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Summary
Various studies have shown the relationship between the organization and its workplace.
Since approximately 2005, this relationship is supplemented with ICT. ICT is thereby seen as enabler
for time and place independent working styles, which in turn requires changing organizations and
office workplaces. These developments are currently visible in the rise of the concept of New Ways
of Working (NWW), which is increasingly implemented within organizations.
This study is focused on how NWW affect organizations and academic office workplaces.
NWW is concerned with the three elements mentioned above: ICT, organization, and the workplace.
Consequently, the effect of ICT on the organization and thereby the workplace is studied.
The impact of ICT-enabled time and place independence of work on the organization is
determined with the use of scientific literature. To measure the impact of time and place
independence of work on the organization, the concepts organizational structure (Mintzberg’s design
parameters, 1979) and organizational culture (Schein’s cultural layers, 1984) are operationalized. The
organizational aspects that, according to literature, are influenced by ICT-enabled time and place
independence of work are:
hierarchy
(decreasing separation between leadership and operations of
work),
training
(increasing training necessity to deal with changes),
department forming
(increasing
informal behaviors in office workplace that may lead to different way of department forming),
control
(shift from presence-oriented to output-oriented style of control),
liaison
(decreasing need
for a liaison function since employees/departments can find each other themselves),
autonomy
(increasing employee autonomy),
organizational attachment
(less attachment due to employees
being less present in the organization), and
physical office layout
(more open spaces, focused on
knowledge sharing and meetings).
However, literature is mainly focused on the business environment. Expert interviews
therefore serve for testing the conclusions from literature study, but also to determine if these
conclusions also apply to the academic environment.
In total, 17 (inter)national experts in the field of
organizational structure/culture, time and place independence of work, NWW, and/or the workplace
are interviewed.
Overall, it seems like the academic environment already knows an organizational structure
and culture that corresponds with NWW. The changes that will occur in the business environment, as
concluded from literature, are therefore claimed to be less of an issue within the academic
environment. For some organizational aspects, the academic organizations are therefore a precursor.
However, it is remarkable to see that NWW office concepts are still very rare in academic
environments, as opposed to the business environment. The academic environment still knows
territorial offices, even though occupancy rates of academic offices turn out to be approximately 30%
(Parkin et al., 2006; Brunia et al., 2012). Possible explanations are the above average opinionated
nature of academics, the influence of top researchers/professors (wanting to keep their own big
office), and the financial systems within universities; academics do not benefit from space and cost
reduction, they only see a loss of territorial space. Focus should, in first instance, therefore be on
creating change-readiness among academics.
Since the organizational structure and culture within academic environments are already
according to NWW-principles, it is therefore recommended to create an open and transparent
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environment that supports all academic work activities, with enough possibilities for collaborations,
meetings, and knowledge sharing. A repeatedly mentioned design is that of offices for concentration
or focus work around the edge, with possibilities for meeting and interaction in the center. Thereby,
it is up to Wageningen UR to decide whether offices will be territorial or non-territorial. This decision
can be made based on a follow-up study focused on office workplace requirements and work
activities of academic Wageningen UR employees.
For Wageningen UR, it is therefore advisable to design at least one department or faculty
according to this principle as a test arrangement for a period of approximately one to two years.
After this test period, Wageningen UR can analyze in consultation with end-users if the test
arrangement was a success or failure. During this period other departments might become curious
and hear experiences from colleagues or visit the department themselves, possibly leading to more
support for the newly created environment. Furthermore, the test arrangement ensures employees
that
when the plan fails, they can go back to the old housing situation; nothing is permanent.
