The impact of office comfort on productivity

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact that office comfort has on office occupiers’ productivity.

Design/methodology/approach – The author evaluates the literature that claims to make a linkage between the physical comfort of the office environment and the effect on the productivity of the office occupiers. Office comfort will initially be discussed as a generic concept and subsequently be broken down into sub-components.

Findings – The review of the literature reveals that the evaluation of office comfort is a complex one. There appears to be no universally accepted definition of office comfort, and there is a clear lack of agreement as to how office comfort should be measured. This paper establishes that, there is enough evidence to support the claim that office comfort can affect productivity.

Originality/value – This paper adds to the debate by identifying the need for a common and universally accepted measurement of office comfort. It is proposed that this can largely be achieved by evaluating office comfort with a multi-item scale, and adopting an office occupier perspective to any future research.