Relationship between attributes of individual workers and concentration at work

Abstract

Working environments are becoming far more diverse. For example, Activity-Based Working (ABW), a new style of working where workers choose their own work environment, is now attracting attention. An office that introduces ABW is comprised of various spaces, including open plan workspaces, corresponding to the ways of working. However, such an office may result in distraction. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the environmental factors that affect individual workers’ concentration at work. This study aimed to ascertain the relationship between individual workers’ attributes, such as the Big Five personality traits, personal control, and age, and the factors that distract them from their work. A questionnaire-based field survey was conducted at an office that partially adopted ABW to investigate the relationship between selection of seats and concentration at work. The results revealed different tendencies among workers for the type of work environment needed to concentrate according to their individual attributes. Additionally, it was suggested that the changing of seats lead to improved concentration at work, thus increasing productivity.

A review of research in activity-based working over the last ten years: lessons for the post-COVID workplace

“…They also reported that evidence of an association between gender and age on satisfaction scores was limited, in contrast to direct associations with varying personality traits. A further study by Sugino et al (2019) observed that highly agreeable workers tended to be more distracted by the information and communication technology and interior environment in ABW, while extraverts had an inverse correlation with distraction and were less easily distracted.…”

“…Five studies (Wadu Mesthrige and Chiang, 2019; Budie et al , 2019; Sugino et al , 2019; Christersson et al , 2017; Mache et al , 2020) investigated how human-related attributes can affect success of a workspace designed to support ABW. Wadu Mesthrige and Chiang (2019) showed that introverts generally preferred private workspaces.…”

“…Rolfö (2018) also reported that low preference for the A-FO correlated with frequent performance of concentration demanding tasks. One study reported no significant change or no clear positive or negative outcomes (Sugino et al , 2019).…”

“…Fiveour studies (Barnes et al, 2020;De Been and Beijer, 2014;Haapakangas et al, 2018;De Been et al, 2015) reported negative outcomes regarding concentration and privacy (De Been and Beijer, 2014), visual and auditory privacy (Barnes et al, 2020), decrease in having personal conversations with colleagues (De Been et al, 2015), and privacy and personalization (Haapakangas et al, 2018). One study reported no significant change or no clear positive or negative outcomes (Sugino et al, 2019). Rolfö (2018.b) also reported that low preference for the A-FO correlated with frequent performance of concentration demanding tasks.…”

Occupants’ satisfaction and perceived productivity in open-plan offices designed to support activity-based working: findings from different industry sectors

“…A considerable amount of literature has been published on effects of ABW environments on the occupants. Their analysis might be conducted on a sample from one industry sector such as finance (Ekstrand and Damman, 2016), health (de Kok et al , 2016), government (Babapour, 2019), research (Sugino et al , 2019) and consultancy (Wadu Mesthrige and Chiang, 2019), or they might have investigated several industry sectors as one sample (Budie et al , 2019; Wohlers et al , 2017). Either of these study groups has not focused on the industry sector as their mainstream, nor have they looked at satisfaction/dissatisfaction that might raise from the type of industry or a comparison between different industry sectors.…”