Business structure, content and process have changed over time. Work becomes more
cognitively complex, requires more team and collaborative, depends on more social skills
and technological competences, and becomes more mobile or less geographically
constrained (Heerwagen, Kelly, & Kampschroer, 2016). Workplace has changed or adapted
to these new requirements. Some changes or solutions have been made but also bring new
issues. For instance, to increase team and cross unit work, companies increase meeting
spaces as well as variety of spaces, however, these changes also increase noises, distractions
and interruptions (Heerwagen et al., 2016). Some companies construct more equitable
spatial allocation and workplace features to improve quality of work life and to attract new
workers, but they are having resistance from who support hierarchical space allocation
(Heerwagen et al., 2016).
Although change of workplace faces many challenges, a finding from a study supports those
changes. BambookHR conduced two surveys in 2006 and 2016. They reveal a series of
improvement from workplace, such as improved employee management, more respect to
employees and more employee satisfactions (Smyth, 2018). Workplace environment
becomes more important to employee, therefore employer provides more flexible
workplaces, and builds more productive environment (Smyth, 2018). The study also finds a
huge change on internet related controlling, for instance, employer has less site blocking
and less email monitoring than that of 10 years ago (Smyth, 2018). The study also finds that
workplace stress and anxiety have reduced dramatically (Smyth, 2018).
A look out to the future workplace suggests a continuing development in the following
areas: user experience and human-centric design, mindfulness and well-being, space fusion
and lifelong learning (HOK, 2018, p. 38).
Reference:
Heerwagen, J., Kelly, K., & Kampschroer, K. (2016, May 10). THE CHANGING NATURE OF
ORGANIZATIONS, WORK, AND WORKPLACE. WBDG. Retrieved from
https://www.wbdg.org/resources/changing-nature-organizations-work-andworkplace
HOK. (2018). A Look To The Future: Trends for the 2020s. In HOK Forward: Workplace
Research + Trends 2018 (Vol. 1). Retrieved from
https://www.hok.com/uploads/2018/06/26/hok-forward-workplace-report.pdf
Smyth, A. (2018). How Much Has the Workplace Changed in The Last 10 Years? [ORG].
Retrieved from https://engageforsuccess.org/much-workplace-changed-last-10years