Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Users' privacy preferences in open plan offices

Users' privacy preferences in open plan offices Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore managers' and employees' opinions regarding privacy in open plan offices and also investigate the relationship between the perception of managers and employees on visual and acoustical privacy in order to provide better design solutions in an open plan office setting. Design/methodology/approach – The research method is a structured interview. The categorized data are analyzed with percentage of frequency distributions and Chi square analysis. A total of 42 subjects were interviewed and separated in two groups as managers and employees. Findings – It was found that lack of privacy still exists as an unsolved negative aspect in open plan offices. Findings indicated that there is a strong desire for employees to change and control their physical working space when both visual and acoustical privacy is needed in an open plan office setting. Another finding is that there is a difference of opinion regarding visual privacy between managers and employees. Research limitations/implications – The limitation of the paper is that the sample is small and all subjects' occupations are computer‐related. Future studies are needed to further investigate diverse subjects in a larger population. Any future research instrument would have to be different from a structured interview. Practical implications – Research findings provide valid recommendations to system furniture designers and manufacturers. System furniture design needs to be modular and easily changeable and adjustable for open plan offices. Originality/value – The significant contribution of this research is that it provided valid data and makes a valuable contribution to the body of knowledge in open plan office design. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Facilities Emerald Publishing

Users' privacy preferences in open plan offices

Suining Ding
Facilities , Volume 26 (9/10): 17 – Jul 4, 2008
Download PDF
17 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/users-privacy-preferences-in-open-plan-offices-Q5tCpFl0E6

References (9)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
0263-2772
DOI
10.1108/02632770810885751
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore managers' and employees' opinions regarding privacy in open plan offices and also investigate the relationship between the perception of managers and employees on visual and acoustical privacy in order to provide better design solutions in an open plan office setting. Design/methodology/approach – The research method is a structured interview. The categorized data are analyzed with percentage of frequency distributions and Chi square analysis. A total of 42 subjects were interviewed and separated in two groups as managers and employees. Findings – It was found that lack of privacy still exists as an unsolved negative aspect in open plan offices. Findings indicated that there is a strong desire for employees to change and control their physical working space when both visual and acoustical privacy is needed in an open plan office setting. Another finding is that there is a difference of opinion regarding visual privacy between managers and employees. Research limitations/implications – The limitation of the paper is that the sample is small and all subjects' occupations are computer‐related. Future studies are needed to further investigate diverse subjects in a larger population. Any future research instrument would have to be different from a structured interview. Practical implications – Research findings provide valid recommendations to system furniture designers and manufacturers. System furniture design needs to be modular and easily changeable and adjustable for open plan offices. Originality/value – The significant contribution of this research is that it provided valid data and makes a valuable contribution to the body of knowledge in open plan office design.

Journal

Facilities – Emerald Publishing

Published: Jul 4, 2008

Keywords: Privacy; Open plan offices; Environmental psychology

There are no references for this article.