What makes employees in modern offices
happy and productive:
the effects of
internal and external office environment
Ieva Augutytė-Kvedaravičienė & Rūta Kazlauskaitė
ISM University of Management and Economics, Lithuania
Topic relevance
Modern office PEW effects on employees
• Growing investment in office premises to attract and retain
talent and enhance their motivation and performance,;
• second largest overhead for many organisations, but still
an unacknowledged and unmanaged risk;
• increasing use of open-plan offices and related paradoxes
and contradictions;
• existing knowledge on the effects of physical environment
of work (PEW) is fragmented, isolated in specific
disciplines & lacking solid theoretical framing;
• nascent research on external PEW effects.
Research aims
• To explore employee satisfaction with PEW in modern
offices,
• Study the effects of overall physical environment of work
(PEW) on employee well-being and performance?
Modern office PEW effects on employees
Research framework
Internal PEW:
Air quality
Temperature
Noise
Temperature
Interior
Layout
Privacy
Office type, size, density &
functionality
External PEW:
Window view
Supply of places to eat out
Space for taking breaks
outside
Overall PEW satisfaction
Well-being:
Job satisfaction
Motivation
Performance:
Cooperation
Self-perceived work
performance
Modern office PEW effects on employees
Theoretical framing
• Job demands and resources model;
• Evolution theory;
• Distraction theory.
Modern office PEW effects on employees
Research design & sample
• Survey of office employees in two largest cities in Lithuania;
• modern offices - A and B class, newly constructed or fully
renovated not earlier than 2000;
• economic activity of respondent organisations – financial
services, IT services, professional services, real estate
services & advertising;
• pilot study (n=31);
• 3,412 invitations / 448 meeting requirements / 354 completed /
274 usable for analysis;
• 54% women, 69% < 40 yrs./avg. 36 yrs., avg. tenure 3.6 yrs, 22%
professional services, 21% financial services, 19% IT services.
Modern office PEW effects on employees
Measures
• Internal PEW – 8 items (adapted from OFFICEAIR scale);
• External PEW – 3 items (adapted from Lottrup et al, 2015 and Lottrup
et al, 2013, or self-developed);
• Overall satisfaction with PEW – 4 items (O’Neill, 1994);
• Job satisfaction – 4 items (Spector, 1985);
• Motivation – 9 items (Miao & Evans, 2007);
• Collaboration – 3 items (Campion et al, 1993);
• Self-perceived work performance – 2 items (Welbourne et al, 1998);
• Social climate – 8 items (Stokols et al, 2002).
All items measured on a 10-point Likert scale.
Modern office PEW effects on employees
Satisfaction with internal PEW
6.0*
6.1*
6.6
6.8
6.9*
7.5
8.2
Interior
Layout
Temperature
Air quality
Overall
Noise
Lighting
Modern office PEW effects on employees
* depends on age
Satisfaction with privacy
3.4
4.2
5.0
Privacy (audio)
Overal
Privacy (visual)
Modern office PEW effects on employees
Satisfaction with external PEW
5.7
6.0*
7.1**
Window view satisfaction
Space for taking breaks
outside
Supply of places to eat
out
Modern office PEW effects on employees
*Depends on gender
**Depends on age
Overall satisfaction with PEW
• Overall (affective) PEW satisfaction – 6.23;
• Depends on age, window view (nature view vs street view) and office
functionality (quiet space for work, meeting rooms, positive emotions);
• Effects of office type, size & density – non-significant.
Modern office PEW effects on employees
Internal PEW effects
Internal PEW Job
satisfactionMotivation Cooperation Performance
Noise .129* .120** ns .081*
Layout .201** ns ns -.087*
Interior .161* ns .244*** ns
Temperature ns ns .099** ns
Air quality ns ns ns ns
Lightning ns .102* .100* .148***
R2 .263 .086 .221 .033
Modern office PEW effects on employees
Privacy effects
Job
satisfactionMotivation Cooperation Performance
Privacy.129** ns .122** ns
R2.030 .028
Modern office PEW effects on employees
External PEW effects
External PEW Job
satisfactionMotivation Cooperation Performance
Window view satisfaction .144** ns .153*** ns
Space for taking breaks
outdoors
ns ns .169*** ns
Supply of places to eat
out
.190*** .111*** ns .049*
R2 .115 .045 .116 .017
Modern office PEW effects on employees
Overall PEW satisfaction effects
Job
satisfactionMotivation Cooperation Performance
Overall PEW
satisfaction
.546*** .172*** .446*** .057*
R2 .341 .074 .244 .012
Modern office PEW effects on employees
Social environment effects
Social work
environment
Job
satisfactionMotivation Cooperation Performance
Social climate .716*** .278*** .627*** .102**
R2 .470 .156 .387 .030
Modern office PEW effects on employees
Conclusions
• PEW – internal, external & overall satisfaction, is positively
related to employee well-being & performance (job satisfaction
& cooperation in particular);
• overall PEW satisfaction matters the most;
• relevance of the social environment.
Modern office PEW effects on employees
Acknowledgments
Research conducted in cooperation with
“Sustainable urban lab”
Modern office PEW effects on employees
What makes employees in modern offices
happy and productive:
the effects of
internal and external office environment
Ieva Augutytė-Kvedaravičienė & Rūta Kazlauskaitė
ISM University of Management and Economics, Lithuania
