Flexible work arrangements: An exploration of the use of physical settings to share knowledge.

Abstract

<italic>How does the physical setting of work support the way that groups share knowledge about work processes</italic>? This dissertation takes this question and focuses it through the prism of hoteling as a flexible workplace alternative. The implication of flexible workplace alternatives is that physical setting plays only a minor role, if any, in supporting the work processes of an organization. This is implied in the core assumption behind flexible workplaces: employees may easily work from anywhere on any given day with the same level of effectiveness in their work. However, recent failures in flexible workplaces suggest that this is not the case. It is important to note that flexible workplaces are not necessarily problematic, but instead their effectiveness, like the effectiveness of all environments, depends on the relationship between user needs and environmental design. With the recent failures in flexible workplaces, the significance of this research is to clarify how physical settings support work, thus understanding user needs, and to relate those findings to flexible workplaces. Once it is determined how physical settings contribute to work processes, organizations and the architects who design for them will be better prepared to develop more effective workplaces and to preempt the costly failures that many organizations experience when developing alternative models of workplaces. The research used an exploratory qualitative case study of a global financial services organization. Research tactics included in-depth interviews, field observation, visual image analysis, and review of internal and external documents about the organization. Emergent thematic analysis was used to develop coding categories. Using these categories, two group types [formal teams and support groups], their work processes, their descriptions of sharing knowledge, and their physical settings were identified and then compared. From this research it is possible to conclude that flexible work alternatives that require 100% 'short term' hoteling may reduce the possibilities for groups to build knowledge into their physical settings and may thus reduce knowledge sharing within the organization. On the other hand, 'long term' hoteling offers the opportunity for groups to offload information into their environment and thus use the environment in support of sharing knowledge about work. The implications of these findings for both organization studies researchers and architectural studies researchers are explored and issues for future research are addressed.