The Effects of Generic and Targeted Visibility on Work-process Interactions in Open-plan Offices

Visibility within open-plan offices is crucial in shaping employee behaviors, including how they interact. While most prior studies on office privacy emphasized generic visibility, which means the 360-degree field of vision from each workstation, employees tend to focus on visual targets within a more limited 120-degree field of binocular vision. Therefore, this study's main aim is to investigate the impacts of generic and targeted visibility on work-process interactions in open-plan offices. In the first phase, adopting a qualitative approach, the study aimed to detect work-process interaction patterns through a survey in two open-plan offices. Survey questions related to work-process interactions were analyzed through axial analysis. The second phase of the study, adopting a quantitative approach, was conducted through generic and targeted visibility analysis and new codes written for DepthMapX. The outputs of the two phases were analyzed to comprehend the influence of generic and targeted visibility on work-process interactions in open-plan offices.

The results showed that more visible employees in 120-degree and 360-degree fields of vision result in fewer work process interactions in open-plan offices. In other words, it was found that when an employee has a desk with low visual privacy or high visibility, this employee avoids interacting with their colleagues in open-plan offices. Therefore, the study's findings reveal that the impact of visual privacy on work-process interactions in open-plan offices is different from previously thought. In conclusion, the results of this study suggest that more visibility does not result in more work-process interactions in open-plan offices unless employees’ visual privacy is preserved.

The Effects of Generic and Targeted Visibility on Work-process Interactions in Open-plan Offices

Bio: Gizem Yenel Güler holds a PhD in Interior Architecture and Environmental Design from Bilkent University. She earned her MSc in Interior Design at Politecnico di Milano and her BFA in Interior Architecture and Environmental Design at Bilkent University. In the final stage of her doctoral studies, she was a guest PhD student at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, School of Architecture. Her doctoral research focused on understanding the effects of visual privacy and visibility on employee interactions in open-plan offices, with a particular emphasis on the space syntax approach. Her research interests include architectural design, environment-behaviour studies, office design, and space syntax. Alongside her research experience, she worked as a teaching assistant in the Interior Architecture and Environmental Design Department at Bilkent University for six years.