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1 – 2 of 2Freyr Halldorsson, Halldór Valgeirsson and Kari Kristinsson
This study aims to examine if and how an activity-based work environment affects employee workspace satisfaction – an attitude linked to important employee outcomes. By comparing…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine if and how an activity-based work environment affects employee workspace satisfaction – an attitude linked to important employee outcomes. By comparing perceptions before and after implementation, the research draws attention to factors that may help explain the impact of an activity-based work environment. Specifically, prior attitudes toward activity-based work environments and gender are tested.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study uses a longitudinal design to explore how implementing an activity-based work environment impacts employees’ workspace satisfaction (e.g. privacy, air quality, lighting, temperature, etc.). A sample of 100 employees in a government organization implementing an activity-based working environment was investigated using a longitudinal design, with employees being surveyed thrice – once before and twice after implementation.
Findings
The results indicate that when workspace satisfaction is impacted by implementing an activity-based work environment, this effect seems primarily based on employees’ prior attitude toward such work environments. In addition, employee gender emerges as a potentially important factor in workspace satisfaction, though not exclusive to the activity-based work environment.
Originality/value
Using a longitudinal approach – which allows for observing potential changes over time – and robust statistical methods, this study supports the importance of employees’ initial attitude toward an activity-based work environment concerning workspace satisfaction. This finding has practical implications for organizations and advances the understanding of why an activity-based work environment may positively affect workspace satisfaction for some employees while negatively affecting others.
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Olga Stangej, Inga Minelgaite, Kari Kristinsson and Margret Sigrun Sigurdardottir
The purpose of this paper is to examine how prejudice in a post-migration labor market can be mitigated, specifically, whether education received in the host country can serve as…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how prejudice in a post-migration labor market can be mitigated, specifically, whether education received in the host country can serve as a signal of social integration for immigrant workers in employment settings.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted an audit discrimination study, using an experimental setup to examine the interplay between prejudice and education as a signal of the social integration of immigrants in employment settings.
Findings
The results of the study indicate that signals of social integration, such as, qualifications acquired in the host country through education, counter prejudice against Polish immigrants in Iceland.
Research limitations/implications
The study provides evidence that immigrants are subjected to prejudice that can restrain their employment opportunities. The acquisition of education in the host country can mitigate this effect, but also diminishes the line between social integration and assimilation. However, the study is limited by a relatively small sample size and a single-country context.
Practical implications
The study offers insights for both countries and organizations worldwide that are facing the need to successfully embrace a mobile workforce and the challenge of a diverse workforce composition.
Originality/value
The study addresses the under-researched effects of education on human capital transferability in the host labor market. More specifically, it uncovers that the differentiation between education acquired in the home country and education acquired in the host country is a signal that can mitigate prejudice and its effects on the employment of immigrants in the host countries.
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