Workplace or Workspace

Depending upon your standpoint, buildings may be viewed in many different ways. Simplistically, an
architect may have primarily an aesthetic view. An investor may have a view of a building described by the characteristics of the return it generates. From a research perspective I tend to see buildings as economic capacity.

It is clear that commercial buildings do not exist merely to protect their occupants from the weather. However, for many industries, particularly in the service sector, better technology has begun to free personal productivity from the constraints of place. Broadly, a person equipped with a laptop and broadband communications can function as well out of the office as within it in many cases.

The role of the office building is changing therefore from the primary focus of work to an environment that supports mobile working but also provides those residual functions tied to a specific place.

The building manager, whether wearing a corporate real estate or facilities hat, is responsible for balancing many competing objectives. Becker & Sims (2001) summarise these thus:

“…the competing goals of reducing capital and operating costs, increasing flexibility and
adaptability over time in the face of uncertain organisational change, while
creating a workplace that helps attract and retain the highest quality of staff
and enables them to work to their fullest potential.”

In performing this balancing act, the manager also needs to bear in mind the different contextual frameworks that may serve to tilt the scales one way or another.

The nature of, particularly office-based, work is changing fast. Increased mobility and connectivity place increased demands upon corporate infrastructure and change how buildings are used. This also has an
impact upon the appraisal process, changing the suitability of locations perhaps or increasing the need for different facilities.

Ultimately, any appraisal process should address the fitness of workplace for purpose. This requires a different view of the relationship between workplace and workspace. Workspace determines productivity, workplace is just the container for a number of workspaces.

This is taken from a paper I presented with Dr Quilin Ke at the ERES conference in June 2010.
We are in the process of building an appraisal model that measures workspace in the context of workspace. Any thoughts or comments would be welcome and will feed into the modelling process.