Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss opportunities for health promotion through the workplace environment, adopting a “salutogenic” perspective of health which more explicitly focuses on factors that support human health and well-being, as opposed to factors which cause disease. Design/methodology/approach In the introduction, the salutogenic model of health and the Environmental Demands-Resources model are discussed, providing a conceptual framework to represent the workplace environment as a composite of pathogenic “demands” and salutogenic “resources”. Subsequently, a narrative review is performed to discuss the existing literature from the perspective of this novel framework, identifying environmental resources which might strengthen the three components of an employee’s “sense of coherence” (comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness), an individual orientation associated with more positive health outcomes. Findings Comprehensibility can be supported by effectively implementing a clear set of rules governing the use of the workplace. Manageability can be supported through biophilic design solutions, and through design which supports social cohesion and physical activity. Meaningfulness can be supported by recognising the importance of personal identity expression and through design which reinforces the employees’ sense of purpose. Originality/value The salutogenic perspective is a potentially valuable but relatively under-considered paradigm in workplace practice. The key contribution of this paper is to encourage researchers and practitioners to recognise the crucial role that an individual’s sense of coherence plays in supporting higher levels of physical and mental health, so that they increase their ability to provide truly “healthy” workplaces, capable of promoting health as well as minimising the risk of disease.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory (Demerouti et al., 2001; Bakker and Demerouti, 2017) is an appropriate conceptual framework for understanding the physical environment for work. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual analysis of the multidisciplinary workplace literature was performed to assess the core propositions of JD-R theory as they relate to the workplace environment. Findings The analysis confirms that the workplace environment can be viewed as a composite of environmental demands (which instigate a health impairment process) and environmental resources (which trigger an engagement process). Employees proactively try to improve the suitability of their workspace through environmental crafting, motivated by minimising demands and maximising resources. Originality/value The application of JD-R theory to the workplace environment fills a gap in the literature for a framework which captures the dynamic nature of the employee-workplace relationship.

Associations between job satisfaction, job characteristics, and acoustic environment in open-plan offices. Applied Acoustics, 168, p. 107425.

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Purpose Advancements in wireless sensor technology and building modelling techniques have enabled facilities managers to understand the environmental performance of the workplace in more depth than ever before. However, it is unclear to what extent this data can be used to predict subjective environmental comfort. This study aims to pilot test a methodological framework for integrating real-time environmental data with subjective ratings of environmental comfort. Design/methodology/approach An open-plan office was fitted with environmental sensors to measure key indoor environmental quality parameters (carbon dioxide, temperature, humidity, illumination and sound pressure level). Additionally, building modelling techniques were used to calculate two spatial metrics (“workspace integration” and workspace density) for each workspace within the study area. In total, 15 employees were repeatedly sampled across an 11-day study period, providing 78 momentary assessments of environmental comfort. Multilevel models were used to explore the extent to which the objective environmental data predicted subjective environmental comfort. Findings Higher carbon dioxide levels were associated with more negative ratings of air quality, higher “workspace integration” was associated with higher levels of distractions, and higher workspace density was associated with lower levels of social interactions. Originality/value To our knowledge, this is the first field study to directly explore the relationship between physical environment data collected using wireless sensors and subjective ratings of environmental comfort. The study provides proof-of-concept for a methodological framework for the integration of building analytics and human analytics.