Creative workspaces – a fad or making real impact?

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the current trend of designing workspaces to foster creativity. The paper brings forth themes that seem to be connected with the so-called ‘creative workspaces’. The paper discusses how the findings relate to recent theory and research. Finally, the paper develops propositions to further elaborate the issue. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts an inductive and social constructionist approach. In all, 40 internet pictures of workspaces claimed to be creative among a broad range of industries and companies which were analyzed through an aesthetic lens and compared to what theory and research about organizational creativity and space inform us. Findings The designs of ‘creative workspaces’ follow a rather standardized and deterministic assumption of what kind of spaces are considered to produce creativity: open offices, happy, playful communities of close-knit teams and spatial arrangements that resemble home, symbols and memories, sports, technology and nature. This view of creativity and workspaces remains a management fad unless a more balanced approach to the issue is assumed. Research limitations/implications The sample is not to be representative and the findings generalizable as such, but to bring forth the phenomenon. This exploratory and inductive approach calls for a systematic study to prove the propositions in a more controlled research setting and with a bigger sample. Practical implications The paper makes a few suggestions of what companies should pay attention to when building workspaces to improve organizational creativity – and to overcome the fad. Social implications The proposed end-user perspective may ultimately save costs, if people can voice their needs on the space arrangements from the beginning and throughout the building process, not only after the spaces are fully complete, as is typically the case. Originality/value The paper provides a critical view on the trend of building work spaces to purposefully enhance organizational creativity. It brings forth themes that are connected to creativity and workspace designs and suggests that more nuances are involved in the issue.

Spatial design factors associated with creative work: a systematic literature review

“…Most of the analyzed academic sources ( n = 19) present Type-1 theories that describe a creative space as is. From these 19 sources, 11 present structured typologies, classification systems, or frameworks (Snead and Wycoff, 1999; Jankowska and Atlay, 2008; Leurs et al , 2013; Williams, 2013; Setola and Leurs, 2014; Schmidt et al , 2015; Kohlert and Cooper, 2017; Paoli and Ropo, 2017; Thoring et al , 2018 a , 2012 a , 2012 b ). In contrast, eight sources present unstructured lists of requirements that a creative space should fulfill, but without detailing how exactly this could be achieved (Lindahl, 2004; Haner, 2005; Moultrie et al , 2007; Martens, 2008; Walter, 2012; Oksanen and Ståhle, 2013; Peschl and Fundneider, 2014; Narayanan, 2017).…”

“…One example of these 19 sources is the typology presented by Paoli and Ropo (2017), which suggests, based on empirical investigations of 40 companies’ workspace pictures found on the internet, a set of five spatial themes that might foster creativity in the workspace. The five identified themes are (1) home, (2) sports and play, (3) technology (imaginative future and past), (4) nature and relaxation, and (5) symbolism, heritage, and history.…”

The Future of HR

“…The future workspace should support agile working of employees and manager [18]. De [19] emphasise the importance of involving end-users in planning and designing their workspace. Advancement in future workspace, technology, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) suggests new work design.…”

“…An employee's office, home, a third places such as a coffee shop can be seen as workspaces [22]. [19] state that is important to be innovative when planning workspace. Innovation is what agile is all about [23].…”

The spatial context of organizations: A critique of ‘creative workspaces’ – CORRIGENDUM

“…Following the publication of the article by De Paoli, Sauer & Ropo (Published online 18 September 2017), the authors have recognised that a reference was missing from the reference list. The authors have acknowledged that De Paoli and Ropo (2017) should have been cited in the text as although the two articles are aimed at audiences in two different disciplines they are broadly similar and should have been appropriately cited.…”