Activity-based working: Qualitative analysis of working conditions and health-related outcomes

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

BACKGROUND: The changing of work, driven by digitization, leads to the demand of large, open spaces in which the employees can work alone or in teams, can hold meetings or even find corners to relax. OBJECTIVE: This study empirically analyzed job demands and resources that can be found in innovative office concepts, like so called 'activity-based working concepts'. METHODS: 16 semi-structured face-to-face interviews were performed with employees working in activity-based offices. Content of the interviews included questions on their working conditions and health-related outcomes. RESULTS: The results show that work autonomy, the flexibility to decide where and when to work, and an improved communication and collaboration between different departments had a perceived positive effect on well-being, performance and motivation. Job demands, like missing territoriality on individual and team level, limited privacy and distractions in form of noise and interruptions describe consequences in form of perceived strain. CONCLUSION: The study results contribute to the expansion of knowledge in the subject area of flexible work arrangements in open work spaces. They can serve to design future working environments and thus increase the well-being and job performance of employees. It needs additional research to investigate the effects of office designs on the health of employees in the long term.

Original languageEnglish
JournalWork
Volume67
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)625-639
Number of pages15
ISSN1051-9815
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.12.2020

    Research areas

  • Health sciences - flexibility, health, office concept, organization, working conditions

DOI

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Researching Interrelations of formal and informal Learning in early Adolescence form a Critical Race Perspective
  2. Reference wages and turnover intentions
  3. Technology-centred learning processes as digital artistic development
  4. The Integration of Wheelchair Users in Team Handball
  5. Injection of CO2 for the inhibition of scaling in ATES systems
  6. The dynamics of prioritizing
  7. Telecoupling as a framework to support a more nuanced understanding of causality in land system science
  8. Complexity Measures of Traffic Scenarios
  9. Comprehension of climate change and environmental attitudes across the lifespan
  10. Crack propagation in as-extruded and heat-treated mg-dy-nd-zn-zr alloy explained by the effect of lpso structures and their micro-and nanohardness
  11. Out of the box
  12. Correction to
  13. Dimensions of digital transformation in the context of modern agriculture
  14. Achieving consumer trust on Twitter via CSR communication
  15. Vibration Converter with Passive Energy Management for Battery‐Less Wireless Sensor Nodes in Predictive Maintenance
  16. Conception and analysis of Cascaded Dual Kalman Filters as virtual sensors for mastication activity of stomatognathic craniomandibular system
  17. Effects of season and man-made changes on baseflow and flow recession
  18. Tripartite networks show that keystone species can multitask
  19. Representation of Integration Profiles Using an Ontology
  20. Towards Ecosystems for Responsible AI
  21. Formative assessment in mathematics
  22. Learner pragmatics at the discourse level: Staying “on topic” in a telecollaborative eTandem task
  23. Who’s afraid of the senses? Organization, management and the return of the sensorium
  24. Implementation of EU labour law directives by way of national collective agreements
  25. Fallstudie
  26. Inclusive conservation and the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework
  27. A Critical Evaluation of Network Approaches for Studying Species Interactions
  28. Skills and knowledge management in higher education
  29. Timing and fragmentation of daily working hours arrangements and income inequality
  30. Tentative Theses on Transformative Research in Real-World Laboratories
  31. Balancing the Boundary
  32. Future-proofing ecosystem restoration through enhancing adaptive capacity
  33. Microstructure, mechanical properties and fracture behaviors of large-scale sand-cast Mg-3Y-2Gd-1Nd-0.4Zr alloy
  34. Ecology: Mammals, interaction networks and the relevance of scale
  35. Operationalising the leverage points perspective for empirical research