ArticlePhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2018
The impact of the 'open' workspace on human collaboration.
Article in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 285 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association of open-plan offices and sick leave-a systematic review and meta-analysis.Industrial health · 2023Pooled it
- Science Is About Thinking: How Can We Protect Thinking Time in a Distracted Digital World?Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Employee workspace preferences in a mandated hybrid work policy: A discrete choice experiment.Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health · 2026Article
- The jam-based discovery framework : How lab culture, shared data and collaboration shape scientific discovery.EMBO reports · 2026Article
- Comparative case study on the implementation of the multi- space concept in a healthcare facility: study protocol.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- From private office to locker room: how corporate America is transforming academic family medicine.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Job Satisfaction and Optimal Experience in a Swedish Governmental Administration-A Mixed Methods Study.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Individual determinants of satisfaction with the work environment after relocation to activity-based workplaces: A prospective study.PloS one · 2023Article
- Effects of the residential built environment on remote work productivity and satisfaction during COVID-19 lockdowns: An analysis of workers' perceptions.Building and environment · 2022Article
- To organise or not to organise? Understanding search strategy preferences using Lego building blocks.Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) · 2022Article
- Occupant health in buildings: Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the opinions of building professionals and implications on research.Building and environment · 2022Article
- Ten questions concerning occupant health in buildings during normal operations and extreme events including the COVID-19 pandemic.Building and environment · 2021Article
- Development and Validation of a Multi-Dimensional Measure of Activity-Based Working Behaviors.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Article
- Office design as a risk factor for disability retirement: A prospective registry study of Norwegian employees.Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health · 2021Article
- A psychological intervention strengthens students' peer social networks and promotes persistence in STEM.Science advances · 2020Article
- Senses of place: architectural design for the multisensory mind.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2020Review
- Spatial Influences on Team Awareness and Communication in Two Outpatient Clinics: a Multiple Methods Study.Journal of general internal medicine · 2020Article
- The work environment pilot: An experiment to determine the optimal office design for a technology company.PloS one · 2020Article
- Creation of consensus recommendations for collaborative practice in the Malaysian psychiatric system: a modified Delphi study.International journal of mental health systems · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Organizations' pursuit of increased workplace collaboration has led managers to transform traditional office spaces into 'open', transparency-enhancing architectures with fewer walls, doors and other spatial boundaries, yet there is scant direct empirical research on how human interaction patterns change as a result of these architectural changes. In two intervention-based field studies of corporate headquarters transitioning to more open office spaces, we empirically examined-using digital data from advanced wearable devices and from electronic communication servers-the effect of open office architectures on employees' face-to-face, email and instant messaging (IM) interaction patterns. Contrary to common belief, the volume of face-to-face interaction decreased significantly (approx. 70%) in both cases, with an associated increase in electronic interaction. In short, rather than prompting increasingly vibrant face-to-face collaboration, open architecture appeared to trigger a natural human response to socially withdraw from officemates and interact instead over email and IM. This is the first study to empirically measure both face-to-face and electronic interaction before and after the adoption of open office architecture. The results inform our understanding of the impact on human behaviour of workspaces that trend towards fewer spatial boundaries.This article is part of the theme issue 'Interdisciplinary approaches for uncovering the impacts of architecture on collective behaviour'.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.