Open plan
Open plan is the generic term used in architectural and interior design for any floor plan which makes use of large, open spaces and minimizes the use of small, enclosed rooms such as private offices. The term can also refer to landscaping of housing estates, business parks, etc, in which there are no defined property boundaries such as hedges, fences or walls.
‘Work environments that are more open create more opportunities for observing and learning from those with more experience and different skills.’
- from "Offices that Work" by Franklin Becker PhD and William Sims PhD: Cornell University: International Workplace Studies Program http://iwsp.human.cornell.edu
Popular variants on the plan office
These are just a few popular types of open plan workplaces in use around the world today:
Team-oriented ‘bullpen’ – employees can see and hear each other freely, but desks are grouped into teams
High-panelled cubicles – employees can’t see other employees when seated
Low-panelled cubicles – employees can see over the panels when seated
Clusters or ‘pods’ – a group of low-panelled work stations, separated by high panels from other pods.
Virtual office - a la carte work spaces, offices and communication services.
Executive suite - subleased office space, even open, in a large professional environment or office building.
History
Open plan offices have existed for a long time. However, prior to the 1950s, these mostly consisted of large regular rows of desks or benches where clerks, typists, or technicians performed repetitive tasks. Such designs were rooted in the work of industrial engineers or efficiency experts such as Frederick Winslow Taylor and Henry Ford. In the 1950s, a German team named Quickborner developed office landscape which used conventional furniture, curved screens, large potted plants, and organic geometry to create work groups on large, open floors. Office landscape was quickly supplanted by office furniture companies which developed cubicles based on panel-hung or systems furniture. Many different terms (mostly derisive) have been used over time for offices using the old-style, large arrays of open cubicles including 'sea of cubicles' and 'cube farms'. Frank Lloyd Wright was the first architect to use the 'open plan' design in houses.
Benefits of open plan workplaces
- When communication and interaction are critical elements of the work process, open plan offices are more effective. This applies to most professions.
- Shared conversations can lead to faster recognition and resolution of issues.
- Whilst some people find short conversations distracting, the increased frequency of interaction improves feedback/response time and work can continue unencumbered.
- Open environments lead to information being freely shared and thus remove the need for many targeted administrative transactions (e.g. if you overhear someone saying they are leaving work early that afternoon, they need not tell you on a separate occasion).
- The volume of information shared is increased – questions are just asked rather than being delayed for such considerations as ‘waiting for the right time to ask’ or ‘next time I go past their office’.
- Tacit learning is, in the same way as on-the-job training, profoundly more effective than formal instruction and therefore better for workplace productivity.
Disadvantages of open plan workplaces
A systematic survey of research upon the effects of open plan offices found frequent negative effects in some traditional workplaces: high levels of stress, conflict, high blood pressure and a high staff turnover.[1]
Open plan in the 20th v. 21st Century
Many different companies are experimenting with designs which provide a mix of cubicles, open workstations, private offices, and group workstations. In some cases, these are not assigned to one particular individual, but are available to any employee of the company on either a reservable or "drop-in" (first come, first served) basis. Terms for this strategy include office hotelling and alternative officing[2].
The remaining need for offices
The ‘closed’ workplace is definitive. The open is not. The 20th century had defined industries and boundaries. The 21st century does not.
The industrial revolution created by the internet has changed everything about business. With companies doing automated sales around the clock and across timezones, the last frontier of the 20th century 'office environment' is the physical workplace.
The 21st century office acknowledges that whilst work can be done without a shared workplace, the office environment is highly valued as a place for ideas, discussion, information and motivation.
Socialising is the glue that binds a team together, but forced socialising is transparent. If we compare the interaction between bosses and managers in open vs. closed-plan offices:
- Closed office or high-panelled cubicle: 82% work and 5% non-work
- Open workstation is 64% work and 24% non-work.
(These results are relative to the amount of conversations eliminated through freely shared information in an open plan office.)
Which is best, open-plan or otherwise?
Neither open or closed-plan offices are perfect for any one situation. The ‘right balance’ is required.
- Age profiles are essential to determining the suitability of open-plan offices. Generally, the older the employee, the more privacy they prefer (perhaps as younger generations have grown up with inherently shorter attention spans)
- Most people prefer closed offices
- Flexibility is increased when the office is open plan – as the company grows and changes, seating can grow to suit
- Open-plan costs less per capita.
The correct balance is most likely to be found by employees having an open setting with part-time access to a quiet workspace. While there is a dearth of studies confirming positive impacts on productivity from open plan office designs, a recent study by the Queensland University of Technology, Australia, has confirmed the adverse effects. Tom de Marco and Timothy Lister, established this as early as 1987 in their work 'Peopleware'. It remains puzzling, however, that, typically, the degree of enclosure for a given office space is inversely proportionate to the rank of the person occupying it, which can only partially be explained with the need of higher ranking staff to discuss confidential matters in a more private environment. Any worker expected to focus and use their brain for longer periods (immersed) would have a case for a work environment more conducive to this task than what an open plan office can provide.
References
- ^ Dr Vinesh Oommen (13 Jan 2009), Why your office could be making you sick, Asia-Pacific Journal of Health Management
- ^ Cornell study
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