ANALYZING WORK PATTERNS AND CHALLENGES FOR OFFICE WORKSPACE STRATEGIES IN A PANDEMIC ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

Workplace design research has been inconclusive over a range of modern office designs : open-plan office (OPO), Bürolandschaft, cellular offices and activity-based workplaces (ABW). With the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic, work patterns of organizations need to be further re-evaluated. To that end, research is currently limited due to the ever-changing widespread effects of the pandemic.

Preliminary research indicates that organizations will continue to transition away from traditional office configurations to designs that afford more flexibility such as ABW. The underlying causes, benefits and drawbacks of such a transition are analysed in this paper, using a varied range of data collection methods. Further conclusions are drawn about the patterns of work based on the projected trends, with regards to the homeworking environment and its relevance to organization’s work models.

Overall, the research predicts that the office and homeworking environments will remain essential parts of organizations’ work models due to essential organizational functions that require both as part of organizations’ real estate strategy. There are also indications of an interest in a third work premise between the office and homeworking settings. Detailed discussion of these factors is presented in this study.