Principles of lean office management increasingly call for space to be stripped of extraneous decorations so that it can flexibly accommodate changing numbers of people and different office functions within the same area. Yet this practice is at odds with evidence that office workers' quality of life can be enriched by office landscaping that involves the use of plants that have no formal work-related function. To examine the impact of these competing approaches, 3 field experiments were conducted in large commercial offices in The Netherlands and the U.K. These examined the impact of lean and "green" offices on subjective perceptions of air quality, concentration, and workplace satisfaction as well as objective measures of productivity. Two studies were longitudinal, examining effects of interventions over subsequent weeks and months. In all 3 experiments enhanced outcomes were observed when offices were enriched by plants. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
A large body of management and design literature argues that organizational outcomes can be enhanced either by strict managerial control or by managerial enrichment of office space. An alternative model, derived from the social identity approach to organizational life, argues that because they fail to empower workers both strategies are likely to compromise employees' organizational identification and should therefore be associated with sub‐optimal workplace experiences. Two studies (n=288, 1643) were conducted to compare these models. Both indicated that managerial control of space was associated with feelings of physical and psychological discomfort in the office and with lower levels of organizational identification. Discomfort and identification were also found to mediate relationships between managerial control and job satisfaction and well‐being. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Principles of lean management encourage managers to exert tight control over office space and the people within it. Alternative, design-led approaches promote the value of offices that are enriched, particularly by plants and art. On the basis of a social identity perspective, we argue that both of these approaches may compromise organizational outcomes by disempowering workers and failing to give them input into the design of their office space. This hypothesis is tested in two experiments (ns = 112, 47). The first was conducted in an interior office in a psychology department, the second in a commercial city office. In 4 independent conditions we examine the impact of space management strategies in which the office is either (a) lean, (b) decorated by the experimenter (with plants and art), (c) self-decorated, or (d) self-decorated and then redecorated by the experimenter. We examine the impact of these conditions on organizational identification, well-being, and various forms of productivity (attention to detail, information processing, information management, and organizational citizenship). In both experiments, superior outcomes are observed when offices are decorated rather than lean. However, further improvements in well-being and productivity are observed when workers have input into office decoration. Moreover, these effects are attenuated if this input is overridden. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. In particular, findings point to the need to question assumptions about the merits of lean office space management that have been dominant throughout the last century.
Benevolent, long-term care can threaten older adults' sense of autonomy in a residential home environment. Increasing reliance on a hotel style of living has been seen to erode social identity, life satisfaction and even survival or lifespan. Drawing on evidence from both gerontological and social psychological literature, this paper examines the links between the empowerment of residents and their subsequent quality of life in the context of a move into a new care facility in a medium-sized town in South-West England. A longitudinal experiment was conducted during which 27 residents on one floor of a new facility were involved in decisions surrounding its décor, while those on another floor were not. The residents' attitudes and behaviour were monitored at three points over five months (four weeks pre-move, four weeks post-move, and four months post-move). Consistent with the social identity literature, members of the empowered group reported increased identification with staff and fellow residents in the new home, displayed enhanced citizenship, reported improved wellbeing, and made more use of the communal space. Moreover the staff found the empowered residents to be more engaged with their environment and the people around them, to be generally happier and to have better health. These patterns were observed one month after the move and remained four months later. Some implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Group-based interventions have been argued to slow the cognitive decline of older people residing in care by building social identification and thereby increasing motivation and engagement. The present study explored the identity-cognition association further by investigating the impact of a group decision-making intervention on cognition. Thirty-six care home residents were assigned to one of three conditions: an Intervention in which they made decisions about lounge refurbishment as a group, a Comparison condition in which staff made these decisions, or a no-treatment Control. Cognitive function, social identification, home satisfaction, and lounge use were measured before and after the intervention. Participants in the Intervention condition showed significant increases on all measures, and greater improvement than participants in both Comparison and Control conditions. Consistent with social identity theorizing, these findings point to the role of group activity and social identification in promoting cognitive integrity and well-being among care residents.
Sand and proppant production pose a safety risk due to erosion, fill of wells and facilities, often resulting in significant deferred production. A number of wells in the Danish offshore sector are currently closed in or beaned back due to proppant production from sand propped fractured wells where proppant is back produced to surface facilities which were not designed with sand handling capability. A new sand consolidation treatment involving enzymatic calcium carbonate scale has been applied to individual zones downhole to remediate failed proppant fractures. The technology is an environmentally friendly alternative to commonly used resins and has the added benefit of being completely reversible. A detailed coiled tubing program was successfully executed in a harsh offshore environment with numerous challenges including identification of sanding zones, chemical contamination, logistics, and selective downhole placement. Laboratory testing was undertaken where unconsolidated proppant was treated with the consolidation chemicals. These results provided important input for defining the placement strategy and indicated that results could be replicated in the field. Successful results have been achieved from this industry first application of enzymatic calcium carbonate scale to consolidate sand propped fractures in a chalk reservoir. The field application supports the laboratory results, where sand free production of over 700 BOPD has been restored in a well previously closed due to proppant production with limited impact on well productivity. A post-job monitoring program has been designed to further evaluate this technology. The development of enzymatic calcium carbonate scale consolidation has led to a method for chemical consolidation of proppant fractures that is more environmentally friendly than alternative methods, is reversible and has limited impact on well productivity. Introduction The Gorm field is a chalk reservoir located in the Danish Offshore sector, created by salt uplift (Nederveen and Damm 1993). It produces from the Danian and Maastrichtian formations via approximately 30 active mainly horizontal production wells. The oil producers are generally completed using the Perforate, Stimulate, Isolate (PSI) concept (Damgaard et al. 1992). Pressure support is provided by four vertical and seven horizontal basal water injectors. The reservoir is tight, with matrix permeability of around 1 mD. The wells are either stimulated by means of matrix acidisation, high rate acid fracturing or sand propped fractures. Proppant and sand are used interchangeably throughout this paper, with both terms referring to the sand based proppant used during stimulation. Three key challenges to production are; scale formation (both barium sulfate and calcium carbonate),pressure maintenance due to irregular waterflood patterns and water short cuts, andsand production from de-stabilised fractures.
Using improved integration, data efficiency and more informed decision making, Woodside's Intelligent Fields Management (IFM) has created a step change improvement in the way the Cossack-Wanaea-Lambert-Hermes (CWLH) fields are managed. There is tremendous value in IFM in numerous and often unexpected places. However, the greatest value likely lies within the improved integration of data and work practices and longer-term reservoir management. The benefit-cost ratio of IFM on the CWLH fields is likely in the order of ten to one. This paper demonstrates what a mid-sized oil and gas company can accomplish within 12 months and at relatively low-cost using off-the-shelf technology and starting with little pre-existing knowledge.
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