Thadsin Khamkanya, George Heaney and Stanley McGreal
The office is considered as a strategic resource that can support knowledge‐based organisations to gain competitive advantage and operational efficiency. Although the modern…
Abstract
Purpose
The office is considered as a strategic resource that can support knowledge‐based organisations to gain competitive advantage and operational efficiency. Although the modern scholar emphasises the role of user involvement in workplace design and management, there is little evidence showing how it can be linked to occupancy cost performance. The purpose of this paper is to investigate benefits of a user‐centric workplace practice by focusing on working time and space utilisation practice of office users.
Design/methodology/approach
A scenario‐based approach was designed to analyse office occupancy cost performance. A questionnaire survey was conducted from a number of UK‐based offices to create three workspace utilisation scenarios, namely, existing, property‐centric and user‐centric. Key comparison criteria include potential areas of savings, potential total cost savings and cost saving per person.
Findings
It was found that a user‐centric approach reflects an opportunity to save annual occupancy costs in terms of total costs and cost per person where users indicated how they utilised working time and space. In return, the organisations can gain more productivity from office users who are likely to perform better when they can work in the preferred workplace practice.
Practical implications
By adopting this approach, organisations can understand the occupancy characteristics of the offices from multi perspectives, leading to better management in office premises.
Originality/value
This paper is concerned with the analysis of how to achieve higher office efficiency by focusing on office user's working time and space utilisation practice.
Details
Keywords
Thadsin Khamkanya, George Heaney and Stanley McGreal
Workplace environments and user satisfaction assessment have been recognised as a key research area for improving knowledge‐intense organisation performance through…
Abstract
Purpose
Workplace environments and user satisfaction assessment have been recognised as a key research area for improving knowledge‐intense organisation performance through satisfaction‐based productivity. Previous research which focused on satisfaction levels of office users sometimes neglected the fact that not all office users perceived the importance of workplace environment factors (facilities services, design and layout, work and social interactions and distraction control) in a similar way. This suggests a gap in the knowledge base. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a systematic assessment of workplace‐user satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
Criteria decision analysis tools were reviewed and the use of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was justified as an appropriate method. A survey undertaken in offices across the UK, focused on levels of satisfaction and perceived productivity, in order to construct an AHP Satisfaction Index for comparing with the average score approach.
Findings
At the individual level, the AHP Satisfaction Index weighting workplace environment criteria yield a better explanation of workplace‐user satisfaction compared with the average score approach. At the global level, the AHP Satisfaction Index does not impact on the overall statistical behaviour when compared with the original score.
Originality/value
The AHP Satisfaction Index can be used as an alternative way to measure workplace‐user satisfaction levels in the office. This approach provides more comprehensive information when researchers and practitioners are interested in the impacts of workplace environment criteria.