Perception of privacy and distraction in office workers: Implications for planning.

This research investigates the degree to which attributes of the physical environment, characteristics of the individual, and features of the organization influence perceptions of privacy and distractions in offices. A secondary purpose is to determine if predictors of privacy differ from predictors of people-generated and machine-generated distraction. In addition, the research examines how environmental change, in this case relocation, affects perceptions of privacy and distraction. Analysis is based on data from a relocation study of two office organizations at the University of Michigan. The data include questionnaire responses of employees and measures of selected workspace characteristics (i.e. size type of enclosure, and density) in both the pre and post-move settings. Behavioral and environmental observations gathered over four months following the move were also used. Workspace characteristics were important predictors of both perceptions of privacy and distraction from machines. People in private offices who had larger offices and less crowded conditions experienced more privacy and less distraction from machines than employees in open or panelled settings with more crowded work areas. Sense of community was an important indicator of privacy and people-generated distraction within one of the organizations; employees who reported the strongest sense of community perceived the most privacy and reported the least distractions from other people. The importance of workspace enclosure as a means of controlling distractions and improving privacy is supported in this research. Increased workspace size and decreased work area density can also improve privacy and minimize distractions. In addition, this research indicates that differences in employees' sense of affiliation or sense of community within organizations affects their perception of privacy and distraction. Further research is needed to explore the relationship between sense of community and other environmental perceptions. It is suggested that other variables representing group and organizational characteristics be explored in the future.Ph.D.ArchitectureCommunication and the ArtsSocial SciencesUrban planningUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/128793/2/9208490.pd