The cubicle deconstructed : simple visual enclosure improves perseverance
The design of an office can affect productivity and work performance. Though social distraction (acoustic and visual distractions from other co-workers) certainly impacts performance, the effects of the spatial characteristics of the office environment per se are less known. We tested visual enclosu...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/151565 |
| _version_ | 1826118128673751040 |
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| author | Roberts, Adam Charles Yap, Hui Shan Kwok, Kian-Woon Car, Josip Soh, Chee Kiong Christopoulos, George I. |
| author2 | School of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| author_facet | School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Roberts, Adam Charles Yap, Hui Shan Kwok, Kian-Woon Car, Josip Soh, Chee Kiong Christopoulos, George I. |
| author_sort | Roberts, Adam Charles |
| collection | NTU |
| description | The design of an office can affect productivity and work performance. Though social distraction (acoustic and visual distractions from other co-workers) certainly impacts performance, the effects of the spatial characteristics of the office environment per se are less known. We tested visual enclosure by simply adding a cubicle partition around a desk, and show in two studies that even this minor change improves perseverance, a central function underlying many job tasks. A third study suggests that this effect is likely caused by adjusting the allocation of mental effort depending on the environment, with larger spaces requiring a greater effort allocation. These findings suggest that environmental characteristics affect human performance by influencing the effort allocated to various tasks (effort allocation hypothesis) rather than by activating concepts related to enclosure (semantic priming). Overall, we suggest that visual enclosure in itself could be beneficial in tasks requiring perseverance. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T04:38:40Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/151565 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T04:38:40Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1515652023-05-19T07:31:19Z The cubicle deconstructed : simple visual enclosure improves perseverance Roberts, Adam Charles Yap, Hui Shan Kwok, Kian-Woon Car, Josip Soh, Chee Kiong Christopoulos, George I. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Nanyang Business School School of Social Sciences Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) Culture Science Institute Decision, Environmental and Organizational Neuroscience Lab Engineering::Civil engineering Cubicle Effort The design of an office can affect productivity and work performance. Though social distraction (acoustic and visual distractions from other co-workers) certainly impacts performance, the effects of the spatial characteristics of the office environment per se are less known. We tested visual enclosure by simply adding a cubicle partition around a desk, and show in two studies that even this minor change improves perseverance, a central function underlying many job tasks. A third study suggests that this effect is likely caused by adjusting the allocation of mental effort depending on the environment, with larger spaces requiring a greater effort allocation. These findings suggest that environmental characteristics affect human performance by influencing the effort allocated to various tasks (effort allocation hypothesis) rather than by activating concepts related to enclosure (semantic priming). Overall, we suggest that visual enclosure in itself could be beneficial in tasks requiring perseverance. Ministry of National Development (MND) National Research Foundation (NRF) Published version This research is supported in part by the Singapore Ministry of National Development and the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office under the Land and Liveability National Innovation Challenge (L2 NIC) Research Programme (L2 NIC Award No. L2NICCFP1-2013-2). 2021-06-28T05:39:34Z 2021-06-28T05:39:34Z 2019 Journal Article Roberts, A. C., Yap, H. S., Kwok, K., Car, J., Soh, C. K. & Christopoulos, G. I. (2019). The cubicle deconstructed : simple visual enclosure improves perseverance. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 63, 60-73. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2019.04.002 0272-4944 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/151565 10.1016/j.jenvp.2019.04.002 63 60 73 en L2NICCFP1-2013-2 Journal of Environmental Psychology © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY-NC-ND/4.0/). application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Engineering::Civil engineering Cubicle Effort Roberts, Adam Charles Yap, Hui Shan Kwok, Kian-Woon Car, Josip Soh, Chee Kiong Christopoulos, George I. The cubicle deconstructed : simple visual enclosure improves perseverance |
| title | The cubicle deconstructed : simple visual enclosure improves perseverance |
| title_full | The cubicle deconstructed : simple visual enclosure improves perseverance |
| title_fullStr | The cubicle deconstructed : simple visual enclosure improves perseverance |
| title_full_unstemmed | The cubicle deconstructed : simple visual enclosure improves perseverance |
| title_short | The cubicle deconstructed : simple visual enclosure improves perseverance |
| title_sort | cubicle deconstructed simple visual enclosure improves perseverance |
| topic | Engineering::Civil engineering Cubicle Effort |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/151565 |
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