Tesi sul tema "Open offices"

The ambient conditions such as air quality, noise, music, temperature, lighting and colour, in open-plan offices and their impact on employees are important for managements to recognize because open-plan offices are becoming more and more common in Swedish companies' office design today (Aronsson, 2005). For students, who will soon be entering the work force, it is important to understand how the characteristics of the ambient conditions can influence employee behaviour/satisfaction.

To have a working knowledge of what kinds of effects the ambient conditions can have is likely to increase one's chances of becoming a satisfied employee. An employee that is aware of the importance of creating a servicescape (the attributes of the physical surrounding) that meets its needs and desires is likely to enhance its satisfaction in the ambient conditions. A great number of managements may not be aware of the risks of working in an open-plan office where the ambient conditions are not satisfying the employees; ergonomic issues as well as heart diseases are the most serious results (Evans and Johnson, 2000, pp. 780-782). This leads to the problem formulation of this thesis: "How can management improve employee satisfaction in an open-plan office through the characteristics of a servicescape's ambient conditions?”.

Four main theories are included in the Theoretical Framework to provide a deep understanding for the reader about the complexity of problems that comes with working in an open-plan office. The Bitner theory and the research compiled by Sundstrom discuss ambient conditions and their impacts on employees' behaviour/satisfaction. Evans and Johnson’s theory discusses how stress is related to low-intensity noise. The final main theory, Person-Environment Fit, upholds the importance of a servicescape that fits employees’ needs and desires.

The ambient conditions influence employee behaviours in numerous ways (Davis, 1984, pp. 271) and at Sogeti’s open-plan office several ambient conditions are studied through an observation conducted during April 17th 2007 and a questionnaire with 15 closed questions. The outcomes of the observation and the questionnaire are analysed and concrete proposals are created for the Sogeti management to act upon in order to improve the characteristics of their open-plan office’s ambient conditions and thereby improve employee satisfaction.

One of the concrete proposals to how Sogeti may improve the ambient conditions in their open-plan office is to introduce a survey that should be handed out to the employees three or four times a year. The purpose of the survey is to define employees’ perceptions of the different ambient conditions.

Based on the outcomes from the survey, employees’ needs and desires of the servicescape, the ambient conditions’ characteristics, can be improved. Also, some examples of actions geared towards reducing the level of noise in the Sogeti open-plan office are to use ear phones when listening to music and to leave the open-plan office when conducting phone calls. The concrete proposals developed based on the Sogeti employees’ perceptions of the ambient conditions in the open-plan office are outcomes of this thesis that may serve as a tool for the Sogeti management to improve the ambient conditions of their servicescape and thereby increase employee satisfaction.

During our education to become lighting designers at Jönköping University, the artificial lighting has been in focus. Therefore we wanted to learn more about daylight. We chose to do this from a visual approach in open plan offices. Since daylight is part of the architects´ responsibility to master, we wanted to examine what architects think of when they plan daylight environments in open plan offices and how this is expressed in the buildings with focus on the visual factors.

Our questions at issue are:

1. What knowledge do architects have concerning daylight planning, and how do they use this knowledge in their practice?
2. How well do the chosen daylight environments meet the end-users need of a good visual environment?

The study consists of three case studies, carried out in the same way. Each case study contains an analysis of the daylight environment in a modern building with open plan offices. A responsible architect was interviewed about the intensions for the building, and about his or her general thoughts about daylight. Three end-users were also interviewed about their experiences of their working environment and the daylight conditions in each building. In total three buildings were analysed, three architects and nine end-users were interviewed.

The result shows that it is hard to tell what knowledge architects have about daylight, since it is a part of the overall design of the building. It is also very individual whether the architect displays an interest, and work with daylight issues in an active way. We can see differences in this matter between the interviewed architects.

The analysed buildings also show varying results in the visual qualities. The results from our environment analyses are at most part confirmed by the end-users in each building. The problems we have found concerning the daylight environment are primarily the solar shadings and the layout of furnishing.

Our conclusion is that architects could benefit from collaboration with lighting designers in daylight issues. This is because lighting designers have more knowledge about the visual conditions of the eye, and a more explicit focus on the end-user. To ensure a good collaboration the lighting designers also need to increase their knowledge about daylight in buildings, and about the building construction as a whole.

Under vår utbildning till ljusdesigners på Jönköpings Tekniska Högskola har fokus legat på det elektriska ljuset. Då vi ville lära oss mer om det minst lika viktiga dagsljuset, valde vi att undersöka detta ur ett visuellt perspektiv i kontorslandskap. Dagsljuset är arkitektens ansvar att behärska, varför vi ville undersöka vad arkitekter tänker på när de planerar dagsljusmiljöer i kontorslandskap, och hur detta yttrar sig i den färdiga byggnaden med fokus på de visuella faktorerna.

Följande frågeställningar formulerades:

1. Vilken kunskap har arkitekter om dagsljusplanering och hur använder de sig av denna kunskap i praktiken?
2. Hur väl uppfyller utvalda dagsljusmiljöer brukarens behov av en god visuell miljö?

Studien bygger på tre fallstudier utförda på samma sätt. Varje fallstudie innefattar en analys av dagsljusmiljön i en modern byggnad innehållande kontorslandskap. En ansvarig arkitekt intervjuades om intentionerna med respektive byggnad, samt om dennes tankar kring dagsljus i allmänhet. I respektive byggnad intervjuades även tre brukare om deras upplevelse av arbetsmiljön och dagsljuset. Totalt analyserades tre byggnader, och tre arkitekter samt nio brukare intervjuades.

Resultatet visar att det är svårt att uttala sig om arkitekters kunskap om dagsljus, då det ingår som en del i gestaltningen av hela byggnaden. Det är även väldigt individuellt huruvida arkitekten intresserar sig för och aktivt arbetar med dagsljusfrågor. Vi ser stora skillnader i det avseendet hos de arkitekter vi intervjuade.

De analyserade byggnaderna visar även skiftande resultat i dagsljusmiljöns visuella kvaliteter. Resultatet av våra miljöanalyser bekräftas till stor del av brukarna i respektive byggnad. Problemområden för den visuella dagsljusmiljön som vi fann, är i första hand solavskärmningar samt möblering i rummet.

Vår slutsats är att arkitekter kan ha nytta av att samarbeta med ljusdesigners i dagsljusfrågor då ljusdesigners har en större kunskap om ögats visuella förutsättningar och ett tydligare brukarperspektiv. För att ett gott samarbete ska kunna upprättas krävs samtidigt att ljusdesigners ökar sin kunskap om dagsljus i byggnader, och om byggnaders konstruktion som helhet.

In recent years, the development of wireless sensor networks has made a great progress. Early projects focused on replacement of existing systems equipped with wires. These systems started out as simple static data collection networks with one smart central node that could decide further actions based on the content of the collected data. Through time, the intelligence has become more decentralized, which means the nodes now can cooperate in a more efficient and dynamic manner. The task given is to evaluate TinyOS and NesC on specific hardware from Crossbow Technology Inc, applied on an application called the Open Secure Office Project. This application is designed to enhance the security without negative effects on comfort in a frequently visited open-plan office. Finally, a real world system demonstration should be performed. We propose a solution where there is no urgent need to cover the entire office area with radio signals to maintain a secure sensor system. This is true as long as all entries and exits to the office area are “guarded” by some base station which has as main task to keep track of people and equipment entering or leaving the office. Small scale tests have been performed which show that it is possible to easily develop and maintain a wireless sensor network security system, that could be coordinated by alternative systems.

Godkänd; 2012; 20120831 (heljah); DISPUTATION Ämne: Teknisk psykologi/Engineering Psychology Opponent: Docent Mats Nilsson, Psykologiska institutionen, Stockholms universitet Ordförande: Professor Håkan Alm, Institutionen för ekonomi, teknik och samhälle, Luleå tekniska universitet Tid: Fredag den 23 november 2012, kl 10.30 Plats: F719J, Luleå tekniska universitet

Open source software is becoming a credible and realistic alternative to proprietary software in municipalities. The aim of this thesis is to explore the strategies and logical issues that inspire and motivate municipalities to migrate into or integrate use of open source software. The research approach used in the study is an explorative, comparative case study performed in the three Swedish municipalities of Falköping, Alingsås and Kungälv, which considers implementation and use of OpenOffice in administration. The methodologies used in the case study were in-depth interviews with Chief Information Officers in the municipalities and document analysis. The interviews were combined with the tool of SWOTanalysis to further focus on the reasons for choosing OpenOffice as an application program. There is certainly not a unique strategy to migrate into or integrate use of Free/Open Source Software. Since each municipality is autonomous in the process of decision-making, various strategic planning or guidelines are use in different municipalities. In the municipalities of Alingsås and Kungälv the strategic planning is used for leading the processes of implementation of new software applications. However, in Falköping municipality, the procedures are guided by a set of guidelines. The lower Total Cost of Ownership and the Free/Open Source Software’s freedoms besides many other advantages, make the municipalities stimulated to migrate into use of OpenOffice suite. In contrast, there are some drawbacks and barriers, such as shortage of internal and external standardization and lack of user knowledge and familiarity, which demotivate the municipalities to take this decision. To lower costs of IT administration seems to be the most significant factor in motivating municipalities to migrate into use of OpenOffice. More research is needed in order to find out the consequences of implementation of OpenOffice in municipalities as well as to investigate if Total Cost of Ownership really is decreased by the use of Open Office.

Det råder delade meningar om konsekvenserna av att arbeta i öppna

kontorslandskap. Kommunikation och en bra laganda anses vara ett

grundläggande element i framgångsrika organisationer. Då användandet av

öppna kontorslandskap ökat finns ett behov av forskning inom området.

Syftet är att utifrån ett arbetspsykologiskt perspektiv undersöka

medarbetarnas upplevelse av kontorslandskap med fokus på den verbala

kommunikationen och lagandan mellan medarbetarna, detta genom åtta

deltagare i Downs & Hazens (1977) Communication Satisfaction

Questionnaire samt semistrukturerade intervjuer. Respondenterna upplever

en öppen och positiv verbal kommunikation dock upplevs den även som ett

störningsmoment. Lagandan upplevs som stark och främjande av den

individuella och organisatoriska prestationen. Arbetssituationen skulle

förbättras om privata utrymmen upprättas samt regler och rutiner gällande

agerande i kontorslandskap införs.

Denna uppsats behandlar en undersökning som gjordes efter det att en gymnasieskola i Örebro migrerat från Microsoft Office till Open Office. I studien undersöktes vilka för och nackdelar som lärare upplevde efter migrationen samt vilka problem som uppstod då öppen mjukvara används i en miljö som är dominerad av proprietär mjukvara.

Det tillvägagångssätt vi valt är en metodtriangulering där vi samlat in data med hjälp av tre olika insamlingsmetoder, en litteraturstudie, kvalitativa intervjuer och en kvantitativ enkät. Dessa insamlingsmetoder utformades så att litteraturstudien var av bredare karaktär och leder till att intervjuerna blir av mer specifik karaktär som i sin tur ger oss kvantitativa frågor till enkäten.

Det vi funnit under arbetets gång är att migrationen lett till interoperabilitetsproblem med existerande proprietära system och även att filer tolkats olika av de båda kontorspaketen. Lärarna såg större skillnader mellan de båda kontorspaketen är vad skolan och kommunen förutsett och tyckte att de mer avancerade funktionerna är svårare att använda i Open Office vi har även sett en efterfrågan utbildning.

At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Manuscript.