The Intersection of disciplines: NRC's Cost-effective Open-Plan Environments (COPE) project

(1)

Publisher’s version / Version de l'éditeur:

Questions? Contact the NRC Publications Archive team at

PublicationsArchive-ArchivesPublications@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca. If you wish to email the authors directly, please see the

https://publications-cnrc.canada.ca/fra/droits

L’accès à ce site Web et l’utilisation de son contenu sont assujettis aux conditions présentées dans le site LISEZ CES CONDITIONS ATTENTIVEMENT AVANT D’UTILISER CE SITE WEB.

65th Annual Conference of the Canadian Psychological Association

[Proceedings], pp. 1-13, 2004-06-10

READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS WEBSITE.

https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/copyright

NRC Publications Archive Record / Notice des Archives des publications du CNRC :

https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/view/object/?id=ae5626ed-2351-4a9d-97b0-91067d69784c https://publications-cnrc.canada.ca/fra/voir/objet/?id=ae5626ed-2351-4a9d-97b0-91067d69784c This publication could be one of several versions: author’s original, accepted manuscript or the publisher’s version. / La version de cette publication peut être l’une des suivantes : la version prépublication de l’auteur, la version acceptée du manuscrit ou la version de l’éditeur.

Access and use of this website and the material on it are subject to the Terms and Conditions set forth at

The Intersection of disciplines: NRC's Cost-effective Open-Plan

Environments (COPE) project

Veitch, J. A.; Charles, K. E.; Newsham, G. R.; Bradley, J. S.; Shaw, C. Y.;

Sander, D. M.; Reinhart, C. F.

(2)

The Intersection of disciplines: NRC’s Cost-Effective Open-Plan

Environments (COPE) project

Veitch, J.A.; Charles, K.E.; Newsham, G.R.;

Bradley, J.S.; Shaw, C.Y.; Sander, D.M.;

Reinhart, C.F.

NRCC-45681

A version of this document is published in / Une version de ce document se trouve dans :

Canadian Psychological Association 65

th

Annual Convention,

(3)

National Research National Research Council Canada Council Canada Conseil national Conseil national de recherches Canada de recherches Canada

Canada

T he I nt e rse c t ion of Disc ipline s:

N RC's Cost -e ffe c t ive Ope n-Pla n

Environm e nt s (COPE) Proje c t

T he I nt e rse c t ion of Disc ipline s:

N RC's Cost -e ffe c t ive Ope n-Pla n

Environm e nt s (COPE) Proje c t

J. A. Veitch, K. E. Charles, G. R. Newsham,

J. S. Bradley, C.

-

Y. Shaw, D. M. Sander,

& C. F. Reinhart

Presented at the Canadian Psychological Association 65th_{Annual Convention}

St. John's, NL, June 10-12, 2004

Abstract:

The current trends in office design - putting everyone in smaller, open-plan spaces, with low partitions - might lead to adverse physical conditions and dissatisfaction for employees. NRC’s Cost-effective Open-Plan Environments project combined the expertise of

psychologists, acousticians, engineers, and architects in conducting experimental and field research, literature reviews and computer simulations over four years to address three goals:

· To develop predictive relationships between office design characteristics and physical conditions

· To develop predictive relationships between physical conditions and both environmental and job satisfaction

·

· To combine these results into a software tool for designers to evaluate the effects of various office design choices

Environmental and industrial/organizational psychology intersect in the study of work and workplaces. Thus, the project crossed boundaries between psychological disciplines, as well as reaching outside psychology. This unique cross-disciplinary effort enabled the team to bring strong measurement and analysis techniques to bear on understanding both the physical conditions in open-plan offices and the effects of those conditions on occupants.

(4)

Sm a lle r Cubic le s

As cubicle size shrinks...

_{As cubicle size shrinks...}

•

• IAQ: more pollutant sources ...

IAQ: more pollutant sources ...

•

• Thermal: more heat sources ...

Thermal: more heat sources ...

•

• Lighting: more shadows…

Lighting: more shadows…

•

• Acoustics: more noise sources …

Acoustics: more noise sources …

•

• Environmental satisfaction declines

Environmental satisfaction declines

You can't think about this without thinking of Dilbert! Around the time we were starting to plan this project there were a few strips caricaturing the trend to reduce workstation size. Scott Adams captured several aspects of this project: the fact that open-plan offices are ubiquitous, that their areas are shrinking, and that often the psychological consequences of physical environmental choices are not considered in the design process.

My colleagues - physicists, architects, and engineers for the most part - and I did some thought experiments about what might happen if you made cubicles smaller, without trying to make them better.

Most of the likely outcomes we thought about were negative, although there's one potential positive: for those spaces with windows, smaller cubicles might give more people direct window access, and smaller cubicles might put the second row closer to the windows. However, we didn't think that this one benefit would be enough to outweigh all the possible negatives.

(5)

COPE Ge ne ra l M ode l

Workstation Characteristics Physical IE Conditions

Overall Environmental Satisfaction

Job Satisfaction Feature Importance Rankings

Controls: Building, Job Category, Sex, Age

Components of ES

Environmental Features Ratings

Although there has been office environment research in all our professions for many years, there was surprisingly little predictive information available. Psychologists tended to lack detailed physical measurements that would lead to specific design guidance (e.g., Sutton & Rafaeli, 1987). Engineers tended not to measure behaviour at all, or to do so with small samples and without systematic research designs to support strong inferences (e.g., Wormington, Lanning, & Anderson, 1996). Moreover, relatively few investigations (particularly from psychologists) appear to have taken place since the late 1980s, which means that most predate the change to ubiquitous personal computing. We explicitly set out to break down disciplinary barriers with this project, and furthermore wanted to influence practice.

I'd like to point out that this was interdisciplinary research, each group needing to absorb some aspects of the others' perspective, involving reciprocal and mutual interaction, in order for all the parts to fit together. (As opposed to multidisciplinary, in which several different perspectives on one problem are involved, but they don't necessarily interact.)

Sutton, R. I., & Rafaeli, A. (1987). Characteristics of work stations as potential occupational stressors. Academy of Management Journal, 30(2), 260-276.

Wormington, R., Lanning, J. A., & Anderson, L. G. (1996). Perception of indoor air quality.

(6)

COPE Proje c t Sc ope

Within traditional square cubicles:

_{Within traditional square cubicles:}

•

• Lighting

Lighting

•

• Ventilation/thermal environment

Ventilation/thermal environment

•

• Acoustics

Acoustics

•

• Psychology across all areas

Psychology across all areas

•

• Software development

Software development

_4-

₄

_-

_{year project (1999-}

_{year project (1999}

_{-2003), $2M budget}

_{2003), $2M budget}

•

• Public

Public

-

sector and private

-

sector partners,

from Canada and U.S.A. (list at end)

This was a large project for us, the first time we tried to pull all our disciplines together to address one problem or to develop software to enable what we learn to be applied. We limited the scope to traditional, rectilinear, modular cubicles and common design choices for lighting, ventilation, and furnishings. We excluded the micro-ergonomic issues that are well studied by others. We also excluded some of the recent variations such as "hot-desking" and "hotelling" and "team spaces", to keep the scope somewhat manageable. Our

behavioural outcomes were also limited to satisfaction in various facets; although there was much pressure to include performance measures or to make direct inferences about organizational productivity, we resisted these.

As it was, we had a large and expensive project. Our research is not fully funded directly from the federal government; we have to seek partners in other government departments, provincial governments, and the private sector. It took about 2 years to put all this together; it was also one of IRC's first attempts at this.

(7)

COPE Proje c t Pla n

Laboratory Experiments

Literature Reviews

Predictive Algorithms Modelling

COPE Software

Designers using predicted physical conditions & satisfaction to make decisions about open-plan offices

Field Study / Validation

This is a schematic slide of what we did. We used all the research methods we could find, from laboratory experiments through literature reviews, and sometimes including modelling based on physical principles (e.g., in lighting, daylighting, and acoustics) to develop algorithms that predict physical conditions from workstation characteristics, and

environmental satisfaction from both workstation characteristics and physical conditions - all towards a software tool that designers, facilities managers, and the like can use to identify which choices they ought to make, in planning new facilities or renovating old ones.

(8)

M a ny Disc ipline s

Researcher backgrounds:

_{Researcher backgrounds:}

•

• Psychology (environmental and I/O)

Psychology (environmental and I/O)

•

• Mechanical engineering

Mechanical engineering

•

• Building physics

Building physics

•

• Acoustics

Acoustics

•

• Architecture

Architecture

_{Technical assistance:}

•

• Software design

Software design

•

• Communications

Communications

•

• Data acquisition & management

Data acquisition & management

As you can imagine, with such a large project, there were many people involved. (The total numbers over 35, including various co-op, summer, and graduate students, technical officers and research officers.) The authors of this paper covered these 5 sets of professional training, and the team as a whole couldn't have functioned without the additional technical expertise.

(9)

Ba rrie rs be t w e e n Bounda rie s

Culture & language

_{Culture & language}

Interpersonal behaviours

_{Interpersonal behaviours}

_{Institutional policies}

Latham, G. P., & Latham, S. D. (2003). Facilitators and inhibito

Latham, G. P., & Latham, S. D. (2003). Facilitators and inhibitors of the transfer of rs of the transfer of

knowledge between scientists and practitioners in human resource

knowledge between scientists and practitioners in human resourcemanagement: management: Leveraging cultural, individual, and institutional variables.

Leveraging cultural, individual, and institutional variables. European Journal of Work European Journal of Work

& Organizational Psychology

& Organizational Psychology, , 1212(3), 245(3), 245--256.256.

This recent paper by Latham and Latham (2003), although written specifically for I/O and HRM, has wisdom for all of us who choose to undertake interdisciplinary research. They proposed a tripartite model for understanding the challenges.

Cultural and language problems arise in this case from training. The biggest problem is between psychology and people trained in any of the physical sciences/engineering. Psychology's research methods and statistical analysis are very different from physics or engineering, and things that one group might assume to be common knowledge can be new to others. Latham and Latham (2003) discussed mutual distrust as a serious inhibitor of transfer, and we encountered this in the beginning. We each needed to find ways to communicate our misunderstandings, and to accept that the others' perspectives had value.

Thus, the solution to the cultural problems involved individual, interpersonal behaviour. Respectful listening and an openness to others' ideas was mandatory.

In our case, there were few institutional barriers; they had already been broken down. NRC in the 1980s was reorganized around problem areas that are inherently multidisciplinary, and our own small part of NRC had always had such a structure. The idea of collaborating with colleagues, teamwork, and projects on applied problems is institutionalised in our promotion guidelines and in the decision process for project selection.

(10)

Suc c e ssful T e a m w ork

Shared commitment to goals

_{Shared commitment to goals}

Set common parameters at outset

_{Set common parameters at outset}

_{Regular meetings of whole team and}

subtask teams

•

• Regular communication, debate

Regular communication, debate

•

• Co

Co

-

ordination of linked tasks

•

• Learning others' approaches, expertise

Learning others' approaches, expertise

•

• Learn to translate one's own knowledge to

Learn to translate one's own knowledge to

outsiders

Overcoming these barriers became an unstated part of the project. The first task was to obtain a shared commitment to the project goals. The initial project ideas originated with two of us, but it was quickly apparent that a larger group was needed, most of whom had

existing commitments to other work and needed to be convinced that this would be a neat addition. Part of this initial process included setting common parameters for various parts of the project so that we would be able to combine results into one software mechanism at the end. We limited our range, for example, to cubicles 6x6 feet through 10x10 feet in size.

Even once we had the shared commitment we needed to invest heavily in regular meetings, usually once a month for 1-2 hours. There were more in the beginning, and sometimes additional ones at key points. Of course we needed to define the tasks and co-ordinate them, especially if they involved using shared facilities or working together on a field project. However, beyond the practical was the learning that happened at all the meetings:

-Getting to know new colleagues (several people joined IRC midway through COPE) and colleagues one hadn't previously had as collaborators

(11)

Evide nc e of Suc c e ss

25 research reports

_{25 research reports}

13 journal/conference papers to date (++)

_{13 journal/conference papers to date (++)}

_{1 M.Sc. thesis}

_{2 software packages}

1 web site for general readers

_{1 web site for general readers}

We accomplished a lot in 4.5 years (only a bit behind!). We generated 25 research reports for the clients, which we are in the process of converting into various conference and journal papers (13 of those to date). Data from one study led to one M.Sc. Thesis. We generated 2 software packages, one for acoustics alone and one for the whole environment. All of which made our project sponsors very happy.

We are now working on promoting the information and are developing a set of seminars on office environments for autumn 2004 in Canada and spring 2005 in the USA, to make practitioners aware of what knowledge we've gained and how they might use it.

(12)

We b Sit e

http://irc.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/ie/cope

This is the web site. It has links to all of the research reports (almost all of which are

available in PDF format), pages of information for the public and practitioners alike, and links to the software.

(13)

This is a sample page for the COPE – Office Design Evaluator software. I don't have time to explain all of the details, but the software allows the user to set up various design

configurations for a workstation, then predicts acoustic and lighting conditions and highlights good and bad aspects of the design in terms of their effects on satisfaction. The upper left screen shows some of the inputs for the office environment. Below are the basic outputs (SII, illuminance). The lower panel shows the Satisfaction tab for the same example. We can't predict a single satisfaction outcome because they are too complex – what is good in one sense can be bad for another. We highlight the bad things with a red X and good things with a green check.

Note that the names of our various scientific and professional disciplines don't appear anywhere. The final product has specific output for several problem or topic areas, but doesn't say "engineers, look here" or "I/O psychologists, look here".

(14)

Conc lusions

"Transparent and diffuse identity" of EP

_{"Transparent and diffuse identity" of EP}

(Stokols, 1995) evident in COPE

Simultaneous central focus, the problem

_{Simultaneous central focus, the problem}

of "the person situated in and transacting

with the environment" (Craik, 1996)

Collaboration key to full understanding of

_{Collaboration key to full understanding of}

"environment"

Craik, K. H. (1996). Environmental psychology: A core field with

Craik, K. H. (1996). Environmental psychology: A core field within psychological science.in psychological science. American Psychologist,

American Psychologist,5151, 1186, 1186--1187.1187.

Stokols, D. (1995). The paradox of environmental psychology.

Stokols, D. (1995). The paradox of environmental psychology.American Psychologist, 50, American Psychologist, 50, 821

821——837.837.

In that sense the output of this project is an example of what Dan Stokols has called the "transparent and diffuse identity" of environmental psychology. Indeed, if you look at the articles that were cited in the various reports of the COPE project you will see that what I would call EP was published in journals of perception, vision, I/O psychology, social psych, applied social psych, ergonomics, cognitive psych, architecture, building science, and engineering and interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary journals of acoustics, lighting, and ventilation – and almost none of these used the phrase "environmental psychology" to describe what they had done.

However, from this list you can also see evidence of what Craik has called a central focus of psychology, the "person situated in and transacting with the environment". What we do is part of the psychological project.

The thought I wish to leave you with as I close is that only by collaborating more broadly, whether with people formally in other parts of the discipline, or with those in other areas, can we capture a complete understanding of the person in the environment. This poses many