Development of an interior workplace design tool for supporting change management processes

It has long been known that the interior design of work spaces has a profound effect on the emotional wellbeing and behaviours of individuals. In particular, the colour of an interior can have profound effect that range from individuals experiencing moods ranging from depression to joy. Less widely known are the emotional and behavioural effects of other interior design components such as those included in this current research. In this respect, in addition to colour, this research includes shape, material, seating, surface texture and style of interior design components. Although the effects of interior design has been widely recognised the focus of work place design, particularly within manufacturing industries, has been centred around the use of ergonomic and work place efficiency principles. Little thought has been given, when considering interior design of work spaces, to the emotional wellbeing of the individuals working within such environments and in particular the emotions arising during working practice change processes. The aim of this project, therefore, is to examine the effect of work place design on the sequence of emotional behaviours arising across the change process. It adopts an ‘interior design’ perspective in order to identify how work place design components and their individual characteristics can affect emotional behaviour. As such it includes a wider range of interior design component characteristics than would normally be associated with industrial-based working environments. However, many of these component characteristics have been shown to be highly effective in providing efficient working environments in non-industrial setting that they have been included in this work. In order to achieve the aims of the research, both a literature review and a questionnaire-based survey have been undertaken. The literature review and survey results have enabled links to be established between management objective changes, emotional behaviours required to achieve those objectives, the interior workplace design components and characteristics that can generate those emotional behaviours. A spreadsheet-based selection tool was developed for enabling the identification of interior workplace design component characteristics for achieving specific emotional behaviours and suggestions are made concerning its use.Innovate UK (formally Technology Strategy Board