Explore the vast range of titles available.

Activity-based Flexible Offices (AFOs) provide employees with a variety of workspaces to choose from based on their tasks, rather than having assigned desks. While the adoption of AFOs is increasing due to flexibility and cost-efficiency, there is limited research about the consequences of transitioning to AFOs from the perspective of staff managers. The purpose of this study is to explore how managers experience and cope with challenges that may arise in AFOs. Our qualitative descriptive study is based on two case studies that investigate the consequences of AFOs. Data collection involved semi-structured interviews with a total of 33 managers in two organisations, 12–18 months post-relocation. An inductive, bottom-up process was used for coding and thematization of the interview transcripts. Our results show that AFOs can enhance communication and collaboration depending on the units’ collaboration needs and prior geographical distribution. However, this effect was overshadowed by task-environment misalignments on within-team communication, distractions, and limitations on adjustments and recruitments. Additionally, managers faced conflicting loyalties between defending the organisation’s decision to implement AFOs while ensuring compliance with legal work environment requirements despite limited resources. There is a risk that the implementation of flexible offices will fragment and complicate managers’ tasks, such as ensuring that daily operations run smoothly, meeting legal responsibilities, and managing and recruiting staff. This poses a risk to managers’ productivity and health, and consequently, the achievement of organisational goals. The study uncovers managerial experiences, challenges, and coping strategies in AFOs, offering valuable insights for organisations considering this office type.

Background Hybrid work has become a prevalent work model, referring to the combination of office and remote work. Previous studies have found that hybrid work arrangements may positively affect psychosocial factors such as job satisfaction, work-life balance, and retention. However, hybrid work has also been observed to blur the boundaries between work and private life and increase work-family conflict, and more knowledge is needed on how hybrid work influences the psychosocial work environment from a longitudinal perspective. This study aimed to investigate the impact of the transition to hybrid work on the work experience, and to determine how personal and occupational factors, such as age, sex, managerial position, number of children living at home, work tasks, autonomy, and time spent working at the office, influenced the change in work experience. Methods To explore differences in the Work Experience Measurement Scale (WEMS), longitudinal questionnaire data ( n  = 148) from white-collar workers in a medium-sized Swedish municipality were analyzed. Data collection took place in 2017 before COVID-19 and 2023, 1.5 years after national work-from-home restrictions were lifted. Univariate linear regression was used to determine how the different factors affected the change in work experience. Results The mean age of the study population was 50.1 years at the time of the second data collection in 2023. The study populations’ WEMS scores significantly improved over time, both on the total scale and specifically within the dimensions supportive working conditions, time experience, autonomy, and leadership. The main factor that influenced the work experience was sex, where women’s work experience improved significantly over time, whereas men’s work experience did not. Conclusion This study contributes a longitudinal perspective on hybrid work and its impact on the psychosocial work environment. While the findings of this study align with previous research in relation to improvement of, for example, job satisfaction, the study also reveals sex differences previously not seen in a hybrid work context.

In manufacturing companies, cognitive processing is required from assembly workers to perform correct and timely assembly of complex products, often with varied specifications and high quality demands. This paper explores assembly operators’ perceptions of cognitive/mental workload to provide a holistic understanding of the work conditions that affect cognitive demands and performance. While the physical loading aspects of assembly work are well known, most empirical literature dealing with cognitive/mental loading in manufacturing tends to examine a few particular aspects, rather than address the issue with a holistic system view. This semi-structured interview study, involving 50 industrial assembly operators from three Swedish companies, explores how assemblers perceive that their cognitive performance and well-being is influenced by a wide variety of factors within the context of mechanical product assembly. The interview transcripts were analysed using a priori coding, followed by bottom-up Thematic Analysis. The results indicate that a variety of systemic effects on assemblers’ cognitive performance can be classified as job demands or resources. Quite often, the absence of a resource mirrors a related demand, and “good assembly conditions”, as described by the interviewees, often re-frame demands as desirable challenges that foster motivation and positive feelings towards the work. The identified demands and resources stem from task design, timing, physical loading, intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, social teamwork and the product’s “interface” design. Despite organisational differences and conditions between the three companies that took part in the study, the results are largely consistent.

The widespread adoption of remote and hybrid work due to COVID-19 calls for studies that explore the ramifications of these scenarios for office workers from an occupational health and wellbeing perspective. This paper aims to identify the needs and challenges in remote and hybrid work and the potential for a sustainable future work environment. Data collection involved two qualitative studies with a total of 53 participants, who represented employees, staff managers, and service/facility providers at three Swedish public service organisations (primarily healthcare and infrastructure administration). The results describe opportunities and challenges with the adoption of remote and hybrid work from individual, group, and leadership perspectives. The main benefits of remote work were increased flexibility, autonomy, work-life balance and individual performance, while major challenges were social aspects such as lost comradery and isolation. Hybrid work was perceived to provide the best of both worlds of remote and office work, given that employees and managers develop new skills and competencies to adjust to new ways of working. To achieve the expected individual and organisational benefits of hybrid work, employers are expected to provide support and flexibility and re-design the physical and digital workplaces to fit the new and diverse needs of employees.

Purpose Drawing on a user-centred design perspective, the purpose of this paper is to (i) provide an overview of three contextual user research methods, namely, spatial walkthroughs, experience curve mapping and card sorting, (ii) exemplify their applications in different case studies and (iii) compare the methods according to their contributions for the study of users’ workplace experiences. Previous workplace studies with qualitative approaches mainly rely on methods such as interviews and observations. Although these methods provide rich data, the understanding of office users, their use situations and finding more fitting workplace designs can benefit from deeper user experience insights. Design/methodology/approach Three methods and their variants were tested in studies of user experience in flexible offices: spatial walkthroughs, experience curve mapping and card sorting. The methods were tested during workshops and interviews in four case studies with a total of 114 participants. Findings Spatial walkthroughs were more immersive and provided the most insights on the actual context with respect to spatial design qualities, while experience curve mapping enabled understanding the temporal aspects of the user experience and card sorting enabled exploring user experiences with respect to predetermined spatial qualities and contextual aspects. Originality/value Spatial walkthroughs, experience curve mapping and card sorting methods have not previously been applied in workplace studies. They facilitate dialogue, participation and user involvement and provide insights for making evidence-based recommendations for designing or redesigning office environments that fit users’ needs and preferences.

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate employee well-being in relation to office landscapes in a post-relocation context. The aims are to identify spatial attributes of the office landscape that influence employee well-being and underlying contextual factors that explain employee well-being post-relocation.Design/methodology/approachA mixed-method approach was adopted. The data collection involved 16 semi-structured interviews with employees, an interview with the leading architect of the office renovation, study of a dossier on the renovation project and observations.FindingsMost of the informants experienced the new office landscape positively despite few shortcomings. Spatial attributes were identified that influenced the informants’ well-being positively in terms of affects, satisfaction, social relations and environmental mastery. Conversely, negative influences on well-being were also reported regarding affects, satisfaction and environmental mastery. Conflicting views on some of the spatial attributes and contextual factors related to the planning process and the former office landscape were identified.Originality/valueThe value of this paper lies in investigating the office landscape at the spatial attributes level, despite office type, and their influence on hedonic and eudaimonic components of employee well-being. The research approach adopted proved its usefulness for in-depth studies of the interrelations between office landscapes and employee well-being.

It is of vital importance to explore and understand future users' needs and requirements in the early phases of the product development process. However, in times of social distancing meeting users might not be possible. The project reported on in this paper has investigated the possibilities of conducting advanced user studies online. In total 30 small experimental studies have been conducted. Common digital tools that were used were e.g. Zoom, Teams, Mural, Miro, Snapchat, and Instagram. The data was analyzed in a thematic content analysis by the authors on Mural. Identified challenges were excluding not tech-savvy user groups, missing out on interpersonal interaction and observations, as well as difficulties creating participant commitment and trust. On the positive side were perceived efficiency, a more levelled power distribution between participants, and ease of engagement and data retrieval for tech-savvy users. Identified best practices included lowering social barriers through warm up activities and techniques to support open discussion during workshops. Furthermore, engagement could be supported through private social media groups, regular reminders, as well as clear communication of purpose and goal of the activities.

In recent years, there has been growing interest in collaborative consumption of office environments and thereby implementation of Activity-based Flexible Offices (A-FOs). Relocating to an A-FO introduces a desk-sharing policy as well as a multitude of new workspaces with different speech policies into the employee’s work context. This paper describes how employees appropriate desk-sharing and speech policies in an A-FO. The data were collected over a period of 6 months in a case organization by means of 18 shadowing sessions. The different ways in which employees appropriated the A-FO solution were (i) adopting, experimenting with, or rejecting the desk-sharing policy, and (ii) modes of interaction arising from spatial configuration and redefining speech policies. The discussion outlines the reasons behind appropriation or nonappropriation of the desk-sharing and emergent speech policies. The insights from this study provide support for organizations considering A-FOs to develop strategies for facilitating individuals’ work in these settings.

The overarching purpose of this thesis is to develop further knowledge of the consequences of relocating to Activity-based Flexible Offices (AFOs). As workspace design innovations, AFOs are increasingly implemented in organisations. AFOs comprise a variety of workspaces for employees to choose from depending on their preferences or activities. Workspaces in AFOs are shared, instead of every employee having their own desk. Research results are inconsistent regarding employee satisfaction with AFOs, and research into employees’ appropriation of AFOs and organisations’ processes of adopting AFOs is sparse. In response to these knowledge gaps, the thesis aims to explain why some AFOs work while others do not. The thesis builds on five case studies: (i) three cases with recently implemented AFOs, and (ii) two cases with AFOs implemented at least two years prior to the study. Data collection in all the case studies involved semi-structured interviews with employees and facility managers, observations and collection of secondary data such as process overviews, and layout drawings. For data collection and analysis, a theoretical framework was developed and used consisting of Activity Theory, artefact ecology, as well as theories of innovation adoption and appropriation. The findings show that individuals’ usage of AFOs varies considerably due to personal circumstances and work-related preconditions. Drawing on Activity Theory, three types of matches/mismatches were identified in employees’ activity systems: Employee ↔ AFO, Activity ↔ AFO, and Employee ↔ Activity. Furthermore, individuals’ usage preferences and non-preferences highlighted sub-optimal design features in the AFOs: (a) ambiguity and insufficient communication of rules; (b) undesirable ambient features; (c) exposure to stimuli; (d) difficult to interpret workspaces; and (e) dysfunctionality and insufficiency of the collective instruments. In summary, AFOs work in the absence of mismatches related to individuals’ personal and work-related preconditions and sub-optimal design features. The employees’ processes of appropriating AFOs involved first encounters, exploration, and stable phases, during which various types of adaptations occurred: (i) on an individual level: acquired insights, and behavioural, social and hedonic adaptations, as well as (ii) in the AFO solutions: rule-related, spatial and instrument adaptations. Furthermore, the AFO adoption process in organisations varied considerably. Procedural shortcomings during the planning process led to a limited understanding of AFO users and thus the sub-optimal AFO designs, while shortcomings during the routinising stage involved restrictions on making post-relocation improvements in AFOs and inadequate Occupational Health & Safety management. To conclude, AFOs work provided (i) they match individuals’ personal circumstances and work-related preconditions; (ii) they facilitate flexibility and shared use of spaces through well-designed rules, workspaces and instruments; (iii) individuals’ appropriation processes reach a stable phase where mismatches are resolved and fruitful symbiosis is achieved in their activity systems; and (iv) the organisations’ process of adopting AFOs is successful both during the planning and the post-relocation routinising stages, leading to a collective sense of ownership among employees.

When proposing ideas for design solutions, designers often make representations, for example sketches and models of different kinds. This thesis seeks to examine what designers do when interacting with different media to externalise their ideas, and the resources they have at their disposal. In two studies, students and experienced design practitioners were asked to describe their working processes. The first study made use of weekly design diaries of 11 masters students, collected during a seven-week project course. Furthermore, semi-structured interviews were held with 11 practitioners regarding the process of creating their latest award winning products. They discussed what they were able to achieve and how the media and representations they used enabled them to do so. The findings of these studies highlight (i) the roles of sketching, and physical and digital modelling for ideation in individual designer’s work, and (ii) some prominent qualities of media and representations that support designers during these activities, for example the extent to which they are malleable, accurate, or fixed.By providing a taxonomy for classifying various media and design representations, these findings expand on previous conceptions about sketching and modelling. An increased understanding of how ideas emerge and are materialised in the early phases of a design process, can provide opportunities for facilitating and stimulating the act of creation.