Description
The internationalisation and globalisation of economic, labour and social relations are the triggers for and the driving force behind the future development of work and of labour. Changes not only in global concerns but also at all levels of economy and society are being brought about through the increasing intertwining of the paths to added value. A multitude of opportunities are arising for new co-operations and international business models.
This global trend is being pushed forward by rapid developments in the microelectronics sector as well as in telecommunications and information technology. Global networking, the Internet, online services like the integration of different devices such as computers, televisions and mobile telephones are the results of this technical revolution. The enormous economic potential of networking manifests itself in the form of e-commerce and m-commerce (“m” standing for “mobile”).
In future, jobs will be mainly in the so-called TIME sectors (Telecommunication, Information technology, Media and Entertainment). Many jobs as yet in the agricultural and production sectors will accrue to the information sector or the services sector due to TIME applications. It is estimated that the proportion of people employed in the information industry – which was 14% in 1907, and 18% in 1950 – will increase to 60% in 2010.
Work Pattern Diagram
The transition to a knowledge society is closely allied to the office, which is becoming a knowledge centre. Modern information and communication technologies are changing the conventional coordinates of the office environment: time, place and structure. In consequence, many people no longer speak of their office but more and more often of their workplaces. The dynamising of the possible combinations of coordinates makes it possible to tailor a variety of of-fice environments to tasks and users/occupants in such a way that creativity is fostered and innovations produced at a hitherto unheard-of speed. If the office environment has until now been determined for the most part by rigid working hours, fixed locations and central corporate structures, then the relaxing of these parameters through new information and communication technologies allows “working with whomever one wants to, whenever one wants to.” Flexible working hours and mobile work in virtual network structures are the basis for this. The choice of workplace is constrained by organisational, economic, ecological and personal issues.
In this increasingly dynamic work environment, the speed of innovation has come to constitute a crucial competitive edge for corporations. The main basis for it is the creative worker and the technology that supports the creative process, for innovation arises through people and their dialogue with others. For future corporate success it is therefore crucial to focus on exploiting and further developing the existing creative potential of workers.
It is assumed that creative people realise their full performance potential when they are given exciting, demanding and complex tasks to accomplish and when they have sufficient autonomy, freedom to organise themselves and the corresponding room for manoeuvre. For example, 3M – for years exemplary in terms of fostering creativity – requires from its staff that they reserve 15% of their work time for tasks they have set themselves and/or projects that they have planned themselves. Naturally they participate both in the firm’s successes and its failures. A corporate culture open to innovation is crucial, one that not only allows communication between workers but also welcomes and promotes it. It has to generate an atmosphere in which there is no fear of making mistakes or taking risks. Within this open corporate culture there has to be a management style that does not insist in an authoritarian fashion on the routine fulfilment of pre-determined tasks, but develops and establishes common goals with worker participation.
Targeted support of creative thinking and working is possible both methodically and spatially. One of these methods for example, is the use of so-called creativity techniques. In addition to known techniques like brainstorming, morphology or mind mapping, collaboration tools will become the focus of interest. Among these are interactive walls, electronic paper and virtual reality systems such as the HyPI-6 Collaboratorium, a virtual real time interaction room at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Organisation (IAO) in Stuttgart.
Teamwork and project work will be the principal work forms of the future. There are fewer and fewer clerks and more and more products and services being developed by highly qualified project teams. The office is increasingly becoming a nexus of communications and a site for adventure, an “environment of excitement,” and it must therefore provide room for chance encounters as well as spaces for formal and informal communication. Streets, squares and other synonyms stand for these network nodes within the spatial concepts. The new offices are open and closed at the same time; they adapt to the needs of the moment. Exposed technical building installations and translucent or transparent screening are just as typical of these work environments as the use of colours and materials that elicit strong emotions.
The separation of the place of residence from the workplace is a phenomenon that has arisen as a result of the Industrial Revolution. At present, only about 12% of the employed population live in direct proximity to their place of work. Employees increasingly spend a large part of their working hours not in the office, but visiting customers. Office workplaces are often only used 5 to 10% of the time they are available, or 30 to 50% of the standard working hours. This shows that telework from widely differing places is increasing. It has been prognosticated for the Netherlands that by 2005 circa one quarter of the employed population will be teleworking on a regular basis. In Europe it is supposed to be at least half as many.
Modes of telework
In addition to the basic forms of today’s office design (the conventional types of office space), in recent years a totally new innovative form has developed: the “non-territorial office.” The most important characteristic of this concept is the cessation of the assignment of workplaces to specific workers. Workplaces, other office facilities and technical resources are jointly used and are available to all on a daily or hourly basis. In this way, users can choose the work scenario or workplace most suited for their tasks and team composition. Personal files are kept either in filing cabinets in special locations in the office or in mobile storage elements – for example in containers on wheels, in “caddies” or in mobile suitcases – and parked if necessary beside the workplace currently being used. In any event the files are increasingly only available in digital form. Powerful document management and tools to facilitate workflow are the most important prerequisites for successful implementation of this new concept.
Percentage of teleworkers until 2005
Non-territorial offices often go hand-in-hand with the introduction of telework, mostly in alternating form. The employee can maintain constant contact with headquarters via a remote access connection from his or her temporary work site, on the road, from the customer’s site, in a neighbourhood office or satellite office or from home.
As a rule, a pool of workplaces is made available for a moderately sized group of workers. In the sales, services and consulting sector, the ratio of workplaces to workers can be as low as 1:5, which leads to a significant increase in productivity per area. In offices with less mobile types of work, sharing ratios are typically 1:1.5. The decision as to who sits at which workplace is made informally by the group, or in larger office units with the aid of an electronic reservation system. Particularly in multinational corporations, a Web-based reservation system is the easy ticket for all the corporation’s workplaces throughout the world. Often staff assigned to shared workplaces have a notebook computer and a cordless telephone that they carry with them. The relatively limited quantity of conventional workplaces is supplemented by a variety of staged work areas, “thinker berths,” “business lounges,” meeting zones, telecommunications stations, prestige areas, quiet zones, etc.
Multiple office modules “on demand”
With the introduction of new work forms, teamwork also changes. The increasing shift from concentrated individual work in the office to communicative teamwork is changing the work culture considerably. Principles of result-oriented organisation (management by objective) in conjunction with flexible working hours and part-time contracting models make entirely new demands on corporate culture. A relationship based on a high degree of trust between management and workers will become necessary, where they agree on a common goal that offers sufficient creative challenge for individuals.
Professional change management is considered to be a key factor in the design and introduction of new work and office concepts, as for many people, radical changes in their work situation initially cause anxiety, and often lead subsequently to refusal to accept the changes. For this reason, it is important not to send workers onto a “journey into the future” without asking them first and giving them the opportunity to participate in the design of the itinerary and in the decision as to which goal should be reached and how quickly. This type of participatory work design makes high demands on the capabilities and the sensitivity of project managers. Therefore professional moderators and a team equipped with the corresponding resources are the prerequisites for the sustained success of “new work” projects.
At the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft’s Office Innovation Centre in Stuttgart, the Interactive Creativity Landscape has been set up. Based on the latest research findings, it has been specially designed to support creative work. Mental activity during the different phases of the creative process is to be optimally supported by rapid changes in the office environment. For this purpose, the space is subdivided into three zones: the ‘action zone’ near the entrance – which offers the ideal structures for informal communication in the preparation phase – and next to it, the ‘multifunctional zone’ and the ‘interaction zone.’
‘Intelligent’ furniture such as the “Nova Desk” (a synthesis of the conventional desk with the computer workplace), plug-and-work workplaces and a conference table, which sinks into the floor when it is not in use, provide the appropriate environment for every kind of work scenario. Virtual reality in the interaction zone transports the user into an artificial reality, enabling among other things the creation of three-dimensional process diagrams. Informal meetings for creative purposes can be held in “Frozen Cloud,” the free-form landscape whose occupants can stand, sit or lie, as they please.
The acoustically and visually shielded “retiring zone” is designed for the incubation phase of the creative process. It is a cocoon-like room that lends itself to being individualised in a variety of ways and which is supposed to stimulate lateral thinking through visual, acoustic and olfactory stimuli. In the retiring zone, the unconscious level of the search for solutions is supported in a variety of ways with the aid of individually regulable colour and light relations, digital projections, an oxygen shower and special climate technology.
The basic equipment of the Interactive Creativity Landscape includes a lamella system for directing daylight into the back of the room, the solar protection and the glare protection provided by adjustable Venetian blinds in the space between the double-glazing, and partial cooling, heating and ventilation islands in the ceiling, via which the room climate can be regulated zone by zone. Sound-absorbing textile elements, a metal curtain near the entrance that functions as an acoustic and optic shield, and “space.move,” a flexible partition, complete the futuristic fittings.
Originally published in: Rainer Hascher, Simone Jeska, Birgit Klauck, Office Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2002.