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Affect and the workplace built environment
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Joseph, Vibin B. (2020) Affect and the workplace built environment. DBA thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3678814
Abstract
This study focuses on the workplace built environment to drive business improvement, and determines its influence on occupant affect, behaviour and business performance in an organization. Extant literature highlights the beneficial effects of humanized built environment parameters on occupant affect and resulting productivity. However, this atomistic approach adopted through fields of environmental psychology and neuroarchitecture have limited impact at a firm level. On the other hand, Eastern architectural practices stipulate holistic design principles for humanizing the built environment. Eastern and modern architectural concepts were thus applied to the organization for a positive environmental influence.
To provide meaningful analysis, this study was organized into two parts – initially a pre-post intervention pilot study was done, to determine occupant employee changes after spatial layout of the existing modern building was modified based on suggestions from Eastern literature. A subsequent pre-post developmental study based on an integrated framework; developed from concepts in environmental psychology and Eastern architectural literature was applied to construct a new green field facility for positive affect.
To gather data on benefits of the intervention, occupant emotional landscape was tracked over a 22-month period through an insider qualitative ethnographic approach. The researcher mapped participant feelings through 9745 participant daily self-reports, enriched situational awareness through 518 hours of regular interviews, and reflected on observations of 513 workdays that included more than 433.5 hours of co-working alongside participants in a real work setting. Emerging themes were then triangulated with organizational secondary data.
Findings from the intervention study and new built environment suggested a change from the existing ‘low energy’ emotional landscape to one of positive affect, improved productive behaviors and increased productivity at the workplace. By drawing from Eastern architectural practices and environmental psychology, this thesis contributes to an integrated design approach for maintaining and creating positive occupant affect in workplace built environments. Real world actionable knowledge gained from this study can assist practitioners while developing workplace strategy for competitive advantage, and organizational researchers when understanding built environments and human emotions.
Item Type: | Thesis (DBA) | ||||
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Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HF Commerce |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Work environment, Office buildings -- Designs and plans, Office layout, Office layout -- Psychological aspects, Organizational behavior, Performance, Work -- Psychological aspects, Labor productivity | ||||
Official Date: | September 2020 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Warwick Business School | ||||
Thesis Type: | DBA | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Nicolaou, Nicos ; Beer, Chris | ||||
Format of File: | |||||
Extent: | xi, 322 leaves : illustrations | ||||
Language: | eng |
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