English title
Technology and Gamification at Work
Swedish title
Teknik och spelifiering på jobbet
Author
Frida Engslätt, engslatt@kth.se
Submitted for the completion of the KTH program: Human-Computer Interaction, Master of Science in Computer Science and Engineering
Supervisor: Rebekah Cupitt, KTH, School of Computer Science and Communications, Department of Media Technology and Interaction Design.
Examiner: Henrik Artman, KTH, School of Computer Science and Communications, Department of Media Technology and Interaction Design.
Date of submission: 2017-06-17
ABSTRACT
Activity-based workplaces are offices where the employees share workplaces and choose where to work based on their current activity. The aim is to make the work more efficient, but studies have shown that activity-based workplaces are not being used as intended. This can create different types of friction for employees, and produce negative energy, decreasing the employee satisfaction and efficiency in the workplace. Gamification is a term which is growing in the field of enterprise and organisations, and is being used as a tool to motivate people and direct their activity. According to the theoretical approach Human Work Interaction Design, it is important to examine how technical solutions can be designed to facilitate the employees in different work domains. Therefore, an interesting research problem is to examine how gamification can be used in an activity-based workplace. The research question in this study is which game design elements can be included in an IT-based system to reduce friction in an activity-based workplace. Through interviews at two different companies with activity-based workplaces, this paper shows that the use of resources, a lack of understanding of the concept ABW, the physical environment as well as a different type of social interaction are the major causes of friction.
Three game design elements which affect employees intrinsic motivation and therefore have a long-term impact have been chosen. The suggestion is to implement a performance graph, a narrative and social connection elements to reduce friction in activity-based workplaces. These game design elements direct employees use of the workplace, and therefore increase their efficiency and satisfaction.
SAMMANFATTNING
Aktivitets-baserade kontor är kontor där de anställda delar arbetsplatser och väljer arbetsplats beroende på vilken aktivitet de ska utföra. Målet är att göra arbetet mer effektivt, men studier visar på att
aktivitets-baserade kontor inte används som de är tänkta. Detta skapar olika typer av friktion för de anställda samt producerar negativ energi, vilket minskar de anställdas tillfredsställelse och effektivitet på arbetsplatsen. Spelifiering är ett begrepp som blivit känt inom företag och organisationer och används för att motivera människor och rikta deras aktiviteter. Enligt den teoretiska inriktningen Människa Arbete Interaktionsdesign är det viktigt att undersöka hur tekniska lösningar kan designas för att
underlätta för de anställda i olika arbetsdomäner. Ett intressant forskningsområde är därför att undersöka hur spelifiering kan användas i ett aktivitets-baserat kontor. Frågeställningen i den här studien är vilka spelelement som kan implementeras i ett IT-baserat system för att minska friktion i ett aktivitets-baserat kontor. Genom intervjuer på två företag som arbetar i aktivitets-baserat kontor visar denna studie att användningen av resurser, en saknad av förståelse för konceptet aktivitets-baserat kontor, den fysiska miljön samt den sociala interaktionen är de huvudsakliga orsakerna till friktion. Tre spelelement som påverkar de anställdas intrinsiska motivation har valts ut. Förslaget är att implementera en
prestationsgraf, en berättarröst samt sociala förbindelser för att minska friktion i ett aktivitets-baserat kontor. Spelelementen ska påverka de anställdas användning av kontoret och därigenom öka deras effektivitet och tillfredsställelse på arbetsplatsen.
Technology and Gamification at Work
Frida Engslätt
Human Computer Interaction, Royal Institute of Technology
engslatt@kth.se
ABSTRACT
Activity-based workplaces are offices where the employees share workplaces and choose where to work based on their current activity. The aim is to make the work more efficient, but studies have shown that activity-based workplaces are not being used as intended. This can create different types of frictionfor employees, and produce negative energy, decreasing the employee satisfaction and efficiency in the workplace.
Gamification is a term which is growing in the field of enterprise and organisations, and is being used as a tool to motivate people and direct their activity. According to the theoretical approach Human Work Interaction Design, it is important to examine how technical solutions can be designed to facilitate the employees in different work domains. Therefore, an interesting research problem is to examine how gamification can be used in an activity-based workplace. The research question in this study is which game design elements can be included in an IT-based system to reduce friction in an activity-based workplace. Through interviews at two different companies with activity-based workplaces, this paper shows that the use of resources, a lack of understanding of the concept ABW, the physical environment as well as a different type of social interaction are the major causes of friction. Three game design elements which affect employees intrinsic motivation and therefore have a long-term impact have been chosen. The suggestion is to implement a performance graph, a narrative and social connection elements to reduce friction in activity-based workplaces. These game design elements direct employees use of the workplace, and therefore increase their efficiency and satisfaction.
Keywords
Activity-based workplace, Human Work Interaction Design, Gamification, Game design elements, User Experience, Human Computer Interaction
1. INTRODUCTION
Activity-based workplace refers to offices where the employees do not have their own desk to sit and work, but instead have the freedom to choose where to work based on the activity that they are going to conduct. Since the employees necessarily do not have to work from the office, the workstations are fewer than the amount of employees. [5] [6] The idea of activity-based workplaces is to make the work more efficient and increase employee satisfaction while it decreases organisational costs of renting office space. [34] Activity-based workplaces have been shown to score high when employees health and job satisfaction were measured because of employees freedom of choice and independence. [4] A well-known alternative workplace to activity-based workplace is open-plan offices, which have been shown to decrease the employee's productivity and job
satisfaction, mainly because of high noise levels and lack of privacy. [31] [5] [17]
Even though the intention with activity-based workplaces sounds promising, it has been found that the workplaces are not always used as intended. For example employees sit the majority of the time at the same place and do not fully use the capacity of the meeting areas. [1] [15] [29] This leads to a loss of satisfaction and efficiency for the employees.
[14] [20] One way of referring to these potential downsides of an activity-based workplace is through the term friction.
To reducefriction in the workplace and increase work efficiency and satisfaction for employees, the approach Human Work Interaction Design can be used. This is an approach which aims to establish relationships between empirical work-domain studies and design and which focuses on interactions with the employees and technology in the workplace. [9] In this study the idea is to use gamification, the use of game design elements in a non-game context, to support the employees in an activity-based workplace. [7] By analyzing the empirical data, this study aims to improve the design of an IT-based system and gamify the ways in which employees use resources in activity-based workplaces. This should minimize the gap between how people use these workplaces and the interaction design of the IT-based system.
When looking at a broader perspective and how the results can have an impact on society and sustainability, this study can contribute to an increase in satisfaction and efficiency for the employees, which in turn can lead to a reduced work related mental illness for employees. Mental illness at work can lead to an increase in employees sick leave, which entails high costs for society. Therefore, gamification in activity-based workplaces can contribute to improve the situation of mental illness at work and reduce the costs for employees sick leave. A solution like this can also help to make employees more positive about working in an activity-based workplace and improve the preconception about activity-based workplaces in the society.
By improving both the situation of employees work related mental illness and the employees attitudes towards activity-based workplaces, this will also have a positive impact on the social sustainability. Woodcraft, Bacon, Caistor-Arendar and Hackett discuss how to design environments and communities which are social sustainable and the importance that the cities suit the people who lives there and make them satisfied. [37] These learnings can be applied in smaller areas such as office environments. Activity-based workplaces is a good example of this, since it is a new way of thinking about how the workplace should look, but also how to design the workplace so that it is social sustainable for the employees, making them feel happy and increase their quality of life.
A negative impact of gamification could be that it takes the focus from work and makes the employees focus on the gamified parts of the system, which instead leads to
increased costs for the company. It is therefore important to consider solutions which contain gamification carefully before implementation. [3]
2. PROBLEM DEFINITION
Through a fictional case the domain activity-based workplace is being described. The potential users of an IT-based system in the domain are employees and managers working at the organisation.
2.1 The case
An IT-based system, which is already deployed in activity-based workplaces in Sweden, is being used at the companies in this study to facilitate activities for the employees in the activity-based workplace. These activities might include how to find a colleague, find and reserve a workplace or meeting room and find equipment such as a printer. Below is a scenario describing how Anna, a fictional employee, uses the system in an activity-based workplace today:
When Anna arrives at the office in the morning she begins by picking up her phone, opening the application that shows her the current status of the office and searches for a free desk to sit and work at. Meantime she is walking to her locker to leave her coat. She finds a free desk on the next floor and she makes a reservation in the application as she walks there and before she begins working. After two hours, Anna has a meeting. Therefore she takes all her things from the desk and cancels the reservation in the application. She starts walking towards the meeting rooms, but realizes that she does not know where the room is located. She passes a touchscreen showing a map of the office. She searches for the room and the touchscreen shows her how to walk there. When Anna arrives at the meeting the other participants are already there. Therefore they can start the meeting immediately and after half an hour they are already finished. Anna walks out from the meeting room and cancels the reservation for the room on the touchscreen room panel just outside the door, so that someone else can use the room instead.
Anna’s morning at work provides an example of what activity-based workplaces supported by an IT-based system can look like and it is this kind of workplace that this study addresses. This study focuses on instances where the IT-based system does not support the potential problems employees encounter in activity-based workplaces, leading to scenarios where friction can arise.
2.2 The users
In this study, there are two different types of users of the system:
the managers and the employees. Both the employees and managers were talking from their own employee perspective during the interviews, leaving out the fact that some of them have a special responsibility within the organisation. Even though their different responsibilities of course can have affected their answers, it has been seen as an added strength since the results then take in a wider range of different employees and give both an employee and management perspective. The employees and managers seem to use the workplace and IT-based system in the same way and the impact of the interviewees professions have not shown any significant difference during the interviews. Therefore the answers from the interviews have not been grouped according to the interviewees position, but have instead been handled in an equivalent way.
Throughout this study the users of the IT-based system will therefore be referred to as employees, including all types of
employees in the organisation independent of their degree of responsibility within management.
3. THEORY AND RELATED
RESEARCH
A number of relevant studies on activity-based workplaces touch upon how technology can be used as a tool to increase efficiency and satisfaction in the workplace. Theories relating to this link technology design to increased efficiency goals while keeping the employees own individual practices in mind to retain their satisfaction.
3.1 Related research
This literature review focuses on research in activity-based workplaces as well as gamification as a tool to motivate employees.
3.1.1 Activity-based workplace
Ianeva, Faure, Theveniot and Ribeyron examine how technology can be used to increase workplace efficiency on a long-term basis to be able to build smart and sustainable workplaces. The study takes place at an activity-based workplace and the technology being used during the study is a technical solution which monitors the occupancy rate of the building. The technology also supports the use of shared office resources and the employee's well-being. The results from the study shows that the employees perceive the technology as a way to monitor them, rather than monitoring the use of space. By implementing services which actively engage the employees more, such as finding information about parking, public transport, restaurants and company news, their understanding of the system’s possibilities and relevance increase. The study also shows that the meeting rooms are “misused”, they are often under-occupied or not used at all even though there is a reservation. The non-reservable closed workplaces are also being under-occupied frequently. These results therefore suggest that there is a gap between intended and actual use of shared workspaces in the activity-based workplace. [15]
Hoendervanger, Le Noble, Mobach and Van Yperen developed an application for measuring and optimizing employees satisfaction in relation to different activities and locations in activity-based workplace. The employees can use the application to log when they are doing a specific activity in the workplace together with information about location and how satisfied they are. The employees can also see a summary of their activities in relation to their satisfaction over a longer period of time, which can raise awareness at an individual level about one's behaviour in the workplace. The study also shows the importance of taking into account data security and how personal data is being handled. The tool was tested at an organisation with 114 participants. The results show that the employees perceive the majority of all work as individual work which requires concentration and that the satisfaction for this type of work is low. There is also a dissatisfaction related to open workspaces and shared rooms and the results show that switching activity is not correlated to switching workplace. [13]
3.1.2 Gamification
When it comes to gamification, Mo-Hong Tzou reviews and discusses two cases at a university and two cases at Microsoft, all related to gamification. At Microsoft the cases are two productivity games implemented to encourage employee feedback for their Microsoft Lync 2010 beta program as well as
refining language translations before the release of a product.
The productivity games help Microsoft to save money and at the same time motivate the employees to do the work. The feedback from the employees was positive showing that they enjoyed the experience.The study points to how gamification can be used in a company to promote positive outcomes between an organisation and employees, and at the same time benefit the work and financial aspects. The conclusion of the study states that gamification is making the lines between play and work blurred and that the gaming elements such as “achievement boards” and “rewards” seem to work to motivate employees, but that there is a need to test more different gaming elements. [33]
Meske, Brockmann and Stieglitz examine how well enterprise social software solutions with gamification, aimed at increasing social collaboration in enterprises, fit with the theories in motivational psychology. They are looking at different social software solutions such as IBM Connections and SharePoint. The results from the study show that current gamification approaches in these collaboration tools aim to increase the quantitative performance and affect people's extrinsic motivation through external rewards, for example points and badges. These types of rewards have been criticised for their inefficiency and that they decrease people's intrinsic motivation in the long run. It is therefore suggested that further investigation is required of the long-term impact of gamification and examine how to affect people's intrinsic motivation instead.
This means that they gain satisfaction from the activity itself without any external rewards. [23]
3.2 Game design elements
Game design elements can be seen as a set of building blocks and
… are characteristic to games - elements that are found in most (but not necessarily all) games, readily associated with games, and found to play a significant role in gameplay. [7, p. 4]
Some examples of game design elements which can be used are points, badges, levels and leaderboards, which give the users quantitative feedback on their performance and promote competition by letting users collect different things. Narrative, performance graphs and social connections are three game design elements which instead focus on qualitative feedback on individual performance and is used to guide the user through the system or towards a goal. [22] [23] [25] [30]
Since Human Work Interaction Design is based on theories from Human Computer Interaction, it is important to keep the employees in the loop and design user-centered systems. Nicholsons presents a user-centered approach which is called meaningful gamification. [24] Meaningful gamification is based on Self-Determination Theory, which also talks about different types of motivation, but instead of defining it as extrinsic and intrinsic motivation this theory defines motivation according to the degree of autonomy in a task. [8] [23] The idea is that to motivate a user to do a task and for it to have a long-term impact, the user needs to understand why it is important to perform a task and feel that they have a choice. [8]
Nicholson's research on game design elements and user-centered design has therefore been a guide through the design process in this study to understand how the chosen game design elements can affect the employees motivation and why this is preferable.
[24] [25]
3.3 Human Work Interaction Design
Because this study deals with the workplace and employees’
interactions with an IT-based system that facilitates and shows the way that they work, it is necessary to take an approach that captures this. Human Work Interaction Design is an approach that aims to establish relationships between empirical work-domain studies and Human Computer Interaction design.
The goal is to use technology and interaction design to satisfy and facilitate the employees at the workplace. In this study the focus has been the central components of the approach, which look at the social, cultural and organisational aspects and how they are important for technology design. This is being done through a dialogue between the users and designers, to get rich contextual user descriptions. [27]
3.4 Friction
Friction is a term which was developed by an expert in the field of activity-based workplaces, from the company where this project was based. The term, in this context according to the expert, refers to negative energy which is arising from unwanted distractions and time wasting in the workplace, leading to a decrease in efficiency, hampering work and contributing to a lower overall well-being. Efficiency in this context refers to the input a system requires to achieve a specified output. [10] The expert got the idea of using the term frictionfrom a survey examining how satisfied employees were with working in an activity-based workplace. [20] The term friction points to tension between employees’ dissatisfaction which can decrease efficiency and the management goals of the organisation to implement activity-based workplace and increase business efficiency and their desire to have satisfied employees. This study takes the industry expert’s understanding of the concept of friction as its starting point. It is the general assumption of this research that these situations of frictioncan potentially be solved through an IT-based system.
3.5 Satisfaction
There are two levels of satisfaction which are important to distinguish in this study. The employees should be satisfied when using the IT-based system, but they should also be satisfied about the work. There is a risk that friction can arise in both these cases. Therefore it is important to make clear what both situations imply.
3.5.1 Job satisfaction
It is important to reflect upon what makes employees satisfied with their work. Studies have shown that around 40% of the employees are not satisfied with their working environment in an activity-based workplace. Things which affect employee satisfaction seems to be how frequent employees switch workplace, noise level and air quality as well as level of privacy and the ability to concentrate. [14] [5] [18] [32] All of these factors relate to unnecessary distractions and time wasting for employees, leading to an increase in friction. It is therefore important that the IT-based system supports situations like these to increase employees job satisfaction. In this study, the empirical data from the interviews has shown what affects the employee's job satisfaction and in which situations the IT-based system should better support the employees.
3.5.2 Usability
The application in the IT-based system is intended to decrease
friction for the employees in an activity-based workplace, but if the system does not take usability into account, the application could by itself lead to friction. Usability means the “extent to which a system, product or service can be used by specific users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use”. [16] Satisfaction in this context is referred to as the “freedom from discomfort and positive attitudes towards the use of the product”. [16] In relation to technology in organisations, a study by Väätjä et. al.
shows that when employees have a positive experience with the technology, their work satisfaction and efficiency will increase.
[35] In this study the choice of game design elements and the design of them in the IT-based system are grounded in the employees experiences of friction, and should therefore be usable for the employees and lead to an increase in satisfaction and efficiency.
3.5.3 Satisfaction and gamification
When gamification is considered to be implemented in a system, theories from game psychology should be considered to understand what it is that makes the employees satisfied through gamification. If they are satisfied, they will more likely keep playing the gamified parts of the system. Prakash and Rao explain three factors which help to satisfy players in a game, in this case the employees: they want to have fun, they want to learn new things and they want to compete. [28] These factors have been taken into account during the design process in this study, although the will to compete has been angled so that the employees compete with themselves.
Since gamification is a way to motivate employees activities, it is important to take motivation into consideration in this study and understand how it relates to satisfaction and efficiency. [7] When the employees’ motivation increases and leads to higher performance, there is a correlation to an increase in employees job satisfaction. This is called the high performance cycle. For employees to get motivated to perform they need to commit to goals and feel that they have the ability and a high expectancy to achieve the goal. They will then put in effort and persistence, make a task strategy and direct their actions towards the goal. When the employee gets feedback on their performance and if the employee manages to reach the achievements and the performance is somehow rewarded, this leads to an increase in job satisfaction. When the job satisfaction increases, the employees get motivated to commit to further goals, and the cycle repeats. [21] This is important to consider when developing the IT-based system so that, for example, it is clear for the employees what the goals are and that they get positive feedback and rewards for their performance. If employee satisfaction and efficiency increase through motivation, there will most likely be a decrease in friction.
3.6 Research question
The assumption in this study is that gamification can be used as a tool in an IT-based system to reduce friction for the employees in an activity-based workplace. The research question that will be examined is the following:
Which game design elements can be included in an IT-based system to reduce friction in an activity-based workplace?
4. METHOD
This research project is based on collection of qualitative data through interviews which is analyzed according to a number of
relevant emergent themes. Ethical aspects such as participant anonymity and gender ratio has been taken into account.
4.1 Ethics
Ethical concerns have been taken into account during the research process. The interview participants have been anonymous through the whole project and the data collected is not connected to any name of the persons being interviewed.
The participants will be referred to as “P” for participant and the number of the interview, for example P1 for the participant in the first interview. The participants have been informed about the purpose and publication of this study, as well as been given information about their right to withdraw at any time and how their data will be used and handled in the study. [19] [12] The ratio between the genders were relatively even with five females and four males participating in the study.
4.2 Interviews
The method used to examine the research question is semi-structured interviews. This means that the interviewer has prepared an interview guide including themes with some suggested questions to each theme which should be covered during the interview. Semi-structured interviews have been chosen because it is a thorough way to get descriptions of a real world situation of the interviewee and interpret the meaning of the described experience. Therefore the interviewer gets subjective perspectives of the same situation to interpret. [19]
Bunce and Johnson tested interviews as an information gathering method and discovered that saturation through interviews, which means that no new information or themes are found in the data, occurs between six to twelve interviews. [11]
In this study nine interviews were conducted, all of which were with managers and employees working in activity-based workplaces (see Appendix 9.1). The interviews were conducted at two swedish companies which are of different sizes and with different levels of experiences when it came to working in activity-based workplaces. One company is a telephone service provider, has thousands of employees and recently moved to an activity-based workplace, while the other one is a smaller real estate company who worked in an activity-based workplace for a couple of years. The differences between the companies were preferred since it makes the results from this study useful for more than one type of company. The companies were chosen because they are customers to the company where the thesis work has been performed.
4.3 Analysis
The data from the interviews were analyzed using the method thematic analysis. [2] Thematic analysis is a way to identify, analyze and report themes in qualitative data. Braun and Clarke describe six phases of analyse the data with thematic analysis which has been followed in this study. These phases involve familiarisation with the data, coding the data and searching for, defining and refining themes. This study is based on a
“theoretical” thematic analysis, since it has been driven by the researchers theoretical interest in the area of employee satisfaction and efficiency. [2] First the records from the interviews were transcribed before the data was coded. The data was coded into short sentences, before the sentences were coded into words describing the sentence. Themes were formulated based on recurring codes, which describe situations where friction most often arises in the workplace. If a code fit in under more than one theme, the code was placed under all themes that suited the code. The codes and themes were discussed with the
supervisor at the company were the study was based. It started with the following themes in the interview guide: use of ABW today, friction and improvements and leadership and organisation. The questions related to these themes led to data which, during the analysis stage, resulted in a formulation of the following themes: use of resources, understanding of the concept ABW, the physical environment and social interaction.
5. RESULTS
The results from the interviews consist of four themes. These themes describe important factors which are experienced to create friction for the employees in an activity-based workplace.
All four aspects are important to consider when designing IT-based systems for efficient activity-based workplaces and to increase employees’ satisfaction.
5.1 Use of resources
During the interviews questions were asked about how the resources in the workplace are being used, which affect the efficiency at work. It is clear that access to the resources in the workplaces often creates frictionfor the employees. One major issue noticed by employees is that different workplaces are being occupied for a longer period of time, sometimes without anyone sitting there, which decrease the efficiency of the resource but also for the employee searching for a place. P1 explains this issue:
I often walk a round on the floor and check out the work rooms, and there is always computers, bags etc.
there but maybe someone is there half of the time. So there are probably many who occupies. (P1)
Jag går ofta runt ett varv på våningsplanet och tittar in i work rooms, och det är alltid datorer, väskor osv. där men kanske någon är där hälften av tiden. Så det är nog många som ockuperar.
The most popular workplaces are those which allow focused work and concentration in secluded places. P5 expresses the importance of having some privacy and being able to work undisturbed and to avoid creating friction in the workplace by disturbing others.
It would have been nice to have a laptop there and undisturbed be able to work without disturbing the others or if one wants to do something private. (P5)
Det hade varit skönt att ha en laptop där och helt ostört kunna arbeta utan att störa de andra eller om man vill göra nåt privat.
Many of the participants experience that they have to be there early in the morning “to fight for” a specific workplace and that it sometimes takes a lot of time to find a workplace. This decreases the efficiency for employees.
I would say that some places are more popular than others, so one has to be here early and fight a little to get one. (P5)
Jag skulle säga att vissa platser är mer populära än andra, så man måste vara här tidigt och fightas lite för att få.
The meeting rooms which the employees can reserve are another popular resource, which people misuse by reserving rooms weeks in advance to be sure that they have a place to sit at their meetings. At the same time there is little to no usage of the open meeting areas, which can not be reserved but are perfect for many of the internal meetings. The same goes for the collaborative zones which are rarely used. This decrease the
efficiency for both how the resources are being used, but also for employees who spend time trying to find a room to reserve.
We are still working a lot with trying to, in the greater extent, have internal meetings out in open meeting areas and not in the conference rooms, there it should be more external meetings. Here we still have a challenge, one has to be reminded all the time. (P7)
Vi jobbar fortfarande mycket med att försöka i största utsträckning ha interna möten ute i öppna mötesplatserna och inte konferenslokalerna, utan här är det lite mer externa möten. Här har vi fortfarande en utmaning, man får hela tiden påminna.
This theme clearly shows that different workplaces are being occupied for longer time than needed, which affects the employee's efficiency at work when they have to spend time searching for a place which suits their current activity.
5.2 Understanding the concept ABW
Interview questions about the employee's overall experience of working in an activity-based workplace were asked to get an understanding of their level of satisfaction. These questions included things such as rules and norms in the workplace as well as the collaboration and sharing of workstations. One of the main problems in the activity-based workplaces is that the employees do not understand the concept and goal with the workplace, and how it is intended to be used. Therefore employees do not use it in the same way which creates friction.
I do not wish anything more than that regulations, behaviours etc. how one should act at the office is made clearer and communicated even more and embraced [by everyone]. (P1)
Önskar nog inget mer än att regelverk, beteenden, uppförande osv. hur man ska göra på kontoret blir tydligare och kommuniceras ännu mer och anammas.
P1 thinks it is up to the organisation to communicate how the workplace works and how it is intended to be used, and that employees should be open for this way of working. This sentiment is echoed in what P6 says:
It lives on a little but we are constantly working on taking personal responsibility, what can you do to change this. One can as an individual affect a lot. One has a lot of freedom with responsibility. (P6)
Det lever kvar lite grann men det jobbar vi ständigt med att ta eget ansvar, vad kan du göra för att förändra det där. Man kan som individ påverka väldigt mycket själv. Man har väldigt mycket frihet under ansvar.
P6 feels that it is up to each employee to take full advantage of the flexibility and use the freedom activity-based workplaces offers, but also acknowledges that this freedom demands that each individual employee takes responsibility for their actions.
P9 also states that the guidelines should be clearer, and mentions that there is a lack of regard between employees.
More that one talks about guidelines for the office verbally. Maybe should be more, make it clearer. Wish to show more regard to each other. (P9)
Mer att man pratar om riktlinjerna för kontoret muntligt.
Borde kanske finnas mer, göra det tydligare. Önskar att visa mer hänsyn till varandra.
It is being clear from the interviews that there is a need of better information to the employees about the workplace and what type of guidelines there are to increase employees satisfaction. This includes an increase in collaboration and that everyone becomes more active and moveable to actually be able to use it as intended and decrease the friction arising from uncertainties about the concept.
5.3 The physical environment
The workplace landscape is shown to be important to employees. When they were asked questions about how they want the physical environment to look and what they wish for in an activity-based workplace environment in the future, employees generally answered that they like the variation. In answer to a question on what employees think about the number of different types of areas in the workplace, P2 replies:
It is exactly that which is the variation parts, it matches everyone and everyone can feel at home at some point. (P2)
Det är väl just det som är variationsbitarna, det matchar alla och alla kan känna sig hemma på vissa antal ställen.
The employees also want to be a part of how the workplace is being improved and designed. They state the positive energy of a continuous improvement of the environment and that when one zone seems unused for a longer period of time, employees have a chance to take part in the improvement work to change that area to something more useful. This also decreases the friction related to how different resources are being used (see P1 quote from “use of resources”). The improvements of unused areas also lead to an increase in efficiency, since there is no waste of space. Employees impact goes along with what P2 states about that everyone should feel at home somewhere in the workplace and thereby increase employee satisfaction. Some employees also state that the variation in the environment is a key feature for activity-based workplaces and that they can see how it serves a specific purpose to break up routine and inspire collaboration.
Otherwise it is not ABW. Since it should change a little. [We] take next area and ask the ones who use to sit there, is there something you want to change. It is not enough that you just have a routine- [you need to]
not let things stand still, instead you talk to the other sitting there about why it was good. (P3)
Annars blir det inte ABW. I form av att det ska förändras lite. Ta nästa område och fråga de som brukar sitta där, är det här nånting ni vill ändra på. Att man har en rutin att inte bara låta det stanna upp, utan att man sen pratar med de som sitter där att vad blev bra.
It is not just the variation and talking to other employees that is important, P6 emphasise how the workplace come to life with the activity-based workplace.
It is like this that this is a living office and a living environment, so we are working all the time to see if any area is not being used so much and look at what is not working here? And then we redo it. (P6)
Det är ju såhär att det här är ett levande kontor och levande miljö, så vi jobbar hela tiden med att se om någon yta inte används så mycket och tittar vad är det som inte funkar här? Så gör vi om den.
P8 agrees that it is good with the variation between the areas, but wishes that the same could go for individual workplaces in the different zones.
Then that all places, the environment is different, but all places are the same. There is only one way of sitting and work. If it suits one then it is perfect, if it does not suit then it is not as good. (P8)
Sen att alla platser, att miljön är olika, men alla platser är lika. Det finns bara ett typ av sätt att sitta och jobba. Passar det en super så visst, passar det inte så är det inte lika bra.
The results from the interviews show that an important aspect on friction is how the physical environment looks and how it supports the employee's work. For example, the employees find no reason to change workplace if there is no difference between the different zones. The interviews also show the importance of having many different zones to make sure that all employees feel satisfied somewhere in the workplace, but that there also could be more variation between the individual workplaces and not only the zones.
5.4 Social interaction
Activity-based workplaces change the way in which employees interact socially. For example, P3 express that it is as a “mingle party” rather than a “family dinner”, where it is hard to follow up what someone did during the weekend on monday morning.
P4 explain a similar experience of missing the feeling of having a team:
That is the downside which we have been working with in four years, it is the team feeling if one thinks one needs it, and I think one needs it sometimes. (P4)
Det är ju baksidan som vi jobbat med i fyra år, det är ju teamkänsla om man tycker man behöver det, och det tror jag man behöver ibland.
This leads to an experience of a distance to work, and that the work becomes more anonymous and lonely. The experience is also based on the feeling of not knowing who it is okay to talk to and what the social norms are, which creates an insecure feeling at work leading to a decrease in employee satisfaction.
Since one has to walk around all the time one does not know when should I say hi, when should I not say hi.
Did we meet today or not. Should I look up everytime I pass or not. (P3)
Eftersom man går runt hela tiden vet man inte när ska jag hälsa, när ska jag inte hälsa. Har vi setts idag eller inte. Ska jag titta upp varje gång jag går förbi eller inte.
P8 explains similar experiences of loneliness in the workplace, but rather as an effect of being a social person in an activity-based workplace and being afraid to disturb co-workers and contribute to friction.
It becomes very anonymous otherwise, I am a very social person and if one likes to talk to people it is hard to know: can I talk with this person, can they handle it. So one can become very lonely because of that. (P8)
Det blir väldigt anonymt annars, jag är väldigt social person och gillar man att prata med folk är det svårt att veta: kan jag prata med den här personen, klarar dom av det. Så man kan bli väldigt ensam på så sätt.
