Academics’ preferences for office spaces

Purpose This paper aims to investigate preferences for office spaces among academic staff at a university. The authors consider differences across age groups, seniority, position type and current office situation. Design/methodology/approach This paper is an empirical investigation of survey data us...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Facilities (Bradford, West Yorkshire, England) West Yorkshire, England), 2021-03, Vol.39 (5/6), p.350-365
Main Authors: Hopland, Arnt O, Kvamsdal, Sturla
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
College campuses
Colleges & universities
Empirical analysis
Employees
Office space
Offices
Planning
Relocation
Resource allocation
Response rates
Students
University professors
Work environment
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Summary:Purpose This paper aims to investigate preferences for office spaces among academic staff at a university. The authors consider differences across age groups, seniority, position type and current office situation. Design/methodology/approach This paper is an empirical investigation of survey data using descriptive statistics and regression analyses. The sample consists of 485 academic employees at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Findings Staff in individual offices are substantially more satisfied with their office space than those who share office space. Moreover, those in large offices are more satisfied than those in smaller. Large offices are occupied by staff with high seniority, and staff with large offices tend to host meetings more frequently than their colleagues. However, it is not clear whether differences in office spacing reflect real needs or mostly status. Originality/value Understanding which office spaces that stimulate the best research and higher education is of great importance when policy makers plan resource allocation.
ISSN:0263-2772
1758-7131
DOI:10.1108/F-02-2019-0029