Comparative Study of Small Office Layout Based on Amount of Communication and Knowledge Creation Behavior

Abstract

The increasing use of electronically mediated communication among workers when dealing with collocated group members has become unavoidable. Besides, communication is a vital part of sustainability strategy of an organization in order to keep abreast with business agility, as well as increasing organization’s intellectual productivity. However, the importance of physical workplace as a place supporting face to face communication cannot be denied since it is one of the factors of successful accomplishment of complex group tasks and activities. In this paper, we explored and compared the characteristics of two small office layout and physical settings on group’s communication while performing their work process – in this case we adopted SECI Model behaviors. The ethnographic and cross-sectional studies were conducted, and relationship between physical design, communication and work process have been explored by considering the office layout of two project groups at research institution in Japan. The findings highlighted the differences in distribution of amount of communication in these two layouts based on several measurements such as communication contents, unit boundaries, SECI behaviors and so on. Based on the result of the study, we suggest the layout and physical settings that foster communicative workplace as well as supporting their work process.