backdrop of experiences during pandemic-induced enforced working from home (EWFH) are heterogeneous. This study investigates factors linked to information technology (IT) professionals' WFH intentions.

This mixed-methods study with 92 IT professionals examines the effects of seven predictors for IT professionals' WFH intentions. The predictors are categorized according to the trichotomy of (1) characteristics of the worker, (2) characteristics of the workspace and (3) the work context. Structural equation modeling is used to analyze the quantitative survey data. In addition, IT professionals' responses to six open questions in which they reflect on past experiences and envision future work are examined.

Quantitative results suggest that characteristics of the worker, such as segmentation preference, are influencing WFH intentions stronger than characteristics of the workspace or the work context. Furthermore, perceived productivity during EWFH and gender significantly predict WFH intentions. Contextualizing these quantitative insights, the qualitative data provides a rich yet heterogeneous list of factors why IT professionals prefer (not) to work from home.

Reasons influencing WFH intentions vary due to individual preferences and constraints. Therefore, a differentiated organizational approach is recommended for designing future work arrangements. In addition, the findings suggest that team contracts to formalize working patterns, e.g. to agree on the needed number of physical meetings, can be helpful levers to reduce the complexity of future work that is most likely a mix of WFH and office arrangements.

This study extends literature reflecting on COVID-19-induced changes, specifically the emerging debate about why employees want to continue WFH. It is crucial for researchers and practitioners to understand which factors influence IT professionals' WFH intentions and how they impact the design and implementation of future hybrid work arrangements.