A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE IMPACTS OF OPEN PLAN AND CLOSED OFFICE LAYOUT TOWARDS EMPLOYEES’ PERCEIVED PRODUCTIVITY

Abstract

The open plan layout has dominated workspaces in various sectors of the professional world, with advocates claiming that it promotes an interactive and collaborative work environment. Despite the many known benefits of the layout, recent works have also proven that the open plan office layout can make it difficult for executives to encourage collaborative interaction and productivity amongst their employees. The objective of this study is to identify the impact of open and closed office layouts based on privacy, concentration levels, social interaction, health and wealth being within the workplace towards the employees’ perceived productivity. As a case study, an office in Thompson Hospital, Damansara, Selangor was chosen as the layout of the office represent the typical standard open and enclosed office. Through a self-administered questionnaire, the findings and data were collected and analysed. The data showed that respondents from open plan offices still scored the least level of satisfaction and positive perception towards the constructs relating to their productivity within their work environment especially in terms of overall health and wellbeing due to the office layout. Interestingly this survey also points out that employees located in closed private offices also show high levels of dissatisfaction in other aspects such as social interaction within the work environment. The findings may be used to provide an insight of office employees’ perception of the relationship between office layout and the overall impacts towards their perceived work productivity.