Generalizing Impact of Object Language to other Audiences: Peer Response to Office Design

Abstract

Research on the impact of office design has relied on samples of students. To evaluate the external generalizability of previous findings, the relationships among three design elements (desk placement, status symbol display, tidiness) and visitors' impressions (visitors' feelings, attributions about the officerholder) were examined among 64 college faculty. Using a slide-simulation methodology, more favorable visitors' reactions and normatively desirable attributions were associated with non-barrier desk placement and an intermediate level of tidiness. Status symbol display had little effect. A comparison of faculty responses with previous student-based research shows that both audiences react in a similar manner, albeit with a differential weighting patterns, to the nonverbal cues suggested by interior office design.