1st Edition

Creating Emotionally Intelligent Workspaces A Design Guide to Office Chemistry

By Edward Finch, Guillermo Aranda-Mena Copyright 2020
    118 Pages 26 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    118 Pages 26 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Emotions in the workplace have until recently been seen simply as a distraction. We often think of work as rational, logical and non-emotional. But organisations are waking up to the key role of emotions and affect at work. Emotions influence how we make decisions, how we relate with one another and how we make sense of our surroundings.

    Whilst organisations are slowly embracing the pivotal role of emotions, designers and managers of workplaces have been struggling to keep up. New insights from hard sciences such as neuropsychology are presenting a radically different interpretation of emotions. Yet workplace designers and facilities managers still rely on measuring non-specific states such as satisfaction and stress.

    In this book we attempt to capture modern-day interpretations of emotion, looking at emotion in terms of transactions and processes rather than simple cause and effect. We entertain the idea of an ‘emotionally intelligent building’ as an alternative to the much-hyped intelligent building. The assertion is that we should create environments that are emotionally intelligent. Rather than focusing on the aptitudes or shortcomings of individuals at work, we should place closer attention on the office environment. It’s not that we are emotionally disabled – it’s the environment that disables us! The ability of you and me to interpret, control and express emotions may not simply be a result of our own make-up. A radically different outlook considers how our workspace and workplace debilitates or enables our emotional understanding.

    In the modern workplace there are many innovations that can undermine our emotional intelligence, such poorly implemented hot-desking or lean environments. Contrariwise there are key innovations such as Activity Based Working (ABW) that have the potential to enhance our emotional state. Through a series of unique case studies from around the world, we investigate key concepts that can be used by designers and facilities managers alike. No longer should designers be asked to incorporate emotional elements as intangible un-costed ‘add-ons’. This book provides a shot in the arm for workplace design professionals, pointing to a new way of thinking based on the emotional intelligence of the workplace.

    Table of contents
    Contents

    Chapter 1: Introduction 
    Leveraging the power of emotion 
    What do we mean by emotional intelligence? 
    Feelings or emotions? 
    From ‘know-how’ to ‘know who’ 
    Summary 

    Chapter 2: Understanding emotions in the workplace 
    The ABC of the human mind 
    Emotion in stages 
    Types of emotion 
    Positive psychology 
    Emotions in practice 
    Emotion, mood and temperament 
    Emotion and the environment 
    Summary  

    Chapter 3: Can a workspace motivate us? 
    Form follows function 
    Form follows emotion 
    Evolution of the office 
    What makes people tick? 
    Maslow’s hierarchy of needs 
    Physiological needs 
    Safety needs 
    Affiliation and belongingness needs 
    Status and esteem needs 
    Self-actualisation 
    Criticisms of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs 
    ERG Theory 
    Summary 

    Chapter 4: The many faces of the Intelligent Building 
    The death of permanence 
    Layers within layers 
    The emergence of the intelligent building (IB) 
    The High-Tech Building 
    The Flexible Building 
    The Interoperable Building 
    The Green Building 
    The Arrival of the ‘Sentient Building’ 
    On collision 
    Emotion detection 
    Summary 
    References 

    Chapter 5: The Emotionally Intelligent Building 
    Defining emotional intelligence 
    Can a workspace have emotional intelligence? 
    Ability Model 
    Mixed models 
    Defining the Emotionally Intelligent Workplace 
    Making sense of it all 
    The Three Dimensions of Workspaces 
    The green bus 
    Putting the pieces together 
    Emotional Mechanisms 
    Creating the emotional palette 
    An emotionally intelligent work setting 
    Summary 

    Chapter 6: Emotion and the instrumental workspace 
    Understanding the instrumental perspective 
    The non-territorial office 
    Laying down the law 
    Fitting the person to the workplace 
    User-centred design 
    Nomad or vagrant? 
    Replacing physical walls with psychological walls 
    The emergence of Activity Based Working (ABW) 
    The truly territorial office 
    Behaviour Change 
    Nudge 
    Summary

    Chapter 7: Emotion and the aesthetic workspace 
    Being there 
    Aesthetics and the senses 
    Aesthetics and emotions 
    Biophilia and Biomorphic design 
    Fractals 
    Neuroaesthetics and Neuroarchitecture 
    Summary 

    Chapter 8: Emotion and the symbolic workspace 
    What is a symbol? 
    Symbolism and the organisation 
    The production of space 
    Workplace Identity 
    Liminal space 
    Investigating a ‘crime scene’ 
    Enclosures 
    The IKEA Affect 
    Our Biological Wi-Fi 
    High-trust culture 
    Temperament 
    Summary

    Chapter 9: Conclusions 
    Reflections 

    Biography

    Edward Finch is a freelance ‘thought leadership’ author. He obtained his PhD from the University of Reading in 1989 and was Professor in Facilities Management at Salford University (2008–2011). He acted as Editor-in-Chief of the academic journal Facilities for 15 years. His writing challenges technological myopia in the workplace, suggesting that we also need to understand what it means to be human.

    Guillermo Aranda-Mena is Associate Professor at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, and Visiting Professor of Architecture at Politecnico di Milano, UNESCO Chair in Mantua. In 2003 he completed his PhD at the University of Reading and has since collaborated with numerous universities around the world. He continues to travel widely and divides his time between Singapore, Hong Kong, Mexico, Italy and Melbourne, where he currently resides with his partner Dee and son Memo.