A Comparative Analysis on User Satisfaction in Closed and Open Office Buildings

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A B S T R A C T Many organizations and industries around the world have their own preference of office type base on the nature of services to be rendered. Office building without employee’s satisfaction can adversely affect their performances at their places of work. Open office is an office that has large open space with no partitionable walls but providing workstation for each employee within the open space while close office is the type with solid walls or frames as partitions with doors which open to each office. It is in the light of this that the design of office becomes imperative to both employers and architects. The aim of this study is to investigate user satisfaction and preferences in office buildings, in other to proffer appropriate design suggestion and recommendation that can be used when providing office to employees. A survey is adopted through the aid of administredquestionnaire to respondents, and the results are therefore analysed using simple statistical tool. Findings from the study reveals users satisfaction and preference for open office layout, it further reveals efficiency in users productivity due to its effectiveness in communication, kwnoledge sharing, space saving, cost saving and flexibility in managerial activities. The study therefore creates a correlation between findings conducted by other researchers over the years concerningthe provision of office for employees their preference andsatisfaction for open office buildings.

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A Comparative Analysis on User Satisfaction in Closed and Open Office Buildings: Case Study of Some Selected Buildings in Abuja * Ph.D. Candidate OBASANJO ADEOLA OWOYALE 1, Dr. BARKA JONATHAN KWAYA 2, Ph.D. Candidate MOHAMMED TAUHEED ALFA 3 1 & 3 Department of Architecture, Cyprus International University, Nicosia, Cyprus 2Adamawa State Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria E mail: obasanjoadeolaowoyale@yahoo.com E mail: jbarka4u@gmail.com E mail: mohammedtalfa@yahoo.com A B S T R A C T Many organizations and industries around the world have their own preference of office type base on the nature of services to be rendered. Office building without employee’s satisfaction can adversely affect their performances at their places of work. Open office is an office that has large open space with no partitionable walls but providing workstation for each employee within the open space while close office is the type with solid walls or frames as partitions with doors which open to each office. It is in the light of this that the design of office becomes imperative to both employers and architects. The aim of this study is to investigate user satisfaction and preferences in office buildings, in other to proffer appropriate design suggestion and recommendation that can be used when providing office to employees. A survey is adopted through the aid of administredquestionnaire to respondents, and the results are therefore analysed using simple statistical tool. Findings from the study reveals users satisfaction and preference for open office layout, it further reveals efficiency in users productivity due to its effectiveness in communication, kwnoledge sharing, space saving, cost saving and flexibility in managerial activities. The study therefore creates a correlation between findings conducted by other researchers over the years concerningthe provision of office for employees their preference andsatisfaction for open office buildings. CONTEMPORARY URBAN AFFAIRS (2018), 2(3), 102-106. https://doi.org/10.25034/ijcua.2018.4724 www.ijcua.com Copyright © 2018 Contemporary Urban Affairs. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction An office or office building, is represented as an office block and a business center. Office buildings are known with different forms, and are characterized as buildings that contains mainly designed spaces used for offices (Brookes & Kaplan, 1972). The primary purpose of an office is to provide a workplace and working environment primarily for administrative and managerial activities (Wineman, 1986).In the words of office design consultant and author Francis Duffy, "The office building is one of the great icons of the twentieth century. Office buildings and towers dominate the skylines of cities in every continent and are represented as the most visible index of economic activity, social, technological, and financial progress, they have come to symbolize much of what this century has been about." (Peponis et al., 2007). Office building as described by Brill (1984), is the most tangible reflection of a profound change in employment patterns that has occurred over the last one hundred years. In present-day America, northern Europe, and Japan, at least 50 percent of the working population is employed in office settings as compared to 5 percent of the population at the beginning of the 20th century. Office architecture has undergone many interconnected phases and have withstood both discontinuity and inconsistencies. Influences from the past can be found in contemporary office designs just as Prevailing political and social conditions as well as the development of technology further explains changes in the form and use of office spaces (Wineman, 1982). Through successive trajection in office design, concepts and high performance Moore et al., (1985), describes an office as a space which is capable of offering both owners and users increased working satisfaction, productivity, improved health, greater flexibility, enhanced energy and environmental performance that is safe, healthy, comfortable and aesthetically pleasing. The Concepts towards office designs are every day evolving and office spaces are becoming layout set to induce interaction and face-to-face knowledge and information exchange Abuja being the capital of Nigeria, is embraced with lots of office buildings, most of the office buildings have various design patterns and concepts (Wineman, 1986). Office buildings in Abuja tend to symbolize the dominance of work force as they reflect in the efficiency and growth of economic activity, social, technological, and financial progress. However a comparative study on user satisfaction in closed and open office buildings is Abuja will further throw more light on the dominance of office design patterns and concepts, as well as preference and satisfaction for office building types. 2. Methodology In a bid to actualize the comparative study between closed and open office layout, the study tend to adopt a qualitative approach. The approach is however much appropriate for the study and thus was effectively used to investigate, analyse and evaluate user satisfaction in closed and open office buildings. The total of 100 structured questionnaires were formulated and randomly distributed amongst respondents (staff) of Airtell call office premised in Abuja which operate an open plan office settings and the federal secretariate office which operate a close office plan settings. The derived and retrieved data is quantitatively analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software program. However descriptive statistics is further used to summarize and evaluate the data based on the results obtained from participants of the study. 3. Literature Review 3.1. Results and Discussions From the questionnaire administered to open plan office users in Airtel call centre Abuja, twenty five of the questionnaire were returned out of the thirty administerd to respondents, while one hundred questionnaire were administered to open office users with eighty five returned.They are to chose from the following options on how they feel about their office wheither poor, good, very good or excellent. Questions asked were how satisfied they are in their own office, how effective is their communication within group, interaction with colleague, visual privacy in their office and acoustical privacy. 3.2. Satisfaction with own office Satisfaction in an office is relative to individual. However, it shows how happy or contented an employee is in his place of work or work station, his views on office setting ranging from furniture arrangement, types of furniture, size and shape of the office. The figure below shows the states of satisfaction with own office in open and closed office. The figure shows that 40% of open office users are satisfied with their own office against the 12% percentage of the users who rate their satisfaction with own office as being poor. Greater percentage of the respondent are satisfied because it allow them to learn from their colleagues while 47.1% of the close office users are not satisfied with own office because it does not allow them to interact well with their colleagues. Figure 1. Satisfaction with own office Source: (Author, 2012).

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