Predicting Satisfaction with the Office Environment by Measuring Constraints to Worker Activities

Abstract

Previous research has shown that people often feel crowded when the environment gets in their way. This suggests that suitable measures of environmental constraint may be predictive of perceived crowding and environmental satisfaction. This study tests the hypothesis that environments that constrain the activities of their inhabitants less will be perceived as having greater quality and their inhabitants will be more satisfied with them. An office environment is used as a test case.

How the physical environment constrains worker movements is assessed with several new quantitative measures. These measures vary depending on the difference between the size and shape of space that workers require for their activities and the space that is available. The spatial requirements of office activities were estimated from videotaped records of the routine activities of workers. A computer program developed for this study computed values for the measures of constraint for each of 194 workstations. These estimates of environmental constraint were then used to explain some of the variance observed in worker attitudes about their environment.

The findings support the study hypothesis. Furthermore, the measures and methods developed for this study suggest a new approach to reduce crowding in our built environments and improve inhabitant environmental satisfaction.

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