The Relationship between Privacy,Control,and Stress Responses in Office Workers

Abstract

This paper describes a field study that examined the relationship between objective and subjective measures of enclosure, perceived privacy, and outcome measures of stress responses and environmental satisfaction. The use of designed features of the environment (such as work space panels) as a means of controlling visual privacy was also examined. Using a quasi-experimental design, the study examined the responses of 276 workers who used systems furniture in seven buildings around the United States.

The stepwise regression analyses of the data show that there is a significant relationship between objective measures of the physical environment (such as square footage, number of panels and panel heights) and privacy. Perceived enclosure is an important predictor of privacy, environmental satisfaction and stress. The analyses also revealed a significant relationship between control over the environment and perceived privacy. There were no significant relationships directly between control over visual privacy and stress symptoms. These analyses provide indications that there is a link between work space design features, perceptions of enclosure and subsequent stress reactions to the environment.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Block

L. K.

Stokes

M.S.

Garnett

(1989). Performance and satisfaction in private versus nonprivate work settings. Environment and Behavior, 21, 3, 277–297.

Brill

Margulis

Konar

(1985). Using Office Design to Increase Productivity, Vol. 2, Grand Rapids, MI: Westinghouse Furniture Systems.

Caplan

R.D.

Cobb

French

J.R.P.

Harrison

R.V.

Pinneau

S.R.

(1975). Job Demands and Worker Health. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing.

Carlopio

Gardner

(1992). Direct and interactive effects of the physical work environment on attitudes. Environment and Behavior, 24, 5.

Cohen

(1980). Aftereffects of stress on human performance and social behavior: A review of research and theory, Psychological Bulletin, 88, 1, 82–108.

Cooper

C.L.

Marshall

(1976). Occupational sources of stress: A erview of the literature relating to coronary heart disease and mental ill health. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 49, 11–18.

Ferguson

Weisman

G.D.

(1986). Alternative approaches to the assessment of employee satisfaction with the office environment. In Wineman

(Ed.) Behavioral Issues in Office Design, Van Nostrand Reinhold: New York.

Frese

(1989). Theoretical models of control and health. In Sauter

S.L.

Hurrell

J.J.

Jr. Cooper

C.L.

(Eds.), Job Control and Worker Health, Wiley & Sons, New York.

Hedge

(1982). The open plan office: A systematic investigation of employee reactions to their work environment, Environment and Behavior, 14, 5, 519–542.

10.

Karasek

R. A.

(1979). Job Demands, job decision latitude, and mental strains: Implications for job redesign. Administrative Science Quarterly, 24, 285–308.

11.

Oldham

(1988). Effects of changes in workspace partitions and spatial density on employee reactions: A quasi-experiment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 73, 2, 253–258.

12.

O'Neill

M.J.

(1992). Effects of workspace design and environmental control on office workers' perceptions of air quality. Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 36m Annual Meeting, 2, 890–894.

13.

Paciuk

(1990). The role of personal control of the environment in thermal comfort and satisfaction at the workplace. Proceedings of the Environmental Design Research Association 21st Annual Meeting, 303–312.

14.

Piotrkowski

C.S.

Coray

K.E.

Cohen

B.G.F.

(1987). The Relationship of Working Conditions to Health and Well Being Among Women Office Workers, technical repotr order no. 86-71437, (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Cinncinati, OH).

15.

Sainfort

(1990). Job design predictors of stress in automated offices. Behavior and Information Technology, 9, 1, 3–16.

16.

Sauter

S.L.

Schleifer

L. M.

Knutson

S.J.

(1991). Work posture, workstation design, and musculoskeletal discomfort in a VDT data entry task. Human Factors, 33, 2, 151–167.

17.

Singer

J.E.

Baum

(1983). Stress, Environment, and Environmental Stress. In Feimer

N.G.

Geller

S.E.

(Eds.), Environmental Psychology: Directions and Perspectives, pp. 129–149, New York: Praeger.

18.

Sundstrom

Burt

R. E.

Kamp

(1980). Privacy at work: Architectural correlates of job satisfaction and job performance. Academy of Management Journal, 23, 1, 101–117.

19.

Sundstrom

Town

J. P.

Brown

D. W.

Forman

McGee

(1982). Physical enclosure, type of job and privacy in the office. Environment and Behavior, 14, 5, 543–559.

20.

Sutton

R.T.

Rafaeli

(1987). Characteristics of work stations as potential occupational stressors. Academy of Management Journal, 30, 2, 260–276.

21.

Wineman

J.D.

(1986). The office environment as a source of stress. In Evans

(Ed.) Environmental Stress, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, MA.