“More than meets the eye”: Unveiling the full potential of creative workspaces in modern organizations

Abstract

Providing adequate workspaces for employees is now considered crucial for organizational innovativeness in light of evidence that the work environment influences creative behavior. It is unsurprising, then, that companies increasingly seek to implement modern workspace designs based on what is often referred to as “New Work” to support employee creativity. However, designing, planning, and implementing a modern and creative workspace is highly complex. Existing studies report the multiplicity and interplay of organizational variables affected by such changes at the level of the individual employee (e.g., creativity), the team (e.g., communication) and the organization (e.g., culture). To explore whether and how organizational changemakers take account of these variables when designing creative workspaces, we interviewed 20 experts from companies that have recently implemented creative workspace designs and asked them about the objectives and consequences of their new workspace designs. On comparing their answers to findings reported in the existing literature, we found that these organizations were not fully aware of the organizational impact of such changes and failed to consider creativity enhancement as an explicit goal. Concluding that much of the potential of modern workspace design remains untapped, we propose avenues for further research.