Innovative organisations need creative employees who generate new ideas for product or process innovation. This paper presents a conceptual framework for the effect of personal, social-organisational and physical factors on employee creativity. Based on this framework, an instrument to analyse the extent to which the work environment enhances creativity is developed. This instrument was applied to a sample of 409 employees and support was found for the hypothesis that a creative work environment enhances creative performance. This paper illustrates how the instrument can be used in companies to select and implement improvements. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: The ergonomics discipline addresses the work environment mainly for improving health and safety and sometimes productivity and quality. This paper opens a new area for ergonomics: designing work environments for enhancing employee creativity in order to strengthen an organisation's capability for product and process innovation and, consequently, its competitiveness.

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Work environments for employee creativity

An organization’s workspace, the physical environment an organization provides for its employees to carry out their work activities, constitutes the second largest financial overhead (after human resources) for most organizations (McCoy, 2005). Of the workspace provided, most employees in developed countries work in some form of office environment (Duffy, 1997) and studies of this practice have found that it has a powerful role in shaping a diverse range of psychological and behavioral outcomes, including individual work motivation (e.g., Oldham & Brass, 1979), job satisfaction (e.g., Veitch, Charles, Farley, et al., 2007), and patterns of interactions (e.g., Boyce, 1974; Ives & Ferdinands, 1974; Sundstrom & Sundstrom, 1986). Furthermore, the impact of offices upon their occupants’ personal productivity has been estimated to be somewhere in the region of 20% (e.g., Leaman & Bordass, 2005). Within the organizational literature, offices have been typically described as either traditional (sometimes referred to as enclosed or cellular offices) or open-plan. Traditional offices tend to house one or two individuals in private rooms, enclosed by walls, often containing most of the amenities required for their job (Danielsson & Bodin, 2008). Open-plan offices are characterized by a lack of interior walls, tend to be larger and contain greater numbers of workers, with individual workstations arranged within the office in groups (Brennan, Chugh, & Kline, 2002; Brookes & Kaplan, 1972). Workspace design, however, is currently under organizational scrutiny due to the changing nature of work. It is evident that many organizations are re-evaluating their facilities to ensure

The Physical Environment of the Office: Contemporary and Emerging Issues

Although there is a trend in today's organisations to implement activity-based flexible offices (A-FOs), only a few studies examine consequences of this new office type. Moreover, the underlying mechanisms why A-FOs might lead to different consequences as compared to cellular and open-plan offices are still unclear. This paper introduces a theoretical framework explaining benefits and risks of A-FOs based on theories from work and organisational psychology. After deriving working conditions specific for A-FOs (territoriality, autonomy, privacy, proximity and visibility), differences in working conditions between A-FOs and alternative office types are proposed. Further, we suggest how these differences in working conditions might affect work-related consequences such as well-being, satisfaction, motivation and performance on the individual, the team and the organisational level. Finally, we consider task-related (e.g. task variety), person-related (e.g. personality) and organisational (e.g. leadership) moderators. Based on this model, future research directions as well as practical implications are discussed. Practitioner Summary: Activity-based flexible offices (A-FOs) are popular in today's organisations. This article presents a theoretical model explaining why and when working in an A-FO evokes benefits and risks for individuals, teams and organisations. According to the model, A-FOs are beneficial when management encourages employees to use the environment appropriately and supports teams.

Choosing where to work at work - towards a theoretical model of benefits and risks of activity-based flexible offices.

Environmental Psychology—Man and His Physical Setting

Concentration requirements modify the effect of office type on indicators of health and performance

Statement of Relevance: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether perception of control over aspects of the physical environment reduces the previously documented negative effects of distraction in office workplaces on perceived job performance. This study analysed 384 questionnaires collected from employees in the corporate offices of three manufacturing companies in Michigan, USA. The role of a sense of personal control over physical environment features as a mediating influence between work attitudes and work outcomes was explored using structural equations modelling. The results showed that workers' sense of control over physical aspects of their work environment mediated the relationship between perceived distractions and perceived job performance. These results suggest that increasing perceptions of personal control over features of the physical work environment may serve to link work attitudes and work outcomes. Open-plan offices are common throughout the world, making this study relevan...

Can personal control over the physical environment ease distractions in office workplaces

Sustainable facilities management (SFM) is important because typical buildings consume more resources and energy than necessary, negatively impact the environment and generate lots of waste (US Dep...

Innovation characteristics and intention to adopt sustainable facilities management practices.

As one of the conservation strategies, the city of Jeonju established regulations to conserve and revitalize the Hanok village as an attractive tour site. Some of old traditional houses were renovated into traditional inns. A couple of traditional houses were additionally built for lodging houses. The need for urban rehabilitation and adaptive re-use has been growing in Jeonju province. The purpose of this study was to examine how the traditional houses were converted into lodging places balancing the conflict issues such as preserving the unique characteristics of Hanok and updating functional requirement of modern lodging in terms of sustainable reuse and development. For this study, site visits and intensive interview with the owners of the seven traditional lodges were conducted. There was lack of guidelines and strategies renovation or rehabilitation of Hanok as lodging facility for sustainable use and revitalization of city. For the seven traditional Hanok inns, layout of rooms characterized as separate and disconnected, while traditional houses were open, flexible and connected regarding room arrangement. In addition, for sustainable development, the living environment of the community should be secured and align with developing strategies of the area.

Conservation and Revitalization Strategies of Traditional Korean Lodges:Focused on the Jeonju Hanok Village

Enhancement of microalgal biomass productivity through mixotrophic culture process utilizing waste soy sauce and industrial flue gas.

This study aim to confirm the problems of the heat wave disaster vulnerability analysis index established and to propose new index by reorganizing the existing index through a survey. For study. four categories (climate exposure, urban sensitivity, adaptability, and index general)were selected and the study was conducted using survey. As a result, The number of days of heat wave was found to be of the highest score in the climate exposure category. Second , Green area density was found to be of the highest score in urban sensitivity category. Third, Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) and health and medical facilities in the region were found to be of the highest score in adaptability category. Fourth, Grid was found to be particularly excellent. Based on the results of the previous analysis the complementary points are as follows. In order to reduce the damage caused by the current heat wave, facilities such as sprinklers and fagora should be expanded to develop adaptability. Also, efforts should be made to prevent heat stroke and dehydration by expanding the number of firefighters and rescue workers. In Addition, additional indicators should be reflected to confirm the current status of each local government. Meanwhile, Based on this study, it is significance in that it can be used as a basic data to enhance the analysis of heat wave disaster vulnerability.

So-Young Lee

Papers

Can personal control over the physical environment ease distractions in office workplaces

Innovation characteristics and intention to adopt sustainable facilities management practices.

Conservation and Revitalization Strategies of Traditional Korean Lodges:Focused on the Jeonju Hanok Village

Enhancement of microalgal biomass productivity through mixotrophic culture process utilizing waste soy sauce and industrial flue gas.

Direction of Improvement of Indicators in Heat Wave Sector of The Urban Climate Change Disaster Vulnerability Analysis System