The thinking behind open-plan office is that they increase collaboration and interaction between employees, but a new study by Harvard academics Ethan S Bernstein and Stephen Turban has indicated that this is not the case.
The study found that employees spend 73% less time on face-to-face communications. Changing to an open-plan design increases email and other digital messages by 67%.
Organisations that arrange office furniture in an open plan style claim that this encourages better communication and increases job satisfaction. The downside is that the open-plan arrangement makes it more difficult to perform concentrated and focused work. Modern day work processes require information to be gathered and accurately analysed to make informed decisions. If this process is interrupted, mistakes and inefficiency can occur.
When interruptions prevent employees concentrating, the study found that they have less desire to interact and collaborate with other people.
One way to counteract the negative effect of the open-plan office is to provide plants and access to daylight, as this calms workers. WeWork, which provides office space for flexible workers, has communal lounges, eating areas and gyms for workers to interact in.
To create the ideal balance between the privacy that enables focused work and collaboration that leads to innovative solutions to business issues is not easy. Temporary office screens can help. Acoustic materials can reduce distracting noise.
The Harvard study showed how open plan offices can negatively affect communication and collaboration, but it did not come up with a solution.
