AN EVALUATION OF INTELLECTUAL PRODUCTIVITY BASED ON WORKER ATTRIBUTES

Classification of workers by office design preference

Abstract

 Recently, the methods and techniques for adjusting the local space composition of workplaces and personal physical environments have been gradually optimized. Composite services of various technologies, such as those from the internet of things and information and communications technology, have also improved. The development of corresponding technology has made more alternative work styles accessible to office workers; that is, workers can now adjust their working environment according to their own preferences, all with the aim to create workplaces that optimize the capabilities of all. Such optimization is also one of the more effective proposals to further improve intellectual productivity. Therefore, finding the best office design for workers is currently considered a topic of utmost importance.

 This study aimed to identify workers’ ideal preferences for office environment and space design, as well as the characteristics of each type of ideal office design. An online questionnaire survey targeted at Japanese workers was used to collect data on the attributes of current office workers, such as intellectual productivity, office space preferences, personality, gender, and occupational types.

 To investigate worker’s preferences for different office environments, we performed the following.

 (1) We selected 20 photos that featured elements that affect spatial design and impact intellectual productivity. Then, questions were asked about office design preference and impression evaluation words for each photo, and answers were collected and analyzed (Table2).

 (2) Office photographs were categorized into three groups according to workers’ corresponding analyses about office design preference and impression evaluation words.

 (3) Workers were categorized, and the characteristics of each category were examined; these were then compared with average office design preferences.

 (4) To clarify the overall tendency of workers’ preferences for office design, impression evaluation word scores were combined with the factor load of the preference degree of worker types.

 The results were as follows:

 (1) According to the impression evaluation words, office photos were divided into three groups: G1=Open and Spacious, G2=Typical and Conservative, and G3=Playful (Fig. 1, Table3).

 (2) Regarding office design preferences, workers were divided into four types. The characteristics of these four types were as follows: T4_1 liked G2 but did not like G1 and G3, T4_3 liked G2 the most and G3 the least, T4_2 and T4_4 both liked G1 and demonstrated slight differences in their evaluations of G2 (Fig. 4, Fig. 5).

 (3) There was a high correlation between the impression evaluation words scores of the three photo groups and the factor load of worker types (Table5).

 (4) Workers had different preference characteristics based on their type. However, the general tendency of each type, when plotted as vectors, showed that: T4_1 tended to strongly prefer G2, T4_3 tended to balance between G1 and G2, while T4_2 and T4_4 tended to prefer both G1 and G3, and, among these, they preferred G1 over G3 (Fig. 6).

 With these clarifications on preferred characteristics for office design among different types of professionals, we expect to help in providing a suitable office design for each type of worker.