Privacy and Communication in an Open-Plan Office

Abstract

Seventy employees at four job levels in a large corporation completed a questionnaire on their office environments six months before and six weeks after moving from a conventional office to an "open-plan" office. Secretarial employees and their supervisors (job level 1) moved from freestanding desks to partly enclosed workspaces. Staff specialists (job level 11) left double offices for individual, doorless enclosures. Managerial employees (job levels Ill and IV) left walled offices for large, doorless enclosures. Neither satisfaction with commu nications nor perceptions of noise changed after relocation, but satisfaction with privacy declined among former occupants of walled offices. The decrease in privacy reflected a decrease in confidentiality of conversation, as shown by the questionnaire and acoustical measurements. Implications for office design are discussed.