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A visual based group decision‐making process used for office layout finalisation is described. While quantitative and computer based models can be used for planning alternative layout plans, considerations of qualitative and personal factors should be given during the layout finalisation phase. The visual evaluation of detailed architectural drawings of alternative layout plans, by a group of the office employees, can result in generating ideas for modifications. These modifications are incorporated in a new plan, which is sketched by a professional office planner. The process of evaluating a sketch for the office plan, generating‐ideas for modifications, analysing the ideas and re‐sketching the office plan results in an effective office layout. This can increase employee morale and productivity. The visual based group decision‐making process was successfully used for layout finalisation of a large engineering office. A detailed description of this case study is given.

Office layout arrangements have a significant influence on many important aspects of organisations, and design firms need to liaise with the client to determine the most appropriate design process. The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors design firms consider when designing new office layouts and the nature of future offices from the design and workplace strategist firms’ perspectives.

A qualitative study comprising interviews with leading international and nation design firms and workplace strategy consultant firms in Australia. Qualitative data was analysed using a thematic approach, which adopted within case, and across case, analyses.

Research identified major factors considered when identifying appropriate workplace strategies. These included the existing and preferred culture of the organisation, the level of flexibility required, functionality and technology requirements, acoustic strategies, sense of community and generation gap between employees. Participants believed future offices would be technology driven, community oriented, sustainability, health and well-being focussed, smaller in size with satellite offices, such as co-working and office spaces.

This research has implications for industry and academics, as it provides an in-depth understanding of workplace specialists’ and design firms’ perceptions of clients’ contemporary and future requirements from office spaces. It also illustrates what they look at when designing office spaces for large corporates.

Research demonstrates how the office environment should match with the physical and psychological needs of the organisation and its employees. Findings have practical applications to professionals in human resource management and the design, management, development and valuation of office buildings.

This paper provides in-depth insights into how design firms and workplace strategists meet organisations’ changing demand for physical spaces, their main considerations in developing new workplace strategies, process followed and nature of future workplace in Australian context.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an applicable solution to help organizations to solve the problem of participation vs privacy in office buildings.

A theoretical model is proposed based on research claims that employees' participation motivated by three issues simultaneously is likely to shape the ideal overall participation map in office layouts. These are organizational, physical planning, and personal characteristics issues. The model was applied to a case study and results were compared with employees' reaction.

Once the model was applied, results revealed misallocation of 63 per cent of staff in their workspaces. Results support employees' reaction towards their dissatisfaction with the level of participation vs privacy they possess in their workspaces.

Each organization could have a different participation map due to variations in organizational and personal characteristics issues. Further research is needed to understand relationships among the three incorporated issues.

The proposed model could be easily applied and would provide organizations with ideal office layouts that would support productivity.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact office layout has on office occupiers' productivity.

The paper evaluates the literature that claims to make a linkage between the office layout and the effect on office occupiers' productivity. Two main themes are developed. First, the literature that links office layout to work patterns is evaluated, and second, the open‐plan office vs cellular office debate is developed.

The review of the literature reveals that the connection between the three major components of office layout, office occupiers' work patterns and productivity is not clearly established.

The paper establishes that there is a requirement to link together office layout to the work patterns of office occupiers. It is only when the connection is made between the office layout and the office occupiers' work patterns that productivity gains can be achieved. To support the different work patterns undertaken, the facilities manager can create office environments that consist of a balance between private space and communal shared space. The amount of balance will be very much dependent on the mix of the work patterns in the office.

Open-plan office environments are considered to offer workplace productivity benefits because of the opportunities that they create for interaction and knowledge exchange, but more recent research has highlighted noise, distraction and loss of privacy as significant productivity penalties with this office layout. This study aims to investigate if the purported productivity benefits of open plan outweigh the potential productivity penalties.

Previous research suggests that office environments are experienced differently according to the gender and age of the occupier across both open-plan and enclosed configurations. Empirical research undertaken with office occupiers in the Middle East (N = 220) led to evaluations to establish the impact different offices had on perceived productivity. Factor analysis was used to establish five underlying components of office productivity. The five factors are subsequently used as the basis for comparison between office occupiers based on age, gender and office type.

This research shows that benefits and penalties to workplace productivity are experienced equally across open-plan and enclosed office environments. The greatest impact on perceived workplace productivity however was availability of a variety of physical layouts, control over interaction and the “downtime” offered by social interaction points. Male occupiers and those from younger generations were also found to consider the office environment to have more of a negative impact on their perceived workplace productivity compared to female and older occupiers.

The originality of this paper is that it develops the concept of profiling office occupiers with the aim of better matching office provision. This paper aims to establish different occupier profiles based on age, gender and office type. Data analysis techniques such as factor analysis and t-test analysis identify the need for different spaces so that occupiers can choose the most appropriate space to best undertake a particular work task. In addition, it emphasises the value that occupiers place on “downtime” leading to the need for appropriate social space.

This paper aims to focus on determining the effects of location of closed offices on the front facade, rear facade and side facade plans and the indoor layout (left and right users’ cabinets) on perceptual evaluations of users of physical environmental factors.

For this purpose, the responses of 54 academic users who use the Gazi University Technology Faculty Taskent Building offices were taken with the help of a survey.

As a result, it was determined that office users on the front and side facades generally perceived more positively the offices’ environmental factors than office users on the back facade. In addition, it was determined that offices with storage cabinets located to the right of users (Type A) were perceived more positively than storage cabinets located to the left of users (Type B). On the other hand, it was determined that users between the ages of 25–45 who used closed offices generally perceived the physical environmental factors of offices more positively than users between the ages of 46 and 65.

Especially the location of the building, the landscaping, the plan of the rooms and the landscape to which they are directed are major design decisions that cannot be controlled by employees. Therefore, it is necessary to know the positive/negative effects that may occur during use before making design decisions.

The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of an office canteen layout on operations, specifically on customer behaviour before checkout, waiting times, and congestion.

The current study was made in the context of discovery and exemplification. The sample was not randomly obtained: the method of recruitment was purposive and convenient. Two Dutch office canteens were selected based on their motivation to participate in the study. A small exploratory study aiming to report on current practices and to inform on possibilities for future research and intervention. With direct observations the behaviour, waiting times, and congestion of 47 customers were analyzed. Customer behaviour was reported qualitatively, waiting times and congestion were reported quantitatively.

Canteens where customers can move freely before checkout queue, allow them to move away from congestion towards food products and to have more favourable waiting times than customers in canteens with layouts requiring a strict order and line‐up for self‐service and checkout.

The results contribute to the managerial repertoire of facilities managers by illuminating latent positive influences of facility layout on operations, which can stimulate the design of better facilities.

This paper contributes to the understanding of how facilities are interwoven with operations. It also informs on possibilities for future research in this area, for instance, combining approaches that originate from facilities management and operations management. This may lead to future research to recommend specific designs or behaviour‐inducing layouts for increased operational enhancements.

The aim of this paper is to provide a validated theoretical framework for the measurement of office productivity.

The study's strength is that it is based on two sizable data sets. The data collected consists of data about the physical characteristics of the office environment and data pertaining to the behavioural environment.

One of the key contributions of this study was the development of the components of office productivity, which were: comfort, office layout, informal interaction points, environmental services, designated areas, interaction and distraction. The components were reduced to four in preparation for subsequent analysis. The four distinct components were comfort, office layout, interaction and distraction.

This study establishes that it is the behavioural environment that has the greatest impact on office productivity. It demonstrates that it is the dynamic elements of the office environment, interaction and distraction that are perceived as having the greatest positive and negative influences on self assessed productivity.

Examines the application of work study methods to the efficiency of office workers. Discusses the basic Select, Record, Examine, Develop, Install, Maintain procedure of method study as well as forms design and control, office layout and quality control in the office. Concludes that recent initiatives such as TQM have highlighted the importance of every station of a procedure in determining product quality.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship of software company culture and core values and project management methodologies on the demand for corporate real estate (CRE), impacting decisions regarding location, square footage, office design and amenities.

A researcher-administered survey was designed with the assistance of a purposive sample of brokers, architects and interior designers to elicit responses from the CRE officers in software companies at four stages of growth, from small, entrepreneurial startups to large, publicly traded software companies, located in the same metropolitan area of the USA. Quantitative responses are summarized with traditional statistics and data visualizations. Linguistic analysis, including sentiment analysis and keyword relevance, was performed on the unstructured, English text responses.

Differences exist in the office layouts, amenities and locations across the four software company size categories studied. Linguistic analysis of company descriptions of office design, culture and core values, and the relationship between the two, provide another way for brokers, investors and other stakeholders to understand company perspectives and communication idioms related to CRE needs. The research was unable to show any differences in any dependent variable based on software project management methodologies due to sampling limitations.

This study is limited by the sample size of the participating software companies based on access to company leadership. Results are not generalizable.

Architects, investors, brokers and lenders may find value in using this study’s approach to better understand the needs of software technology clients. Specifically, stakeholders may find value in examining the linkage from software company size, culture and core values to CRE office layout, amenities and location.

The qualitative findings suggest that software company culture and core values and company size influence the design of the CRE demanded by software companies. Multivariate data visualization was designed to communicate longitudinal CRE data. Linguistic analysis was used to extract the emotional content and relevance scores from company descriptions of office design, company culture and core values and the reported effect of culture and core values on office design. Findings may be beneficial for stakeholders involved in the design, location and future CRE investments, and they suggest the need for future research on a larger sample.