An exploratory study on the influence of ABW office design features on employee perception of organizational culture

Abstract

This qualitative study sets out to explore how three office design features, that are typically found in activity-based working (ABW) environments, influence employees’ perception of organizational culture. Overall, little is known about how design features of new office concepts, such as ABW, reflect and reinforce an intended hierarchy-flat organisational culture. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight participants of different organisations who moved to an ABW environment with the intend to foster a hierarchy-flat clan-culture. The transcripts were subjected to thematic analysis with a semi-deductive approach. Results on how design features were perceived to influence organisational culture were categorised into functional and associative mechanisms. Majority of previously found functional and associative influences for each of the three design features were validated; influences on clan-culture indicators such as communication, collaboration, relationships, group cohesion, and collegial leadership style were demonstrated. Particularly sub-themes such as dynamic atmosphere, focused information flow, openness attitude and organisational identification were found or newly identified Transcending themes, which add to an in-depth evaluation of functional and associative influences include accessibility, serendipity, psychological distance and territoriality. Findings suggest that perceptions of office design features are associated with employees’ perceptions of the organizational culture and employee attitudes in complex ways; office design appears to be useful to support organisational culture and to reflect culture principles in spatial form.