empirical research on effects of confidentiality

On the one hand, sociological theory presents a strong argument that removing spatial boundaries to bring more people into contact should increase collaboration and collective intelligence. Prior theory is divided-and empirical evidence mixed-on the effect that removing spatial boundaries has on human behaviour in the space previously within those boundaries (e.g.

In the most physically salient and concrete example, ‘spatial boundaries’ at work-such as office or cubicle walls-are being removed to create open ‘unbounded’ offices in order to stimulate greater collaboration and collective intelligence. Yet even as social scientists continue to study the value of a vast array of boundaries, in an era in which the nature of work is changing, managers and organizational scholars have increasingly framed boundaries as barriers to interaction that ought to be spanned, permeated or blurred to increase collaboration. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Interdisciplinary approaches for uncovering the impacts of architecture on collective behaviour’.īoundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them’ have long captured human interest.

The results inform our understanding of the impact on human behaviour of workspaces that trend towards fewer spatial boundaries. This is the first study to empirically measure both face-to-face and electronic interaction before and after the adoption of open office architecture. In short, rather than prompting increasingly vibrant face-to-face collaboration, open architecture appeared to trigger a natural human response to socially withdraw from officemates and interact instead over email and IM.

70%) in both cases, with an associated increase in electronic interaction.

Contrary to common belief, the volume of face-to-face interaction decreased significantly (approx. In two intervention-based field studies of corporate headquarters transitioning to more open office spaces, we empirically examined-using digital data from advanced wearable devices and from electronic communication servers-the effect of open office architectures on employees' face-to-face, email and instant messaging (IM) interaction patterns. Organizations’ pursuit of increased workplace collaboration has led managers to transform traditional office spaces into ‘open’, transparency-enhancing architectures with fewer walls, doors and other spatial boundaries, yet there is scant direct empirical research on how human interaction patterns change as a result of these architectural changes.

Empirical research on effects of confidentiality