Environmental Satisfaction in Open-Plan Environments: 1. Scale Validation and Methods

Organisations and their facilities managers are under pressure to reduce the space allocation to individuals in open-plan offices, as a means to reduce costs. The reduced space allocation, however, risks creating an unpleasant working environment, either directly through the creation of adverse physical conditions (e.g., more noise, added obstructions to air circulation), or indirectly through psychological processes such as privacy or stress. As part of a larger project concerning the design and operation of open plan offices, a field study was conducted to determine the effects of open-plan office design (particularly workstation size and partition height) on the indoor environment and on occupant satisfaction with that environment. The study is a pre-post renovation study of government office buildings that will undergo space-saving renovations to smaller cubicle sizes. This paper reports on time 1 data only (time 2 data will not be available until 2003).Les organismes et leurs gestionnaires des installations sont souvent contraints, dans le but de r\ue9duire les co\ufbts, de limiter l?espace qui est allou\ue9 aux travailleurs dans les bureaux \ue0 aires ouvertes. Cette r\ue9duction de l?allocation d?espace risque toutefois de cr\ue9er des milieux de travail d\ue9plaisants, soit directement, en cr\ue9ant des conditions physiques adverses (par ex., un taux de bruit plus \ue9lev\ue9 ou l?ajout d?obstacles \ue0 la circulation de l?air), soit indirectement, selon des processus psychologiques tels que le sentiment d?intimit\ue9 ou le stress (contrainte). Dans le cadre d?un projet de plus grande envergure visant la conception et l?exploitation des bureaux \ue0 aires ouvertes, une \ue9tude sur le terrain a \ue9t\ue9 r\ue9alis\ue9e afin de d\ue9terminer les incidences de la conception des bureaux \ue0 aires ouvertes, en particulier les dimensions et la hauteur des cloisons des postes de travail, sur l?environnement int\ue9rieur et le degr\ue9 de satisfaction des occupants face \ue0 cet environnement. Il s?agit ici d?une \ue9tude de r\ue9novation avant-apr\ue8s d?immeubles de bureaux du gouvernement qui subiront des r\ue9novations d?\ue9conomie d?espace en vue d?offrir des postes de travail modulaires de plus petites dimensions. Nous faisons \ue9tat des donn\ue9es de temps 1 seulement. (Les donn\ue9es de temps 2 ne seront pas disponibles avant 2003.)Was also published as a conference paper at the 63rd Annual Convention of the Canadian Psychological Association, held in Vancouver, B.C., on May 30-June 1, 2002Peer reviewed: NoNRC publication: Ye