Office layouts and employee participation

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to propose an applicable solution to help organizations to solve the problem of participation vs privacy in office buildings. Design/methodology/approach - A theoretical model is proposed based on research claims that employees' participation motivated by three issues simultaneously is likely to shape the ideal overall participation map in office layouts. These are organizational, physical planning, and personal characteristics issues. The model was applied to a case study and results were compared with employees' reaction. Findings - Once the model was applied, results revealed misallocation of 63 per cent of staff in their workspaces. Results support employees' reaction towards their dissatisfaction with the level of participation vs privacy they possess in their workspaces. Research limitations/implications - Each organization could have a different participation map due to variations in organizational and personal characteristics issues. Further research is needed to understand relationships among the three incorporated issues. Originality/value - The proposed model could be easily applied and would provide organizations with ideal office layouts that would support productivity.