Physical Enclosure, Type of Job, and Privacy in the Office

Abstract

Office employees from three job groups-including 88 secretaries, 44 bookkeepers and accountants, and 22 office managers and administrators-completed a questionnaire and had their workspaces measured for the number of partitions, the amount of floorspace, the number of people in the room, and other features. The best single predictor of rated privacy of workspaces for all job groups was the number of partitions around the workspace. Occupants of private offices rated their workspaces most private, but office managers and administrators gave higher ratings than bookkeepers and accountants, who gave higher ratings than secretaries. Results suggested that the three job groups perceived privacy differently, depending on the demands of their work and their control over contact with others. Findings are explained in terms of a three-leveled hterarchy of privacy needs.