Workscape 21: The Ecology of New Ways of Working

ISSUE: How organizations can use all their available resources to their fullest potential to become more competitive over time. APPLICATION: Develop an international consortium that will support research that has tangible organizational benefits as well as contributing to the general knowledge base about how the planning, design, and management of the workplace affect organizational effectiveness. GOAL: Use research to influence organizational leaders' approach to implementing new ways of working. DESCRIPTION: Conduct a series of worldwide case studies which examine both the process for implementing a workplace innovation and its consequences for the organization and individual workers. Innovations have included the study of nonterritorial and universal plan offices; new approaches to the strategic management of an organizational real estate portfolio; benchmarking of new working practices; analysis of the process of moving from small-scale to large-scale implementations of innovative practices; and the development of an expert-based interactive multimedia computer program that helps organizations anticipate the organizational consequences of implementing different workplace strategies. CONCLUSION: The research is being used by companies all over the world to guide their thinking about both the nature of different workplace strategies and the best way of implementing them successfully.