Workspace Strategies : Environment as a Tool for Work

We live in era of transformation--of technology, of social values, and of the way work is done. This book represents a timely and innovative ad­ dition to current thinking and writing about transformation in organiza­ tions. In order to meet an increasingly global and competitive environment, organizations are undergoing reengineering, work process redesign, "right sizing," creating a "virtual office," and other forms of restructur­ ing and basic change of the way work is accomplished. Such transfor­ mation means analyzing and redesigning core processes in organizations around new kinds of principles such as "total quality" and customer service. The eventual effect of these changes is likely to be the networked or "boundary-Iess" organization, in which the tradi­ tional boundaries between functions and between producers and their suppliers-and sometimes even between organizations and their com­ petitors-are broken down. The goal of such transformation is to make the work of the organization more efficient and productive-to produce more with fewer resources and at a lower cost. In the conventional view of the transformation process, certain sec­ ondary concerns, such as the need to protect the environment or to help an increasingly heterogeneous work force deal with its personal issues, are seen as problematic for this core thrust. Some recent work, however, is beginning to show that if these so-called secondary concerns are con­ sidered central, far from being problematic, they actually present strat­ egy opportunities for productive innovation and change.

1 Corporate Excellence in Facilities: Why the Workplace is Important.- The Organization—Accommodation (O—A) Relationship.- Finding Space.- Planning and Design.- Moving In and Settling Down.- Adaptation and Change.- Moving On or Out.- Adding Value to the O—A Relationship.- The Unexamined O—A Relationship Is Not Worth Having.- Changing Building Design.- Economic and Social Pressures on the O—A Relationship.- Workspace: Asset or Liability?.- 2 Managing Environmental Quality: Current Trends in Office Occupancy.- What Does Facilities Management (FM) Mean Today?.- Integrating FM With Business Strategy.- The Impact on Space Use of Changing Trends in the Nature of Work.- Team-work and Creativity.- Changes in Clerical and Support Work.- Changes in the Space and Time Constraints on Office Work.- Managing the Human Aspect.- Current Trends and the Human Aspect.- 3 Using Occupancy Feedback: A Strategy for Managing Workplace Improvements.- Health Risks in the Office.- The Productivity Debate.- Feedback from Building Occupants.- Total Quality and Customer Satisfaction.- Functional Comfort as a Strategic Planning Concept.- Managing Feedback from Building Occupants.- 4 Building-In-Use Assessment: An Occupancy Feedback System.- How Building-In-Use Assessment Works.- An Introduction to Building-In-Use Assessment.- Carrying Out Building-In-Use Assessment.- Applying BIU Results to Problem Solving.- Communication with Occupants.- Builidng-In-Use Assessment in Practice.- Using Feedback for Continuous Improvement.- 5 Building-In-Use Assessment of Building Systems: Air Quality, Thermal Comfort, and Building Noise Control.- Building Systems’ Dimensions of Functional Comfort.- The Air Quality Dilemma.- Occupants’ Perceptions of Air Quality.- Building-In-Use Assessment of Air Quality.- The Thermal Comfort Paradox.- Builidng-In-Use Assessment of Thermal Comfort.- Thermal Comfort and the Thermal Comfort Standard.- The Quandary of Building Noise Control.- Building-In-Use Assessment of Building Noise Control.- Managing Building Noise Control.- How Building Systems Can Increase Functional Comfort.- 6 Building-In-Use Assessment of Planning and Design of Interior Space: Spatial Comfort, Privacy, and Office Noise Control.- Factors Influencing the Design of Space for Work.- The Spatial Comfort Crisis.- Building-In-Use Assessment of Spatial Comfort.- Office Size.- Space Standards.- Individual Versus Group Workspace.- The Privacy Conundrum.- Evaluating Privacy.- The Challenge of Office Noise Control.- Noise Control Through Partition Height.- The Future of the Individual Workplace.- 7 Building-In-Use Assessment of Lighting Comfort.- The Lighting Comfort Opportunity.- Building-In-Use Assessment of Lighting Comfort.- Human Factors in Lighting.- Lighting and Morale.- Windows and Daylighting.- Improving Lighting Comfort.- 8 Building Convenience and Building Amenities.- What Is Building Convenience?.- Building-In-Use Assessment of Building Convenience.- Bathrooms.- Elevators.- Access, Parking and Transportation.- Safety and Security.- Cleaning and Maintenance.- Energy Mangement and Environmental Issues.- Measuring Building Convenience.- Building Amenities and the Future of Building Convenience.- 9 Occupants’ Feedback as a Decision-Making Tool: Three Case Studies.- Organizational Learning Through the Acquisition of Feedback.- International Headquarters Offices: Conflicts Over Information Utilization.- The Need For Communication.- Organizational Impact of Building-In-Use Assessment.- National Telecommunications Company: Diagnostic Information as a Tool for Strategic Planning.- Structure of the Follow-Up Process.- Commercial Real Estate Company: Using Feedback to Increase Competitive Advantage.- Impact of the Transition on Organizational Learning.- Devising Corporate Accommodation Strategy.- 10 The Politics of Occupants’ Feedback: Issues in Implementation.- Applying Occupant Feedback.- Comparing Before With After.- Predesign Programming.- Planning Budgeting, and Priority-setting.- Lease Negotiations.- Planning Alternative Workspace.- Information Exchange.- Defusing Territorial Conflict.- Legal and Political Issues.- Improving Communication.- Environmental Empowerment: Are We Ready?.- 11 Optimizing Occupancy: Strategic Planning of the Organization—Accommodation Relationship.- Accommodation Strategy and the O—A Relationship.- Planning the Future of the O—A Relationship.- Corporate Accommodation as a “Strategic Functional Unit”.- Using Accommodation to Add Value to Products and Services.- Reengineering the Office as a Tool for Work.- Implementation of an “Integrated Workplace Strategy”.- Final Words.- Appendix: The Buiding-In-Use Databases and How They are Used.