Office Design's Impact on Psychosocial Work Environment and Emotional Health

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Environmental Psychology
• Organizational Behavior

Background:

• Office design is a critical determinant of the psychosocial work environment and employee emotional health.
• Previous research has not comprehensively compared diverse office layouts regarding these outcomes.
• Understanding these associations is vital for creating healthier and more productive workplaces.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between seven distinct office designs and employees' psychosocial work environment and emotional health.
• To analyze gender-specific differences in responses to various office environments.
• To identify optimal office designs for enhancing employee well-being.

Main Methods:

• A large-scale study involving 4352 employees across seven different office designs.
• Multivariate linear regression analysis was employed to assess associations.
• Statistical adjustments were made for age and educational level, with separate analyses for men and women.

Main Results:

• Significant variations in psychosocial factors and emotional exhaustion were observed across office designs and genders.
• Cell offices demonstrated the most favorable outcomes for emotional health, except for psychological demands, which were highest in shared-room offices.
• Cell and small open-plan offices benefited women's emotional exhaustion; hot-desking negatively impacted men's psychosocial environment and emotional exhaustion.

Conclusions:

• Office design is a significant factor influencing psychosocial work environment and emotional health.
• Cell offices appear most beneficial overall, but shared rooms offer advantages for psychological demands.
• Gender moderates the impact of office design, with specific layouts posing challenges for men (hot-desking) and women (combi- and small open-plan offices).