Appropriation of an Activity-based Flexible Office in Daily Work
Journal article, 2018

In recent years, there has been growing interest in collaborative consumption of office environments
and thereby implementation of Activity-based Flexible Offices (A-FOs). Relocating to an A-FO introduces
a desk-sharing policy as well as a multitude of new workspaces with different speech policies
into the employee’s work context. This paper describes how employees appropriate desk-sharing
and speech policies in an A-FO. The data were collected over a period of 6 months in a case
organization by means of 18 shadowing sessions. The different ways in which employees appropriated
the A-FO solution were (i) adopting, experimenting with, or rejecting the desk-sharing policy,
and (ii) modes of interaction arising from spatial configuration and redefining speech policies. The
discussion outlines the reasons behind appropriation or nonappropriation of the desk-sharing and
emergent speech policies. The insights from this study provide support for organizations considering
A-FOs to develop strategies for facilitating individuals’ work in these settings.

Appropriation

New ways of working

Work environment

Workspace design

Adoption of innovation

Field study

Office layout

Activity-based workplace (ABW)

Coworking space

Author

Maral Babapour Chafi

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Design and Human Factors

MariAnne Karlsson

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Design and Human Factors

Anna-Lisa Osvalder

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Design and Human Factors

Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies

2245-0157 (eISSN)

Vol. 8 S3 71-94

Subject Categories

Architectural Engineering

Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics

Work Sciences

DOI

10.18291/njwls.v8iS3.105277

More information

Latest update

7/19/2023