Working from the Other Office: Trialling Co‐Working Spaces for Public Servants

Abstract

The proliferation of digital connectivity and mobility is having a profound impact on nomadic and collaborative work practices in our cities. In the past few years, we have witnessed a shift in the way that organisational entities in both the private and public sector put emphasis on the allocation and use of office space. In this paper, we report on our evaluation of a trial of co‐working spaces also referred to as Flexible Work Centres (FWC) led by the Queensland State Government. The trial provides insights into such changes towards new work practices. The trial tested how FWCs can be used by Queensland Government employees, and its impact on productivity, staff retention and work–life balance of employees. The 47 trial participants from 10 different government departments completed a series of four surveys and were invited to keep diaries of their impressions and experiences. Supervisors were involved in a series of focus groups to reflect on the trial at the end of the 12‐month period. The benefits of the flexible work arrangement and specifically the provision of an alternative work venue was highly praised and appreciated by participants and supervisors. There were noted key qualities of staff and work types that this arrangement works best for, and trust in employees was paramount. The positive results of the trial saw a continuation of the provision of the flexible workspace arrangement and investigations into further extensions of the program.

The Relationship Between Telework, Job Performance, Work–Life Balance and Family Supportive Supervisor Behaviours in the Context of COVID-19

“…According to the social exchange theory, which has been used to explain the connection between these two parameters (Blau, 1964), if telework is perceived as beneficial to the employees, they tend to feel indebted to the organization and make stronger efforts to deliver better results (Bae & Kim, 2016;Golden & Gajendran, 2019;Vayre, 2019). Similarly, employees have reported the perception that telework increases productivity (Akbari & Hopkins, 2019;Felstead & Henseke, 2017;Hopkins & McKay, 2019;Houghton et al, 2018), as commuting times and distractions with colleagues are reduced. Along these lines, Vega et al (2015) found that teleworkers perceive that they can attain higher job performance levels because this modality provides more opportunities to concentrate on work tasks.…”

New work: New motivation? A comprehensive literature review on the impact of workplace technologies

“…Other researchers evaluate office layout or changing environments due to flexible work models. Research includes details on single office, multi office, or open space layouts (Kleibrink 2011) as well as interactive concepts like coworking spaces (Houghton et al 2018). Olson and Tasley (1983) and Janneck et al (2018) also included other working concepts, like home office or mobile working (= hoteling).…”

“…While the author does not elaborate on the relationship further, other researchers included this aspect in a similar manner. Several authors illustrate the situational (job context) influence on cognitive and motivational processes in their frameworks as an influence equal to the personal disposition/individual inputs (Barford and Hester 2011;Heckhausen and Heckhausen 2010;Houghton et al 2018;Jong 1989).…”

“…Offering the latest gadget as an incentive for high performing employees poses a feasible solution for managers; however, these recommendations mostly do not explain which aspects of this approach are crucial, nor do they take the differences between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation into account. Here, mainly managerial recommendations view technology as a potential reward to improve (extrinsic) motivation and employee retention (DeVoe and Prencipe 2001;Houghton et al 2018;Miller et al 2001;O'Donovan 2002). Most of these publications are not peer reviewed research and those that are have an average JCR rating of 2.2.…”

The effects of national cultures on two technologically advanced countries: The case of e‐leadership in South Korea and the United States

“…Scholars and practitioners have paid attention to government innovations at the institutional and the policy level, evidenced by the burgeoning e‐government and digital government research field (Bound, 2006). However, despite acknowledgement of the critical role public sector managers play in delivering public sector innovation (Houghton, Foth, & Hearn, 2018; Van der Wal, 2017; Van Wart, 2013), limited attention has been paid to micro‐level research focused on public manager leadership behaviours and effectiveness. We examine e‐leadership and innovation capacity at the individual public manager level and address the lack of studies focused on the individual and group levels of analysis in changing public sector work environments, including the growth in virtual communication (Roman et al., 2019; Van Wart, 2014).…”