Direct and Interactive Effects of the Physical Work Environment on Attitudes

This study examined the direct and interactive relationships among several elements of the physical work environment (i.e., type of office, personal computer [PC] use, and ergonomic furniture), types of work (i.e., clerical, professional, and managerial, and supervisory versus nonsupervisory), and employee attitudes (i.e., satisfaction and environmental perceptions). Two-hundred and twenty-eight employees of a large bank completed questionnaires. Analyses of variance revealed both direct and interactive effects. Differences were found across those with and without PCs and ergonomic furniture on various attitudes and perceptions. Differences were also found across office types, as were interactive effects among work types and office types. These results support the hypothesis that relationships among these variables are complex and interactive, and illustrate that perceptions of the physical environment are moderated by the job level and the type of work people perform.

[1]  A. Rapoport.  The Meaning of the Built Environment: A Nonverbal Communication Approach , 1982 .

[2]  Richard V. Farace,et al.  Determinants of Employee Work Perceptions and Attitudes , 1985 .

[3]  Richard V. Farace,et al.  Traditional versus open offices: A comparison of sociotechnical, social relations, and symbolic meaning perspectives. , 1987 .

[4]  G. R. Oldham,et al.  Relationships between Office Characteristics and Employee Reactions: A Study of the Physical Environment. , 1983 .

[5]  Greg R. Oldham,et al.  Effects of changes in workspace partitions and spatial density on employee reactions: A quasi-experiment. , 1988 .

[6]  Franklin Becker,et al.  Workspace: Creating environments in organizations , 1981 .

[7]  Alan Hedge,et al.  The Open-Plan Office , 1982 .

[8]  Kathryn H. Anthony,et al.  Behavioral Issues in Office Design , 1986 .

[9]  Daniel J. Brass,et al.  Employee Reactions to an Open-Plan Office: A Naturally Occurring Quasi-Experiment. , 1979 .

[10]  Kent F. Spreckelmeyer,et al.  Evaluating Open and Conventional Office Design , 1982 .

[11]  I. Altman,et al.  Handbook of environmental psychology , 1987 .

[12]  John W. Murphy,et al.  Managing Technological Innovation , 1987 .

[13]  D. Weiss,et al.  Manual for the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire. , 1967 .

[14]  David J. Oborne,et al.  The Physical environment at work , 1983 .

[15]  Ronald Goodrich.  Seven Office Evaluations , 1982 .

[16]  A. H. Brayfield,et al.  Interrelationships among measures of job satisfaction and general satisfaction. , 1957 .

[17]  R. Moos.  Conceptualizations of human environments. , 1973 .

[18]  Susan Klitzman,et al.  Work environment and the well‐being of clerical and VDT workers , 1987 .

[19]  Eric Sundstrom,et al.  Physical Enclosure, Type of Job, and Privacy in the Office , 1982 .