-899160-918210 Program Name
-899160-918210
Program Name: Master of Business Administration
Student Information:
Name: Mohamed Abdelmunem Suliman Mohamed
Batch number and year of admission: MBA20-2017
Student index number: 018
Telephone number: 00249914121214
E-mail: [email protected]
Project Title
How Open Office Plans Affect Workplace Productivity in Sudan
Introduction/Background:
Office layout, i.e., the arrangement of workplaces and types of boundaries in an office, is an important dimension of office environment (Oldham et al., 1995; de Croon et al., 2005).
The movement inside the offices, visible co-presence (i.e., the number of people seen from any space), and face-to-face interaction are important as it may help build trust among office workers leading to improved office performance.
(Allen, 1977; Cross and Borgatti, 2002; Sundstrom and Altman, 1989; Wineman and Serrato, 1998).
More recently, Rashid et al. (2006) report a study investigating the relationships among movement, visible co-presence, and face-to-face interactions.
Numerous private and public organizations have already adopted the concept of open-plan offices as it provides more work spaces and place more employees in an office.
Open -plan offices assumed ability to facilitate interaction among employees; and, ultimately, their presumed potential to improve work performance and productivity.
DAL group of companies is one of the most successful conglomerates in Africa and in the Middle East, and the interaction of the group’s staff plays a big role in the success of the group; and this the reason why the group is chosen to be examined.
The Problem Statement:
Changes in office layout may affect an organization in different ways. At the very basic level, layout changes may affect accessibility and visibility within an office affecting individual and organizational behaviours.
They may also affect user attitude and perception of the work environment because of their effects on behaviour.
Objective:
To prove that Open plan office is not an arrangement of work places, it affects the productivity of the firms.
The research questions:
The following are the research questions:
How can the different patterns of visibility and accessibility in different open plan office affect observed levels of interaction at workplaces?
How it may help generate more positive effects on visible co-presence and movement?
The research Hypothesis:
We hypothesize that an open plan office with better visibility and accessibility will have positive effects on one’s job satisfaction and on one’s commitments to organization.
Basic Literature Review:
A social relations perspective suggests that an environment may act as a catalyst for social interactions and communications affecting organizational climate (Oldham ; Brass, 1979).
The origin of the social relations perspective can be traced to two different but interrelated social psychological research streams.
The first stream argues that the physical environment can shape the social interaction patterns of individuals. They show that interaction among residents in an apartment complex is highest when there is only one stairway at the end of the floor of the apartment building. (Festinger, Schacter, and Back (1950) report the classic study demonstrating this effect.)
In other words, according to this perspective people are most likely to interact and communicate with others when the physical environment encourages them to do so.
Other studies show that proximity of workspaces may affect the development of an informal group among compatible people (Gullahorn, 1952; Walker ; Guest, 1952); and that spatial arrangement and the location of walls, partitions, furnishings, and other barriers may affect cohesiveness and interaction among groups (Lawrence ; Lorsch, 1967; Bobele ; Buchanan, 1979).
Building on the first stream, the second social psychological research stream suggests that the physical characteristics of settings can influence interaction, which, in turn, contributes to individual attraction and organizational climate.
This stream is essentially based on the research work that suggests that higher interaction among persons produces better interpersonal attraction (e.g., Bovard, 1951; Gullahorn, 1952).
The Research Methodology:
We choose 3 companies out of 16 companies of DAL Group in order to conduct the research as these companies have the biggest number of staff and their work is interrelated with each other.
These companies are: Sayga, Coca-Cola, and Capo.
The data should be collected through a structured interview for key department’s heads (i.e. R&D, Marketing, Sales, and After Sales Departments).
The interview contains open-ended questions in order to obtain more information regarding the research.
The Research Limitation:
The research is limited to a geographical area and a certain conglomerate.
The sample of the research included ONLY 3 companies out of 16 of DAL Group.
Time plan (gantt chart) (when?)
Summary:
After data analysis and clarifying the result of the interviews, generalizing the result over all DAL Group’s companies; the conclusion of the research and its result will tell to which extend the productivity is related to the type of office selected.
This result may affect the way of the top management thinking and views towards the open plan office.
References:
-899160-918210
Program Name: Master of Business Administration
Student Information:
Name: Mohamed Abdelmunem Suliman Mohamed
Batch number and year of admission: MBA20-2017
Student index number: 018
Telephone number: 00249914121214
E-mail: [email protected]
Project Title
How Open Office Plans Affect Workplace Productivity in Sudan
Introduction/Background:
Office layout, i.e., the arrangement of workplaces and types of boundaries in an office, is an important dimension of office environment (Oldham et al., 1995; de Croon et al., 2005).
The movement inside the offices, visible co-presence (i.e., the number of people seen from any space), and face-to-face interaction are important as it may help build trust among office workers leading to improved office performance.
(Allen, 1977; Cross and Borgatti, 2002; Sundstrom and Altman, 1989; Wineman and Serrato, 1998).
More recently, Rashid et al. (2006) report a study investigating the relationships among movement, visible co-presence, and face-to-face interactions.
Numerous private and public organizations have already adopted the concept of open-plan offices as it provides more work spaces and place more employees in an office.
Open -plan offices assumed ability to facilitate interaction among employees; and, ultimately, their presumed potential to improve work performance and productivity.
DAL group of companies is one of the most successful conglomerates in Africa and in the Middle East, and the interaction of the group’s staff plays a big role in the success of the group; and this the reason why the group is chosen to be examined.
The Problem Statement:
Changes in office layout may affect an organization in different ways. At the very basic level, layout changes may affect accessibility and visibility within an office affecting individual and organizational behaviours.
They may also affect user attitude and perception of the work environment because of their effects on behaviour.
Objective:
To prove that Open plan office is not an arrangement of work places, it affects the productivity of the firms.
The research questions:
The following are the research questions:
How can the different patterns of visibility and accessibility in different open plan office affect observed levels of interaction at workplaces?
How it may help generate more positive effects on visible co-presence and movement?
The research Hypothesis:
We hypothesize that an open plan office with better visibility and accessibility will have positive effects on one’s job satisfaction and on one’s commitments to organization.
Basic Literature Review:
A social relations perspective suggests that an environment may act as a catalyst for social interactions and communications affecting organizational climate (Oldham & Brass, 1979).
The origin of the social relations perspective can be traced to two different but interrelated social psychological research streams.
The first stream argues that the physical environment can shape the social interaction patterns of individuals. They show that interaction among residents in an apartment complex is highest when there is only one stairway at the end of the floor of the apartment building. (Festinger, Schacter, and Back (1950) report the classic study demonstrating this effect.)
In other words, according to this perspective people are most likely to interact and communicate with others when the physical environment encourages them to do so.
Other studies show that proximity of workspaces may affect the development of an informal group among compatible people (Gullahorn, 1952; Walker & Guest, 1952); and that spatial arrangement and the location of walls, partitions, furnishings, and other barriers may affect cohesiveness and interaction among groups (Lawrence & Lorsch, 1967; Bobele & Buchanan, 1979).
Building on the first stream, the second social psychological research stream suggests that the physical characteristics of settings can influence interaction, which, in turn, contributes to individual attraction and organizational climate.
This stream is essentially based on the research work that suggests that higher interaction among persons produces better interpersonal attraction (e.g., Bovard, 1951; Gullahorn, 1952).
The Research Methodology:
We choose 3 companies out of 16 companies of DAL Group in order to conduct the research as these companies have the biggest number of staff and their work is interrelated with each other.
These companies are: Sayga, Coca-Cola, and Capo.
The data should be collected through a structured interview for key department’s heads (i.e. R;D, Marketing, Sales, and After Sales Departments).
The interview contains open-ended questions in order to obtain more information regarding the research.
The Research Limitation:
The research is limited to a geographical area and a certain conglomerate.
The sample of the research included ONLY 3 companies out of 16 of DAL Group.
Time plan (gantt chart) (when?)
Summary:
After data analysis and clarifying the result of the interviews, generalizing the result over all DAL Group’s companies; the conclusion of the research and its result will tell to which extend the productivity is related to the type of office selected.
This result may affect the way of the top management thinking and views towards the open plan office.
References:
(Oldham et al., 1995; de Croon et al., 2005).
(Allen, 1977; Cross and Borgatti, 2002; Sundstrom and Altman, 1989; Wineman and Serrato, 1998). www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf.
Rashid et al. (2006)www.researchchgate.net (Oldham & Brass, 1979). www.jstor.org/stable.
(Festinger, Schacter, and Back (1950) report the classic study demonstrating thiseffect.)www.changingminds.org/explanations/theories/proprinquity_effect.htm(Gullahorn, 1952; Walker & Guest, 1952); www.researchgate.net/publication/267805437_ON_PSHYCHO/ SOCIAL_C
(Lawrence & Lorsch, 1967; Bobele & Buchanan, 1979). www.researchgate.net/publication/234021677_differenatiation_and_integration_in_complex_organization.
attraction (e.g., Bovard, 1951; Gullahorn, 1952). (Gullahorn, 1952; Walker & Guest, 1952); www.researchgate.net/publication/267805437_ON_PSHYCHO/ SOCIAL_C
