We all prefer to spend our time in distraction- and annoyance-free spaces. We expect our environments to respond to certain needs: a bedroom must be comfortable and quiet for rest; a library must have a catalogue of resources for research; and a vehicle must have safety features for secure transportation. We all require environmental satisfaction or we become frustrated when environmental conditions disrupt our activities.

Overall environmental satisfaction refers to how contented a person feels with respect to the physical setting. This contentment depends on the needs of the occupant; satisfaction increases as those needs are met.

Environmental Satisfaction in Open-plan Offices
Because cubicle occupants share one common space, environmental satisfaction can be difficult to create in open-plan offices. There are many factors that can interfere with occupant needs: other employees (distraction and lack of privacy), noise from office equipment, poor air quality or uncomfortable temperatures, ambient lighting that is not tailored to individual workstations, and furniture and cubicle design that is not appropriate for the job or occupant.

Despite these issues, organizations often choose open-plan offices over closed offices because of the savings they offer: open-plan offices are less expensive because they are denser, quickly installed, and easily reconfigured. Organizations also hope for increased communication. Unfortunately, poor open-plan office conditions can cancel any savings or benefits received from an open-plan office because the employees can become uncomfortable, dissatisfied, distracted, and sick.

Benefits of Environmental Satisfaction
Environmental satisfaction is important because it helps to improve job satisfaction. The COPE study followed this model showing the relationship between open-plan office workstation and employee satisfaction.

Organizations know that job satisfaction is important. A satisfied workforce is less likely to suffer from absenteeism, poorer task performance, and high turnover. To prevent problems, many organizations have strategies for improving job satisfaction:

• benefits packages,
• exercise programs,
• good computer equipment,
• management philosophies that involve employees in decision making,
• workplace buddy/partner orientation programs,
• company car, etc.

Creating a supportive, healthy, comfortable office environment is another effective strategy. In a study sponsored by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), office workers rated the following factors as most influential when accepting or leaving a position: ^[1]

• Compensation
• Benefits
• Physical Workplace

Designing an effective open-plan office may mean spending extra initially to meet employee needs. However, only a small portion of an organization's costs come from building and office design. In contrast, a majority of the budget is spent on recruitment, training, salaries, and benefits. Good office space can save more in compensation costs than was spent on office improvements. Environmental satisfaction is cost-effective.

Employee Needs in the Workplace
Creating environmental satisfaction involves meeting the various needs of the office workers. These needs will vary by task, job, organization, and individual preference. Managers generally need greater privacy than clerical workers, and researchers or creative thinkers need quiet more often than team workers. The best open-plan office is not one that follows a set of fixed guidelines, but one that is designed with the occupants in mind.

COPE researchers have identified three need categories that can help office designers understand some key needs.

Physical and Task Needs:
Every worker needs appropriate equipment and furnishings.

Employees also need good working conditions for their job type. This might mean quiet for concentration, easy access to team members, good lighting, good air (fresh air, circulation), and thermal comfort (comfortable room temperature, no draughts).

The physical needs of an employee also extend to health issues such as good ventilation to remove airborne irritants, and ergonomic equipment. Sickness, injury, and discomfort take time and attention away from work, but can be prevented by good office design.

Privacy Needs:
Open-plan office occupants often feel that they do not have enough acoustic or visual privacy. Employees can feel overwhelmed by distractions, exposed to colleagues and supervisors, and restricted in their behaviour without adequate privacy.

Employees need to concentrate, avoid unwanted disruptions, and keep their work private when necessary.

Recognition Needs:
Need for recognition refers to an employee's need for personal validation in the workplace. Providing job status markers and space for displaying personal items can recognize individuality. Employees need some personal space to which they can retreat to rest. This involves providing workstaion space for work and for display and creating policies that allow personalization of space.

Recognition needs can also be met by making changes that benefit employees. Creating a supportive environment with satisfactory workstations tells employees that they are valued and can increase their satisfaction with both the office environment and the organization.

Designing for Occupants
Identifying employee needs is the first step in creating a supportive open-plan office. The occupants themselves are obviously the best source for this information. Asking the current or potential occupants to list their tasks and rate their needs will allow a designer to plan all the elements of the open-plan office around the occupants' job requirements.

Unfortunately, when a building is being designed, there are no occupants to question. In this situation, information can be collected from groups who do the same types of tasks as the intended occupants.

In an occupied office, occupant complaints reveal their most important needs. Documenting and responding to complaints is one of the best ways to create a satisfactory environment because personal preferences and sensitivities can be expressed. The time, location, number of people effected, and the details of a complaint should be recorded so that complaint patterns and severities can be identified quickly. The problem should then be investigated and appropriate specialists consulted. Follow-up should also be done to ensure that the problem was really solved. Fast response to complaints will resolve office problems more quickly and give the occupants confidence in the building staff. It will also prevent many problems from developing and compounding the discomfort or poor health experienced by the occupants. Personnel managers and building managers should encourage communication between occupants and building professionals.

Realistically, all designers work with constraints that prevent them from designing the perfect open-plan office. A designer may have a limited budget, or may be working in existing office space with set parameters. In these cases, it is important to focus on the design elements that the employees find most important. A group of programmers, who need to be able to concentrate, might consider acoustics to be most important. Clerical workers might consider furniture and workstation arrangement to have the greatest effect on their work ability. If the cubicles are designed with consideration for occupant needs and work type, the office will be more successful.

Designing a Cost-effective Open-plan Office with COPE
Overall environmental satisfaction depends on good conditions in acoustics, lighting, indoor air quality, thermal comfort, and workstation design.

Through ACOUSTICS, LIGHTING, VENTILATION, and WORKSTATION DESIGN, researchers provide guidelines for open-plan office design.

COPE-ODE software evaluates open-plan office designs to help users create a unique office within their budgetary constraints. Users can input their design choices, and the program will indicate the environmental conditions and likely satisfaction level for the design. Users can then enter cost details and compare the conditions, satisfaction levels, and costs of alternate designs.

COPE-CALC (Acoustics) software allows users to design a pair of cubicles and listen to the acoustical environment. Users can compare, edit, and get advice on their designs.

References:
1 American Society of Interior Designers (ASID). (1997). "The Impact of Interior Design on the Bottom Line". http://www.asidfsc.org/en/news/index.html.