The impact of open-plan offices on performance and well-being revisited: The case of coworking

Time of realization: 2020–2022
Financing: GAČR
Description: The aim of the project is to examine in detail the relationship between open-plan offices used in the coworking industry on the one hand and the performance and well-being of members of these coworking spaces on the other.
In recent years, there has been a significant increase in research and reporting on the relationship between open-plan offices on the one hand and the performance and well-being of employees on the other. Research consistently shows a negative relationship between open-plan offices and various variables on the part of employees. However, there are reasons to be skeptical about the generalizability of these negative results. One of the main reasons is the rocketing rise of coworking, which is a system of open-plan offices in which individuals pay to work next to someone else rather than alone.We suggest focusing in more detail on coworking to understand why open-plan office design works better in this system. We will add qualitative interviews, observations and objectifying methods using so-called real-time experience-sampling (ESM) to the data from the questionnaire survey. We are looking for answers to four research questions about the relationship between open offices and employee performance and well-being. We expect that these relationships are not as clear-cut as current research suggests.
Main coordinator: doc. Mgr. Ing. Martin Lukeš Ph.D.
Other participants from the Department of Entrepreneurship: Mgr. Marko Orel Ph.D.Will Bennis, Ph.D.

Ing. Manuel Mayerhoffer