Academy of Management – Montreal, August 2010
Jacqueline C. Vischer PhD
Professeure émérite
Faculté de l’aménagement
Université de Montréal
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Size and/or cost issues
New tools and technology
Organisational restructuring
Change organisational culture
Take advantage of the New Workspace
Opportunity
From: Vischer, J.C. 2007 Space Meets Status:
Designing Workplace Performance Routledge
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Fear of the unknown
 Fear of innovation
 Fear of losing the
familiar
 Fear of losing
ground
 Fear of conflict
Psychological comfort
Functional Comfort
Physical Comfort
HABITABILITY THRESHOLD
PHYSICAL COMFORT
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Health and Safety
Building codes and
standards
Basic utility –
Habitability threshold
FUNCTIONAL COMFORT
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Workspace supports
work
Indoor air quality and
thermal comfort
Lighting and
daylighting
Spatial layouts and
privacy
Human and building
noise control
 Own
(occupy)
 Defend
 Mark
(identify)
 Possess
 Sense
(control access)
of belonging
 Personalization
•Space privacy
•Work confidentiality
•Job status
•Sense of history / longevity
•Personal control
•physical controls
•empowerment / ownership
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Fear of loss
Mistrust of superiors
Leaders or champions?
Change is too radical
No explicit process
Costs too much
Need for new learning
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2.
3.
4.
Manage user involvement
Take advantage of the New
Workspace Opportunity
Reduce fear, increase functional
comfort
Increase workspace effectiveness
through environmental
empowerment
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Transformation as imperative
Play out the process
Embrace conflict
Avoid the default
Not a zero sum game
Empowerment is key
Change is positive

Stakeholders need to recognize
and work with workspace design
as a tool for change by being
responsive to the opportunity
offered by the new workspace
imperative.

Not all stakeholders will want
workspace change, or tolerate the
same degree of innovation; the
process must take its course
Note that stakeholders are senior
managers, middle managers, employees,
facilities staff, design consultants


Conflicts are inevitable, they arise out
of fear. Steps need to be taken to
manage constructively the energy
released by conflict, to the advantage
of the change process.

The default position in space-related
decision-making is what already
exists and what everybody already
knows (the tried and true) – except
that it is a reversion to ‘no-change’
and not a step forward.

For everything taken away from
occupants when their workspace is
changed, something must be given
back; any loss of that which is familiar
is immediate, whereas gains
sometimes need time to be felt.

It is important to empower users
so that they invest in workspace
decisions. The strategic approach
to users’ involvement is explicitly
designed to fit the project and
organisational context.

New workspace implies a new
social order, new business
processes, even new behaviour and
cultural norms. These must be
addressed explicitly during the
change management process.
WELL-MANAGED WORKSPACE CHANGE
STRESS
COMFORT
From: Vischer, J.C. 2007 Space Meets Status:
Designing Workplace Performance Routledge
Please contact us:
Jacqueline C. Vischer
Jacqueline.vischer@umontreal.ca
Our website:
www.gret.umontreal.ca