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The purpose of this paper is to determine the effects of environmental factors in open-plan offices with the same characteristics but with different workstation partition heights (1.10, 1.40 and 1.65 m) on perceptual evaluations of office employees.

In this research, the effects of environmental factors on employees’ perceptual evaluations in open-plan offices at the Gölbaşı Region of Ankara were measured with a detailed questionnaire. The research data were obtained from 81 employees who agreed to fill out the questionnaire and who use open-plan offices.

It was found that the office environments with 1.65 m workstation partition heights were more favorably assessed for each of the items of planning and of privacy that form the dependent variables compared to the office environments with 1.10  and 1.40 m partition heights. On the other hand, the office environments with the 1.10 and 1.40 m partition heights were more favorable for lighting items than the 1.65 m partition height office environments. In addition, young employees had a more positive tendency toward the perceptions of environmental factors, including different workstation partition heights in open-plan offices, compared to older employees.

Results of this research provide a fundamental contribution for the impact of various partition heights that have substantial implications on the perceptions of open-plan office environments. At this point, as open-plan offices have important effects on the quality of employees’ work experiences, the influence of various partition heights on the performance of employees should be emphasized in future studies. The diversity of performance (reading comprehension, calculation, design, drawing, etc.) will be an important decision.

The significant contribution of this research is that it provides valid data and makes a valuable contribution to the body of knowledge in open-plan office design.

The aim of this paper is to examine the relationships between open‐plan measures and the effectiveness of facilities space management. A review of the literature reveals that the relationships have remained largely unsubstantiated empirically. Hence, where emphasis should be in practice, is virtually unknown. A sample of 25 randomly selected open‐plan workplaces was studied and the results were analysed using Spearman’s Rho correlation. Three measures were found to have significant influence in facilities space management: designed capacity by number of staff, flexibility in terms of workstations mobility and density by number of staff per workstation. There was found to be no significant correlation between open‐plan measures and space effectiveness. However, a better appreciation of open‐plan measures in facilities space management, will indirectly influence space effectiveness. The implications of the results are that facilities space managers should systematically evaluate alternative measures and give greater attention to particular aspects of open‐plan.

Research on the physical work environment and employee territorial behavior in the field of organizational behavior is limited. In particular, while the prevalence of territorial behaviors in organizations is not new, little is known about how the physical work environment (e.g. open-plan offices) may influence the enactment, interpretation and reactions to territoriality. The purpose of this paper is to explore the connection between the physical environment of work (e.g. open-plan office), employee territorial behaviors (including infringement) and affective environment.

Data were collected by means of in-depth-interviews from 27 participants from two large Australian public organizations involved in recruitment, marketing, consulting and education.

Results revealed that employees’ personalization in the open-plan office is driven by the nature of their tasks, appointment, duration of time spent on their desk, level of adaptation to the open-plan office configurations and the proximity of desks to senior managers, hallways and passers-by. Additionally, affective environment has a critical effect on employee personalization and the enactment and perception of territoriality and infringements in open-plan offices. Additionally, the authors found that the affective environment is dynamic and that employees in open-plan offices experienced emotional contagion (positive and negative).

Due to the demographic make-up of one of the participating organizations, less than a third of participants were male. While the data did not suggest any disparity in the territorial behaviors of male and female, future research should include an even representation of male and female participants. Similarly, the authors did not examine the impact of ethnicity and cultural background on employees’ territoriality. However, given that the workforce is increasingly becoming multicultural, future research should explore how ethnicity might impact the use of space, work processes and productivity in open-plan office. Additionally, scholars should continue to tease out the impact of affective environment (positive and negative) on team processes (e.g. conflict, communication, collaboration and the development of team mental models) in the open-plan office.

The results indicate some practical implications. Noise and distraction are indicated in the results. Therefore, human resource managers and organizational leaders should work with employees to develop some ground rules and norms to curb excessive noise in the open-plan office. Additionally, the authors found in the current study that the affective environment is dynamic and that employees in open-plan offices experienced emotional contagion (positive and negative). Managers should watch out for how individuals react to the prevailing emotions and moods in the open-plan office with the intention of diffusing negative emotions as quickly as possible, for example, by changing the topic under discussion in the open-plan office. The results speak to the need for more active collaboration and engagement between policy makers, workspace architects, designers and employees especially prior to the building of such workspaces.

The results suggest that effective employee interactions in open-plan office may be enhanced by positive emotional contagion and office affective environment.

So far, little is known about the impact of the physical work context (e.g. open-plan offices) on the enactment, interpretation and reactions to territoriality. The current paper explores the connection between the physical environment of work (e.g. open-plan office), employee territorial behaviors (including infringement) and affective environment. The findings demonstrate for the first time and especially in an open-plan office that ownership and personalization of objects and workspaces are more likely to be driven by the amount of time spent at one’s desk, the nature of employees’ appointments and tasks. Additionally, the present research is one of the first to report on affective environment dynamism in the open-plan office.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the effect coefficients of the complex connections between selected open‐plan office and effective facilities space management variables.

Data on offices, management control and effective facilities space management measures were collected through questionnaires administered to 102 facilities space managers of 102 randomly selected open‐plan offices in Sydney.

Some open‐plan attributes were found to have direct impacts on several effective facilities space management variables, while others exhibited indirect effects through management control aspects. In most cases, management control considerably reduced the effect coefficients.

While the study is limited to discrete effective facilities space management aspects of only selected open‐plan commercial offices in Sydney, the research implications though far‐reaching, may not be universally applicable. However, a better understanding of the associations provides directions to where attention would be fruitfully focused in future research replications and practice.

The practical implication of this result is for re‐engineering of work environments to consider aspects of management that invariably moderates and/or intervenes in the relationship of space, people and work process. This paper concludes that, with dedicated management control, the impact of open‐plan on facilities space management may be less extensive.

The paper's utilization of this quantitative approach is novel to understanding the connections between office attributes and effective facilities management. This approach offers a veritable alternative to examining and validating these constructs that are useful to space providers, designers, managers and users in understanding the interactions between space, people and process.

Presented is a path analysis of causal connections between several open‐plan attributes and discrete effective facilities space management aspects of commercial offices in Sydney. The aim is to use quantitative estimates to demonstrate in structural equations the effect coefficients of the complex connections between selected open‐plan and effective facilities space management variables. Over one hundred open‐plan offices in the Sydney CBD were examined. Some open‐plan attributes were found to have direct impacts on several effective facilities space management variables, while others exhibited indirect effects through management control aspects. In most cases, management control reduced the effect coefficients. This paper concludes that, with dedicated management control, the impact of open‐plan on facilities space management may be less extensive. The implication of this result is for re‐engineering of work environments to consider aspects of management that invariably moderates and/or intervenes in the relationship of space, people and work process.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how the youngest generation at work perceives problems that are linked to open‐plan offices. They are the future users of the work environments and thus it is important to understand how they perceive different office solutions. The paper looks at one specific type of job and one group of office employees: generation Y – those born in the 1980s and early 1990s – working in a contact centre environment.

The research was carried out as a case study. In total, 20 thematic interviews were conducted among the representatives of generation Y from three different sites of one big Finnish telecommunications company. The themes of the interviews were outlined by a thorough literature review concerning problems that are often linked to open office solutions.

The findings suggest that in this case, the generation Y employees in fact liked their open‐plan office. They acknowledged most of the issues or “problems” that the literature suggests, but they did not necessarily see these purely in a negative way. Instead, they often perceived these issues as fair trade‐offs for some greater good. This result supports the idea that open‐plan offices are complex and interrelated systems where all parts affect the others.

The main limitation of this research is the small sample size. The results cannot be generalized to all young office employees; rather, they are intended to give a first in‐depth insight into the experiences of one specific group of users in the complex interrelated open‐plan office system.

The paper's findings add to the understanding about how generation Y perceives their work environment. The research also highlights a limitation in earlier open‐plan offices and suggests that future research needs to take a broader perspective on this complex system.

The purpose of this paper is to help firms establish successful technology planning processes in the context of open innovation.

Although some pioneering firms realise enormous benefits from outward technology transfer, many others experience major difficulties in managing external technology exploitation. To overcome these managerial challenges, firms need to establish strategic technology planning processes, which takes into account the increasing importance of external technology commercialisation. Therefore, this paper conceptually explores strategic technology planning in open innovation systems.

After detailing the characteristics of external technology exploitation, two instruments that may help firms incorporate external technology exploitation in strategic technology planning are developed. First, the concept of product‐technology roadmaps is extended to include external technology exploitation. Second, the functional market concept is transferred from the level of product markets to the level of technology markets.

In many industries, external technology commercialisation is critical to gain and sustain a competitive advantage. Opening up strategic technology planning therefore contributes to firm performance in a knowledge‐based economy. As a result, this paper has major implications for research into strategic planning, technology management and open innovation.