Evaluation of workplace quality - A method for improvement and further development of workplace design for the future

摘要

Background for Master’s Thesis ResearchMost of the workspace inhabited by people today were developed in and according to workneeds in a time when the pace and character of changes in work were much less pronounced thanthey are today (McGregor & Then, 1991). Innovative thinking in office design is once againchanging the way we think about our workspace, on a level not experienced since the end of thenineteenth century. Duffy (1997) states that the way people work in their offices are changingrapidly and that these changes will affect the conventions upon which office design and realestate practice have been based for decades.New technology enables people to work from almost anywhere at any time. Office designtherefore plays an important role and should encourage and support the new ways of workingTanis and Duffy (2008, cited in Grech & Walter, 2008) asserted that the benefits of office designwere measurable, by putting office design into the general context of business. They made thedistinction between efficiency and effectiveness to office design, making it possible to measurethe business benefits of design features that save money and add value.In order to create functional workplaces for the future, which not only anticipates, but take fulladvantage of all the changes that are taking place, it is important to have the right methods andtools for evaluation of workplaces. With such an evaluation it is possible to identify challenges inthe workplace design that can be improved in order to develop workplaces that better supportsthe users in their daily work task (Duffy, 1997).The goal of this thesis was to decide on a method within building evaluation that is suitable forworkplaces and can be used for improvement and further development of workplace design forthe future. With Telenor as a pilot study in this thesis, the purpose was to adapt and adjust aworkplace evaluation method to fit the purpose of evaluation of the Telenor Workplace Model inorder to make it standardized for future use. The aim of this master’s thesis was therefore toratify to what degree building evaluation can contribute in further development and improvementof open plan workplace design in an organization.Research and Development ProcessThe research initiated with an existing survey developed to evaluate offices in a post occupancyphase on a detailed and analytical level. An early edition of this survey has already been used byTelenor Real Estate in their projects to evaluate the usability of their workplace model.Telenor serves the pilot study in this thesis and the purpose of this thesis was to adapt theprevious mentioned survey to fit the purpose of projects in Telenor Real Estate. Telenor RealEstate has developed a Telenor Workplace Model, and wants this to be applied to every TelenorBuilding on a long term basis. In order to do so it is important for Telenor Real Estate to collectdata that can be used to visualize the effects of such an application to the decision makers forevery building. To collect this data they need a standardized method with tools easily operatedand analyzed. As the Head of Workplace Management mentioned in the interview, it is importantthat everything is automated so that it is simple to send out, collect and analyze the evaluationresults.In order to get a deep understanding of the different aspects of background and purpose forworkplace evaluation, it was considered necessary to collect information and opinions fromdifferent people involved in an evaluation. This researcher has identified three perspectives indevelopment of an evaluation method that needs to be considered; the developer, the user andthe participants. Telenor wanted a shorter survey focusing more on functional space and qualityin order to quickly analyze the workplace quality for use in benchmarks or pre-, and postreconstruction comparisons, it was crucial to eliminate all questions considered sensitive and lessimportant for the workplace function purposeThe method developed in this thesis was tested in a pilot study at Telenor’s premises in Budapestin form of a newly developed Survey on Workplace Quality and the Usability Walkthrough foundin USE-Tool. The usability of the survey was evaluated through a focus group at TelenorBudapest in order to assess if the method achieved the objectives stated in the research questionof this thesis.Thesis ConclusionThe method developed in this research is best suited to be used as an evaluation tool for openplan offices, but can also be used in other types of workplaces for the same purpose. The pilotstudy in this research is performed in a flexible, non-territorial workplace, but most of thequestions in the survey tool can also be used for a workplace with cell office structure.USE-Tool, which was evaluated to be a well suited method to serve the purpose of this thesis, isa thorough evaluation method for usability containing several steps with tools to make qualitativeassessments of a building. However, it does not provide a tool to collect quantitative data. Asmentioned by the Head of Workplace Management at Telenor Real Estate, it was important foran evaluation method to provide statistical results that could be presented to the decision makersin a reconstruction or development project. Another impotent goal of the evaluation was toretrieve data for benchmark. Statistical data is often preferred by people in business as it is a goodand easy way to visualize results and to benchmark.The researcher will therefore suggest that The Survey of Workplace Quality can be used as asupplement to applications of USE-Tool in order to collect the quantitative data need forbenchmarks and presentation purposes.A post occupancy evaluation involves a systematic evaluation of opinions, from the perspectiveof the users of a building, and assesses how well a building matches the users' needs (Preiser et al,1988). As several of the presented evaluation methods state the importance of the user’sassessments of their workplace when evaluating the improvements of its design, one canconclude that a workplace evaluation achieves its purpose.