Performance of Office Workers Under Office Sounds and Various Enclosure Conditions in Open Workplaces

Effects of physical attributes of workstation enclosures on the performance of office workers with different difficult levels of office tasks and moods are presented. Performance scores in complex tasks were expected to increase with greater workstation enclosures while those in simple tasks would be the same. Mood ratings were expected to be higher in lower workstation enclosures. Performance of 102 college students on ambient office sounds (45 dBA) with office tasks were measured for 100 minutes under three different workplace enclosures: (1) four foot partitions on two sides; (2) six foot partitions on three sides; and (3) a fully enclosed workstation with eight foot partitions. The tasks were to memorize a paragraph with 130 words (complex task) and to search phone numbers (simple task). The complex task performance in the fully enclosed workstation was increased compared to that in the workstation with four foot partitions (p < 0.001) and to that in the workstation with six foot partitions (p < 0.05). However, occupants in the fully enclosed workstation with office sounds without speech generally gave higher mood ratings. It indicates that closed individual offices may offer important contributions to collaborative work as well as individual productivity. These findings would help design community revise open plan design to increase collaboration among office workers.