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A Sustainability Perspective on Office Environment Influence on Employees and Organizations

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Psychology of Sustainability and Sustainable Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 May 2022) | Viewed by 11044

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Christina Bodin Danielsson

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Architecture, School of Architecture and Built Environment, The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Osquars backe 9, 114 28 Stockholm, Sweden
Interests: sustainable design; supportive work environment; architectural quality; health; performance; sickness absence; job satisfaction

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainability and an inclusive perspective on an office environment’s influence on employees and organizations cover different aspects in a broad and interdisciplinary field of research. This Special Issue will gather the work of scientists investigating the sustainability of office design and organizations from a wide perspective. In the search for knowledge about the subject, we welcome various perspectives and approaches, including empirical and theoretical research on various concepts, theories, and methods.

The subject of sustainable office design includes various fields such as architecture, which provides a sustainability perspective on the built environment through green building and inclusive design that supports people with various needs and of different ages, including of studies architectural design impact on physical activity and wayfinding, place attachment, and sense of belonging; environmental and social psychology, which investigate the office environment influences on attitudes and behavior from a sustainable perspective at individual and group levels; organizational management and communication, which focus on corporate and employee branding, interested in the symbolism of the sustainability perspective on the built environment; real estate and facility management, which study the subject with regards to productivity and added value from an investment perspective; organizational behavior, which explores workplaces from various perspectives, e.g., from emotional and conflicts perspectives; and occupational health, which applies a health, wellbeing, and job satisfaction perspective to the study of sustainable work environments.

The description above shows the breadth of the subject of sustainability from office environment and organizational perspectives. In this Special Issue, we welcome different scientific approaches to the subject with a special focus on empirical research. Studies applying conceptual, strategic, and theoretical approaches are welcome, but only if they apply a sustainability perspective on the environment influences on employees and organizations. By collecting the research from the wide and interdisciplinary research field on the subject we aim to provide a good overview on the field. We hope to make research in this field of research more accessible by contributing to the knowledge development of sustainability in the field of office environment influence on employees and organizations.

Dr. Christina Bodin Danielsson
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainable design
  • inclusive design
  • work environment
  • sustainable organization
  • symbolism
  • branding
  • emotions
  • health
  • wellbeing
  • job satisfaction
  • productivity
  • behavior
  • sense of belonging
  • physical activity

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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26 pages, 1270 KiB  
Article
Health-Supportive Office Design—It Is Chafing Somewhere: Where and Why?
by Christina Bodin Danielsson and Sara Hoy
Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 12504; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su141912504 - 30 Sep 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1567
Abstract
This explorative case study investigates health-promoting office design from an experience and meaning-making perspective in an activity-based flex-office (A-FO) in a headquarter building. This small case study (n = 11) builds using qualitative data (walk-through and focus group interviews). A reflexive thematic [...] Read more.
This explorative case study investigates health-promoting office design from an experience and meaning-making perspective in an activity-based flex-office (A-FO) in a headquarter building. This small case study (n = 11) builds using qualitative data (walk-through and focus group interviews). A reflexive thematic analysis (RTA) of the experience of design approach was performed on this from a health and sustainability perspective, including the physical, mental, and social dimensions of health defined by WHO. Results show a wide range in participants’ experiences and meaning-making of the health-promoting office design of their office building. The control aspect plays a central role in participants’ experiences, including factors such as surveillance and obeyance, related to status and power, in turn associated with experiences of pleasantness, symbolism, and inclusiveness. Three main themes are identified in participants’ experiences: (1) comfort–non-comfort, (2) outsider–insider, and (3) symbolism. The major finding of the study is the ambiguity among participants about the health-supportive office design of the office building per se and its various environments. There is a sense that it is chafing, due to dissonance between the intention of the office and the applied design. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue A Sustainability Perspective on Office Environment Influence on Employees and Organizations)
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22 pages, 1060 KiB  
Article
Workspace Integration and Sustainability: Linking the Symbolic and Social Affordances of the Workspace to Employee Wellbeing
by Iris Vilnai-Yavetz and Anat Rafaeli
Sustainability 2021, 13(21), 11985; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su132111985 - 29 Oct 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2498
Abstract
Our goal in this paper is to connect workspace design to employee wellbeing and social sustainability. Toward this connection, we introduce and empirically test a new concept of “workspace integration”. This concept refers to the continuum of integration of an employee’s workspace with [...] Read more.
Our goal in this paper is to connect workspace design to employee wellbeing and social sustainability. Toward this connection, we introduce and empirically test a new concept of “workspace integration”. This concept refers to the continuum of integration of an employee’s workspace with the organizational, physical space. We further define three workspace affordances that predict the social sustainability of workspace arrangements by influencing employee wellbeing. The three affordances are perceptions of symbolism of the organization and of symbolism of the self, and opportunities for social interactions. We evaluate our theory using data collected from an online survey of British employees (n = 392) working in offices at home and/or in the organization in various industries. As predicted, workspace integration positively influences wellbeing directly as well as indirectly via mediation of symbolism of the organization and opportunities for social interactions. The third affordance—symbolism of the self—positively influences wellbeing, but is not affected by workspace integration. Our findings confirm the impact of workspace affordances on employee wellbeing, and thus their utility for the analysis of social sustainability. The findings also contribute to understanding of the differences between workspace symbolism of the organization and of the self, their impact on wellbeing, and thus their implications for social sustainability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue A Sustainability Perspective on Office Environment Influence on Employees and Organizations)
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Review

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22 pages, 370 KiB  
Review
A Socio-Technical Perspective on the Application of Green Ergonomics to Open-Plan Offices: A Review of the Literature and Recommendations for Future Research
by Thomas A. Norton, Oluremi B. Ayoko and Neal M. Ashkanasy
Sustainability 2021, 13(15), 8236; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13158236 - 23 Jul 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3728
Abstract
Open-plan office (OPO) layouts emerged to allow organizations to adapt to changing workplace demands. We explore the potential for OPOs to provide such adaptive capacity to respond to two contemporary issues for organizations: the chronic challenge of environmental sustainability, and the acute challenges [...] Read more.
Open-plan office (OPO) layouts emerged to allow organizations to adapt to changing workplace demands. We explore the potential for OPOs to provide such adaptive capacity to respond to two contemporary issues for organizations: the chronic challenge of environmental sustainability, and the acute challenges emerging from the great COVID-19 homeworking experiment. We apply a socio-technical systems perspective and green ergonomics principles to investigate the relationship between an OPO environment and the occupants working within it. In doing so, we consider relevant technical and human factors, such as green technology and employee green behavior. We also consider how a green OPO might provide non-carbon benefits such as improving occupant well-being and supporting the emergence of a green organizational culture. Our investigation highlights several avenues through which an OPO designed with green ergonomic principles could benefit occupants, the organizations they work for, and the natural environment of which they are a part and on which they depend. We find reason to suspect that green OPOs could play an important role in sustainable development; and offer a research agenda to help determine whether it is true that OPOs can, indeed, exemplify how “going green” may be good for business. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue A Sustainability Perspective on Office Environment Influence on Employees and Organizations)

Other

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8 pages, 390 KiB  
Perspective
Can We Sustain Sustainability? A Critical Synthesis of Pertinent Literature
by Jay L. Brand and Sally Augustin
Sustainability 2021, 13(22), 12753; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su132212753 - 18 Nov 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2162
Abstract
Architects and designers, along with their corporate clients, generally embrace the importance of environmental stewardship, saving the earth’s ecosystem, and sustainable design. However, research is needed to link sustainable design with relevant human behavior (e.g., in corporate offices and educational settings) to ensure [...] Read more.
Architects and designers, along with their corporate clients, generally embrace the importance of environmental stewardship, saving the earth’s ecosystem, and sustainable design. However, research is needed to link sustainable design with relevant human behavior (e.g., in corporate offices and educational settings) to ensure its enduring legacy. Regarding changing people’s behavior, the majority of human experience results from unconscious processes, i.e., brain–environment interactions not available to awareness; thus, in general, people cannot articulate the nature of these associations. Using theoretical roots stemming from William James and running through ecological psychology (e.g., James J. Gibson to Roger Barker), Harry Heft has argued that the influence of environmental design precedes conscious awareness and information processing. Assuming Heft’s conjecture, this implies that—if informed by biologically influential signals (e.g., biophilic design)—the design of the ambient physical environment may positively ‘nudge’ human behavior in ways useful to sustainability and sensitivity to the environment—although relevant critical perspectives suggest that dynamic conditions and contextual complexity may modify the potential of nudge theory applications. Still, could it be that sustainable design can improve human health and well-being? Research suggests that environmentally responsible and biophilic design may accomplish at least a few elements of this goal and perhaps also enhance some aspects of cognitive performance. Could this approach support environmental sustainability by linking sustainable design to its potential economic benefits via worker productivity or student success? If so, then the strategy of improving positive well-being through design aligns well with the goal of maintaining the long-term viability of the earth’s ecosystem. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue A Sustainability Perspective on Office Environment Influence on Employees and Organizations)
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