Workplace connectivity : A study of its impact on self-assessed productivity.

Previous researchers have had difficulty in defining what constitutes office productivity, especially in 'knowledge' environments rather than 'processing' environments. The main body of published research that attempts to address the link largely addresses the physical environment. It falls into two main categories, those of office layout and office comfort. It must be noted that much of the physical environment literature lacks any theoretical framework. This study developed a validated theoretical framework for the evaluation of office productivity, and included components to represent both the physical and the behavioural environment. It is proposed that by adopting such an approach, insights into the dynamic nature, or connectivity, of office environments can be established. The main objective of this thesis was to investigate the effects of the office environment on its occupant's perceived productivity. The study's strength is that it is based on two sizable data sets. Whilst the data collected contain data about the physical characteristics of the office environment, it had in addition data pertaining to the behavioural environment. The categorical data collected provided a unique opportunity to undertake an analysis of office occupiers by work process type. One of the key contributions of this study was the development of the components of office productivity, which were: comfort, office layout, informal interaction points, environmental services, designated areas, interaction and distraction. The components were reduced to four in preparation for a more detailed statistical analysis. The four distinct components were comfort, office layout, interaction and distraction. This study establishes that it is the behavioural environment that has the greatest impact on office productivity. It demonstrates that it is the dynamic elements of the office environment, interaction and distraction that are perceived as having the bigger positive and negative influences on self assessed productivity and explains the finding in a model in which knowledge creation and knowledge transfer, and ultimately productivity, are enabled through various forms of communication.Managers responsible for office environments can use the techniques, and the analysis procedures, to assist in evaluating and identifying productive office environments. The positive results can be just as important to the manager as the negative, as they give an indication as to areas in the office environment that are working correctly. A comparative approach between offices can allow best practice solutions to be transferred from one office to another.