Conceptualizing social well-being in activity-based offices

Methods and approaches for evaluating occupant satisfaction with office space design: a systematic review

Occupant satisfaction in office spaces is a critical factor influencing occupant's productivity, satisfaction and overall workplace experience. This systematic review examines the methodologies and approaches used to assess occupant satisfaction with office space design, identifying key evaluation tools and research trends. The study explores the extent to which existing methodologies integrate environmental, spatial and design factors to provide a comprehensive understanding of user experience. Additionally, it highlights the limitations in current assessment tools, including the lack of standardised frameworks for capturing occupant feedback at different stages of the design process. The findings suggest a growing shift towards data-driven and real-time feedback mechanisms to enhance workplace adaptability. By synthesising existing research, this review aims to provide insights for designers, facility managers and policymakers to refine evaluation methods and integrate occupant-centric strategies into office space planning.

Analysing the public's beliefs, emotions and sentiments towards Metaverse workplace: A big-data qualitative inquiry

The Metaverse is gaining attention as a potential future workplace, and advancements in VR/AR technologies are set to revolutionise how we work and collaborate. Extensive research using big data is still needed to fully comprehend the public's perception of this emerging field. Grounded in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the Diffusion of Innovations Theory (DIT), and Social Presence Theory (SPT), this study seeks to fill this knowledge gap. Using a methodology that involved machine learning and qualitative analysis of big data, the research gathered comments from social media users on widely viewed YouTube videos discussing the Metaverse workplace. The initial dataset, which contained 6982 comments, underwent thorough cleaning processes, resulting in the analysis of 2804 comments through thematic, emotion, and sentiment analyses. The process of the thematic analysis revealed that out of the total comments, 472 were unclassified, while the remaining 2332 helped structure the public's beliefs about the Metaverse workplace into four overarching themes: 1- benefits of flexibility and accessibility (37 %), highlighting VR's potential to transform workspaces, especially for creative fields and efficient space use; 2- Health concerns (26 %), including eye strain and physical discomfort from prolonged headset use; 3- data privacy and corporate control fears (20 %), reflecting worries over pervasive data collection and potential misuse of power; 4- scepticism over readiness and practicality (17 %), noting visual clarity challenges and ergonomic issues. The overall vibes about working in the Metaverse are mixed. While more than half the sentiments were positive, expressing contentment, curiosity and enthusiasm, there were also concerns about health effects, data privacy, and integration issues. The public recognises Metaverse's potential for remote work, desiring improvements in areas like visual clarity, ergonomics and productivity support before widespread adoption. This study is a pioneering effort in the field, providing a first-of-its-kind structure of the public's beliefs about the Metaverse workplace, drawing upon naturally occurring data. The findings not only contribute to the academic understanding of the Metaverse workplace but also have significant implications for society and practitioners for optimising the positive aspects to enhance overall acceptance in this relatively understudied field.

Interior designers' strategies for creating social office space

The rise of remote working has highlighted the importance of office spaces that support employees' social well-being. However, there is a lack of explicit knowledge on how to design such spaces. In order to address this gap, this study explored the strategies employed by practitioners in designing social office spaces. In-depth interviews with fifteen experienced interior designers were analysed using means-end chain theory. This revealed the designers' common aim to encourage informal social interactions through creating attractive, spacious, recognisable, and spatially integrated breakout spaces. Additionally, communicating group identity, promoting visibility, and offering a cosy atmosphere aimed to foster a sense of connectedness among employees. These findings not only enable more deliberate design decisions but also serve as valuable insights for less experienced designers. Moreover, the framework of design components, affordances and design objectives that emerged from this study can enhance communication between designers and stakeholders involved in office projects.

Social wellbeing profiles: associations with trust in managers and colleagues, job satisfaction, and intention to leave

Introduction

This study aimed to determine latent social wellbeing profiles and investigate differences between the profiles in terms of trust in managers and colleagues, job satisfaction, intention to leave, and demographic variables (age and service years).

Methods

Permanently employed individuals of a South African utility organization participated in the study (N = 403). The Social Well-being Scale, Workplace Trust Survey, Job Satisfaction Scale, and Turnover Intention Scale were administered.

Results

Four social wellbeing profiles were identified: socially disconnected (19.11%), socially challenged (31.27%), socially adequate (22.30%), and socially thriving (27.33%). Individuals in the socially thriving profile were significantly more inclined to experience job satisfaction and had lower intentions to leave than individuals in the other social wellbeing profiles. Two demographic variables, namely, age and service years, were associated with profile membership.

Discussion

This study provided a nuanced understanding of social wellbeing by identifying patterns in which social contribution, social integration, social actualization, social coherence, and social acceptance interacted within individuals in a population, which might otherwise not have been evident. The differing levels of social wellbeing among these profiles have substantial implications for job satisfaction and staff retention.

The Interplay Between Workplace Incivility, Religiosity and Well-Being: Insights from Jordan and the United Arab Emirates

Drawing on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory, this study examines the relationship between workplace incivility and workers' psychological well-being. A related aim is to examine the link between workers' religiosity and their well-being, with workplace incivility moderating this nexus. Data were collected from 247 employees identified from private sectors (in Jordan and the UAE) via online-survey questionnaire. Factor analysis and hierarchical moderated multiple regression models were used to test the hypotheses. Study results show that workers' religiosity is positively and significantly associated with their psychological well-being, while workplace incivility is negatively (but insignificantly) associated with workers' psychological well-being. In addition, and contrary to our expectations and prior studies, our results suggest that workplace incivility strengthens the direct relationship between religiosity and well-being. The mechanism of this intersection may propose that rude and uncivil treatments positively predict self-blame, something that may lead the targets to become more religious to get recovery from different types of incivility and stressful life events. This study highlights the contextual applicability and possible extension of the JD-R theory through extending its model to religiosity and well-being of employees in a diverse cultural context in the Middle East.

First, Be a Good Citizen: Organizational Citizenship Behaviors, Well-Being at Work and the Moderating Role of Leadership Styles

The study investigates the effect of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) on well-being at work. The study further examines the moderating role of people and task-focused leadership styles between OCB on well-being at work. Individual-directed organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBI) and organizational-directed organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBO) will also be analyzed. A quantitative study was conducted and convenient sampling was adopted in selecting respondent workers (n = 200) in different Portuguese organizations. The results show that OCBs positively and significantly influence well-being at work. The strength of individual-directed organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBI) on well-being at work is stronger than that of organization-directed organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBO). Contrary to expectations, the relationship between leadership styles and well-being was not statistically significant, offering possibilities for discussion regarding the central importance usually attributed to leadership in the organizational context. However, leadership styles have a moderating effect between OCB and well-being at work, except when the employee adopts OCBO and the leadership style is people-oriented. The present study is innovative because it positions OCB as an antecedent in the relationship with well-being at work and investigates the moderating role of leadership styles in the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and well-being.

Give Me Five: The Most Important Social Values for Well-Being at Work

Social values are very important for well-being at work. This study investigates which and how social values affect well-being at work and contributes to the growing interest that the issue of quality of life at work has aroused in the areas of human resources management (HRM). Semi-structured interviews were held with 21 active employees of a large Portuguese business group in the environmental sector. The study took place in two parts; first, in December 2018 and then two years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, in January 2022. Theories and concepts emerged from the thematic analysis and the subsequent consideration of the literature and emerging conceptual understanding. This qualitative interview study examines what employees expect from work experience about the behavior of leaders and supervisors as representatives of the formal structure of the organization and the behavior of co-workers as an expression of an ethical and positive work environment. The findings show the five social values most important for employee well-being: respect, trust, equity with no discrimination, help and gratitude. The knowledge of the social values with more impact on employee well-being constitutes very important information for human resource management and for the employees, themselves.

How Does Office Design Support Employees' Health? A Case Study on the Relationships among Employees' Perceptions of the Office Environment, Their Sense of Coherence and Office Design

This study investigated the current design circumstances of an office as well as employees’ perceptions of the office environment in relation to their perceived health, drawing on sense of coherence theory (comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness). Previous studies have related the physical office environment to employee health. However, most studies have focused on alleviating negative effects, while health-promoting potential, including employee sense of coherence, has been overlooked. This study adopted a mixed method case study approach, combining semi-structured interviews with employees, structured observations, and analysis of architectural drawings. The results indicated that employees’ perceptions did not always align with the ideas behind the architectural design and that employees understood the environment differently. The study also highlighted the interrelations (and contradictions) among the different components of sense of coherence. The findings imply that organizations may need to prioritize which components of coherence should be supported most by the office environment. It also suggests that case-specific design aspects should play a more central role in studying and conceptualizing healthy office design and that design solutions should be continuously modified during the use phase, while ensuring employees’ participation. The study concluded that an ‘ideal’ office environment should not be the goal. Instead, office design should provide an environment in which employees are able to cope with challenges in comprehensible, manageable and meaningful ways.

Development and Validation of a Multi-Dimensional Measure of Activity-Based Working Behaviors

Most work on activity-based working centers on the physical environment and digital technologies enabling flexible working. While important, we believe the key components for implementing activity-based working are employee and manager behaviors. To measure the degree of enactment of activity-based work, based on workshops with experienced practitioners as well as previous literature, we have developed and validated a behavior-focused measure of activity-based working behaviors. In our initial sample (Sample 1, N = 234), three subscales were identified: task – environment crafting, workday planning, and social needs prioritization. In the replication sample (Sample 2, N = 434), this model also showed adequate fit. Moreover, task – environment crafting was related to general health and lower stress in sample 1 (multi-organization sample), but not in the single-organization sample (sample 2). Workday planning was associated with higher concentration in both samples and in the second sample with general health and work engagement; the latter was also related to social needs prioritization.