Effects of Office Layout on Job Satisfaction, Productivity and Organizational Commitment as Transmitted through Face-to-Face Interactions

Face-to-face communication is important to job satisfaction, productivity and organizational commitment. Organizations can manipulate the workspace to promote these interactions and thereby enhance these outcomes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the office layout on face-to-face interactions, the effects of face-to-face interactions on the outcomes, and to note any effects of the office layout on the outcomes as transmitted through face-to-face interactions. 28 employees from a university administrative office completed an online survey that measured the outcomes, workspace variables and interaction frequency on seven-point Likert scales. Other items on the survey asked participants to express as a percentage the amount of time they spend on various activities. Bivariate correlations were computed and among the findings was a statistically significant correlation between accessibility and frequency of impromptu interactions as well as between accessibility and productivity. Job satisfaction and organizational commitment had a significant positive correlation, but neither had a significant relationship with productivity. Frequency of informal and unplanned interactions also seems to enhance an employee’s job satisfaction, organizational commitment and productivity. Social network analysis and precise quantitative measures of integration, distance and visibility could increase the study’s reliability and shed more light on the present findings.