The role of spaces in managers’ perception of workplace quality

Abstract

Space is one of the fundamental dimensions of our world, even the world of organizations. Most often, however, researchers do not dedicate much attention to this issue in their studies. Mostly, space is considered as an operational category related to the concept of distance, in the case of logistics, the spatial organization of production systems or, finally, as a general expression of the internal architecture of enterprises. Thus, there is a research gap related to the study of the space of organizations. The paper addresses the issue of spaces from the perspective of workplace quality. It presents the results of surveys of managers in the context of assessing various aspects of space that affect the perception of workplace quality. The reported research presents matters of perception of selected aspects of space such as personalized workplace, shared spaces or the overall structure of buildings. The issue of open and closed spaces was also analysed. The results of the study indicate that the most practical, or pragmatic, dimensions of space, such as the immediate space surrounding the workplace, shared spaces like the cafeteria or kitchen, are the most important for managers’ perception of workplace quality. In addition, it seems that closed spaces are better evaluated from the point of view of workplace quality in relation to open spaces. In both cases, however, there are favourable and unfavourable spaces quality aspects. The following paper seeks to fill a small part of the research gap and contribute to the discussion of the practical aspects of the perception of organizational space.