Is there evidence to suggest that certain office layouts are better than others for productivity?

Question

Joel Spolsky is pretty famous for advocating private offices for workers, particularly software developers (see here, here or here for example). I've also read that Microsoft generally has private offices, and I've interviewed at at least one company which also claimed private offices were better for productivity.

I'm curious what research has been done to support these claims, if any. Further, is there a "second best" layout? For example, are cubicles better than a completely open floor plan?

Since much of my work involves team interaction, I'm looking for data that addresses both individual and team productivity, if possible.

Answer 1

There's a huge amount of research into how office layouts affect employee happiness and productivity, with some areas that have a consensus view, and others that don't.

Some of the things that have a consensus view are that poor lighting, uncomfortable furniture and high noise levels have highly detrimental impacts on productivity (see 1 and 2 below and this very good TED Talk).

However, one of the things that has more varying conclusions is that of office layout - specifically open-plan vs private offices. The general principle seems to be thus:

• In jobs or industries that require high levels of short, informal and immediate interactions between people, open plan offices are more productive.
• In jobs or industries where high levels of focus and concentration are required, private offices work best.

However, most of the studies that support open plan offices tend to have "softer" definitions and measures of productivity, while studies with firmer definitions and more scientific measurement practices tend to favour private offices. The biggest negative factor against open plan offices is almost always noise, and quieter open plan offices score better than loud ones. Headphones or ear plugs are also shown to help.

As such, the prevailing, though not consensus view, seems to be that private offices are better (see 3 below).

References:

1. http://www.scientificjournals.org/journals2009/articles/1460.pdf
2. http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/obj/irc/doc/pubs/nrcc45620/nrcc45620.pdf
3. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/16732/

Answer 2

I am of the opinion that:

Closed Offices can increase collaboration.

This sounds counter-intertuitive but it goes something like this:

In an 'open' office area, folks are trying to concentrate and work, so several things happen:

1) They don't want to make noise that interrupts everyone just to ask 1 person a question.
2) They are not sure if their question is valid and if they would look inferior just for asking it (ego).
3) They can't laugh loudly or express any overt emotions or noise without potentially disturbing others.

Whereas in a private office they can work and concentrate and they when they need help or to collaborate they can just go to, or bring in, a fellow employee.

This setup is not easy however as it:
- requires a very high level of trust. More than a standard employer-employee relationship.
- looks strange to others. Non IT folks don't have the same needs for quite and concentration and may just see things like private offices as personal 'perks'.
- requires more formal structure for inter-personal relationships where are still very important. This can be address with a daily scrum, daily lunches, etc. One of my friends that has a virtual team doesn't do scrum (doesn't suit his org) but does have a daily virtual lunch, just to keep in touch with everyone. This means that when inter-personal communication is needed, people have good personal relationships that will encourage good communication.

Answer 3

Probably this is not what you are looking for since that not research but anecdotal evidence.

Yet I found it to be much easier to focus on complex and time-consuming tasks when sitting in a quiet room alone or with just a couple of other programmers.

My productivity drops sharply when people around are talking on the phone, having meetings, smalltalks etc - I have to actively screen that out by trying to ignore it, and subjectively that wastes a lot of "mental energy". I also noticed that I tend to burn out way faster in noisy environments as well as procrastinate more (switching to internet browsing, social web etc).

Answer 4

I don't have any research, sorry. But from a "concentrating on the job" point of view, it seems obvious that screening out distractions would be a plus. Both visual and auditory distractions, so I think cubicles would be an improvement on an open floor plan. (Personal experience - I sat at a partially open desk facing into a room once, and ended up putting up a screen because the constant movement across my field of view distracted me too much. And having a room or at least a quiet corner of a room was definitely an improvement over constant coworker chatter.)

Once you get into team productivity, the issue gets much more difficult, and depends so much on the team's style and on how often they need to communicate that I suspect general studies might not be too helpful for deciding on the best option for a specific case.