Akihiro Kishimoto
Institute of Office Systems KOKUYO Co., Ltd.

Various kinds of alternative workplace have been created to support organizational changes and make organizations more adaptive to technological advances. Now that all possible options have been tried out in the last few years, we are able to see that the alternative workplace is not a minor solution applicable only to exceptional cases but an important option to help organizations change.
It is now time to learn from the past experiences and formulate a prescription to help the alternative workplace function more effectively. Let us first make an overview of the background and role of organizational change and take a new look at what the workplace is capable of doing.





1. Various Directions of Changes

Now the environment surrounding business has changed drastically. Corporations must survive fierce competitions against many rivals in the more globalized market. In every field of business, the market, having matured and become diversified and compartmentalized, has been inundated with newcomers and is now an arena where a drama of weeding out the weak goes on perpetually. In this business environment, corporations are forced to reform their own organizations, in order to make a move in anticipation of future changes so that they can adapt to them flexibly.
One of the factors accelerating these environmental changes is information technology. Digital technology and network allow information to travel in nanoseconds to anywhere in the world, so that communication can transcend the limitations of time and space, and changes are speeded up. Furthermore, as the industrial structure has become less products-oriented, shifting to a more knowledge-and-services-oriented structure, the information network has come to be an important infrastructure for business. This is causing a paradigm shift in many fields, examples of which include tie-ups with global business partners and workstyles free of temporal and spatial constraints.
In the world of digital economy, new business systems dealing in new products through new channels will be born, competing with conventional systems and eventually replacing them. Or the range of available service channels will become wider, making the relationship between corporations and customers and among corporations more fluid. This will further accelerate competitions and changes. The workstyle for workers and their relationship with organizations will also become diverse. It will not be long before individual workers can compete against organizations on an equal basis by adopting new workstyles such as remote work using information networks and by conducting global business using virtual organizations.
When the digitization of information thus becomes a premise in every field of business, business activities will also have to be conducted at a speed which can cope with this premise of the digital world.


2. How Changes Affect Workplace

As the change of business environment becomes faster, the business strategy needs to be more frequently reviewed and be capable of responding more quickly to changes. Therefore, corporations are forced to take actions more frequently-actions such as reducing the time and cost required to develop new services and products, appropriating human resources and skills from larger sources including outside sources and organize them and, as part of these actions, restructuring their organizations and consolidating or abolishing operational bases. These changes will naturally affect the planning of the workplace, which is the base for the activities of an organization.
There are many processes involved in the activities of a fluid organization consisting of a wide spectrum of human resources. They range from formulaic processes to ad hoc ones. The form of work to execute these processes can also be varied from individual work to group work, which encourage the use of more sophisticated information technology. Therefore, the workplace which supports these activities needs to have a wide range of option of providing highly functional spaces. The workstyle of workers who use these supportive space also shifts to a more autonomous and active one. Thus, processes and places will be combined adaptively according to the needs of work and role. The 'sitters' are conventionally fixated to their own spaces. The 'walkers' selectively choose from varied settings according to work needs. The 'runners' are often outside the office and the 'travelers' operates from plural bases. (Fig. 1)
The workplace is no longer a stationary vessel for an organization. It must at least be a device which can swiftly deal with organizational changes and technological advances, which are a matter of course. Furthermore, it must be planned as a tool which can always support business activities which must be constantly reformed in a fast changing business environment.

Fig.1: Work Processes,Workstyles &Workplaces


3. What Workplace Can Do

The role of workplace in supporting changes is in sum to maximize the factors promoting changes and minimize the factors standing in the way of changes. The former role includes supporting the advancing workstyle, helping to foster the norms and culture desirable to an organization, and providing a system capable of meeting individual needs. In order to implement the latter role, on the other hand, it is required to provide a system where costs are reduced by efficient use of spaces, and optimum allocation and efficient use of facilities, and organizational changes and technological renewal can be dealt with swiftly.
In the past several years, alternative solutions have been offered to take the place of traditional offices in order to meet these requirements. Looking at them from the vantage point when all possible solutions are laid out on the table, we can see their characteristics and directions more clearly. Although their unique forms often draw attention, their fundamental directions are as stated above. They are not necessarily minor solutions applicable only to exceptional cases but are an important option which helps organizations to change.
The following sections give an overview of characteristics of these new solutions, focusing on their physical aspects, and consider the directions of future office designs.


4. Supporting Diverse Workstyles

Nowadays, it is a common sight for a worker to access a network with a mobile tool while in transit. Such a workstyle with high mobility is supported by various kinds of remote office. By introducing different kinds of remote office such as decentralized offices, bases for short visits, telework and home offices, the options for operational bases are broadened, eventually supporting the needs of diverse workstyles. (Fig. 2) In view of an expectation that the cost of information technology and data transfer will be reduced, this type of office will be an important option.
In the center office, on the other hand, the workstyle will shift from the one where workers basically stay at their own desks and therefore are assigned to dedicated individual spaces designed for general use, to the one where workers select working spaces according to the needs of a particular work. The spatial structures suitable to these two workstyles are very different. In the traditional office space suitable to the former workstyle, the main areas such as the desk work area, the services area and the communication area are fairly distinct, and spatial changes occur only in the desk work area, where spaces are rearranged and redistributed. In the environment supporting the latter workstyle, various work settings which workers can choose from and are arranged within appropriate walking distances, must loosely overlap each other in order to support the work process where the balance between individual work and team work and between interaction and autonomy is maintained. Furthermore, it is necessary to have a structure whereby each setting can adjust its size flexibly. (Fig. 3)
To create such a structure within an existing building, it may also be necessary to reconsider the architectural structure itself by an inside out approach and to take such measures as making the depth of a floor greater than in traditional buildings and implementing vertical openness and connectedness between floors.

Fig.2 : Center Office and Remote Offices

Fig.3 : Transfer to Space Supporting "Right Work at Right Setting"Workstyle


5. Dealing with Electronic Trend

It is needless to say that the provision of information system is a must for the implementation of a workplace capable of supporting diverse workstyles. Space-wise, it is also essential to provide the building and furniture with a flexible and sufficient wiring capacity. It is also necessary to install the hardware which supports IT facilities, such as air conditioning equipment for computer servers, back up equipment to avoid risks and a security system. These are all required by the shift toward electronic work.
At the same time there are things made possible by this shift toward electronic work. Today's computer technology supports various office jobs and the information, media, tools and processes used in many office jobs are now becoming electronic. As a result, all individual workers, who may deal with different kinds of information or be required different skills due to different jobs or kinds of work, operate computers more or less in the same fashion. In other words, the virtualization of desktops has made it less necessary to differentiate workspaces to suit particular jobs or work contents. This means that whereas previously it was needed to provide a variety of workstations within an organization, it is now easier to standardize the workstation, whose requisites for different jobs are not so clearly different. The standardization of workplace makes it easier to make spaces shared by workers on a non-territorial basis which allows workers to choose the space optimum for a particular work. However, sharing spaces among plural workers means that it is necessary to adjust a space each time to individual needs (or ignore them completely).
It is only work processes and tools, not human bodies and minds, that can be replaced by electronic equivalents. Therefore, a new mechanism will be required in order to adjust the size and functions of a space according to the physique, athletic prowess, experiences and interests of each worker.

fig.4 : IT Systems Make Appearances Similar


6. Navigating Behavior and Cultural Climate

The effect the office space imposes on the behavior of people working there tends to be forgotten probably because it is indirect. However, the organization undergoing a change must fully pay attention to the fact that people influence their own development by the very space they create.
To share the same critical awareness and the same values in an organizational structure which is as fluid as business environment and technology. To make tasks and objectives filter into the mind of more people and have wisdom and knowledge resonate so that problems can be solved quickly. To learn from activities and experiences and develop as an organization capable of reforming itself. These cannot be implemented simply by introducing new systems and tools. They are greatly influenced by the behavioral norm and management style the members of the organization share. The common behavioral norm and management style are something like an internal program accumulated in the organization and gradually formed through daily actions. The office space has a potentiality to exert an important influence on such daily actions. For instance, a space which encourages informal communication needs a spatial construction which functions to enhance the possibility of encounters. But even though a space is designed to produce such an effect, the distance people can travel to interact with other people or the frequency of such encounters can vary according to how the space is physically designed. (Fig. 5)
If the autonomy and interaction of organizational members are to be promoted, not only systems and regulations but also the space itself must be designed in a way to support such autonomy and interaction. The traditional status markers which symbolize organizational hierarchy may become a message which runs against the call for empowerment and retard the growth of autonomous professionals. Or articulate boundaries marking departmental occupations may vindicate bureaucratic sectionalism and interfere with the exchange and sharing of knowledge. Desirable behaviors occur only in the space which supports them.

Fig.5 : Spacial Performance Influencing Human Behavior


7.Speed-up and Cost-down

Speeding up the change would always be one of important tasks for an organization bound to change. Indeed, complaints are often heard about the slow process of change. Once the change sets in motion and the resultant situation is stabilized, however, the workplace may not be able to keep pace with the speed of the change. Because time and money are always needed to create or modify physical spaces throughout all stages from planning to completion of the construction.
The space capable of adapting flexibly to constant restructuring of a fluid organization. The infrastructure system which facilitates the renewal of tools and technology which keep advancing. The environment allowing flexible choices according to diversifying work processes and workstyles. Furthermore, the mechanism allowing to simulate the direction of future change and write a scenario to deal with the change. It is the task of workplace to implement these change, adaptation and diversification at an appropriate cost.
These tasks cannot be achieved overnight. But the initial step which can probably be applied to many organizations would be to utilize the information system and convert the workplace to one where workers can choose the space optimum for a particular work. Then the information system can be made responsive to customized and personal needs, transcending distance and time, and the space can become flexible by making spatial elements standardized and shared. (Fig. 6) In other words, the information system and spatial resources are unified and various costs are redistributed from the viewpoint of overall optimization by planning shared spaces integral with an information system, which workers use selectively to suit particular work needs.
In order for an workplace not only to keep up with organizational changes but also to initiate them, speedup and cost reduction must be achieved concurrently. It would be an effective option to shift the workplace towards an electronic one and unify all the resources and redistribute them in the optimum manner, now that information technology is becoming not only highly functional but also inexpensive.

Fig.6 : Example of Space Allowing Quick Re allocation


8. Effectively Introducing Alternative Strategies

Several design directions analyzed here cannot function separately. They must be planned as an integral system which can support business processes and styles under conditions specific to a certain organization, with space, technology and service interlining and complimenting one another. (Fig. 7) And the process of planning is also important to make them function in reality.
The change of workplace presupposes the knowledge and competency of the users required to make full use of the place. Not only information literacy but also environmental literacy are important. It will be one of the most effective ways for building up such skills for users to participate in design processes. Collaboration between designers and users is a process in which users can clarify images by the help of professional hands and at the same time a process in which designers can teach users the functions of spaces and skills how to use them. (Fig. 8)
Furthermore, it is desirable to start with a pilot project before introducing a new workplace. Users can actively experiment only when they feel secure, knowing that they can always go back to the old office and it is promised that the designs will be modified on the basis of the results of the experiment. Appropriate feedback channels and open forums for discussion help change conventional ideas with ease. In a certain project where these measures were taken, a high satisfaction level was obtained by the POE conducted one year after the occupancy. However, there is an interesting data in the POE result. (Fig. 9) The answers to the questions regarding the impressions before and after the occupancy show that before the occupancy there were more people with negative impressions than those with positive impressions. It can be interpreted that almost 70 percent of occupants felt insecure when they moved in the new office, if those who answered 'I don't know.' are counted in. This example shows how normal it is for users to feel insecure or concerned about office reforms.
In making the first step towards reforming the workplace, it is effective to introduce an alternative strategy based on new spatial forms and workstyle. But it is essential to have users change their awareness and improve their skills if the new spatial forms and workstyle are to be effective and capable of supporting changes continuously. And the key element to keep the feelings of insecurity and concern from deteriorating into the feelings of resistance is largely how the process is managed. It is only with this comprehensive approach that the workplace can support organizational changes.

Fig.7 : Workplace as Integrated System

Fig.8 : Learning How to Use Spaces Through Participatory Process

Fig.9 : Insecurity and Concern are Normal Reactions






(an excerpt from ECIFFO 35, October 31, 1999)