title: Choosing where to work at work - towards a theoretical model of benefits and risks of activity-based flexible offices.
abstract: Although there is a trend in today's organisations to implement activity-based flexible offices (A-FOs), only a few studies examine consequences of this new office type. Moreover, the underlying mechanisms why A-FOs might lead to different consequences as compared to cellular and open-plan offices are still unclear. This paper introduces a theoretical framework explaining benefits and risks of A-FOs based on theories from work and organisational psychology. After deriving working conditions specific for A-FOs (territoriality, autonomy, privacy, proximity and visibility), differences in working conditions between A-FOs and alternative office types are proposed. Further, we suggest how these differences in working conditions might affect work-related consequences such as well-being, satisfaction, motivation and performance on the individual, the team and the organisational level. Finally, we consider task-related (e.g. task variety), person-related (e.g. personality) and organisational (e.g. leadership) moderators. Based on this model, future research directions as well as practical implications are discussed. Practitioner Summary: Activity-based flexible offices (A-FOs) are popular in today's organisations. This article presents a theoretical model explaining why and when working in an A-FO evokes benefits and risks for individuals, teams and organisations. According to the model, A-FOs are beneficial when management encourages employees to use the environment appropriately and supports teams.
authors.affiliation: a DFG Research Training Group "Trust and Communication in a Digitized World" , University of Münster , Münster , Germany.|b Department of Psychology , University of Münster , Münster , Germany.
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wohlers
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , University of Münster , Münster , Germany.
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hertel
mesh_terms: D006804:Ergonomics / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D018570:Risk Assessment; D017132:Workplace / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Activity-based flexible offices; desk sharing; flex-office; new ways of working; office design; theoretical framework