Roskams and Haynes studied how workplace design can promote employee health. Via a literature review they distinguished “three components of an employee’s ‘sense of coherence’ (comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness), an individual orientation associated with more positive health outcomes…Comprehensibility can be supported by effectively implementing a clear set of rules governing the use of the workplace. Manageability can be supported through biophilic design solutions, and through design which supports social cohesion and physical activity. Meaningfulness can be supported by recognizing the importance of personal identity expression and through design which reinforces the employees’ sense of purpose…The key contribution of this paper is to encourage researchers and practitioners to recognize the crucial role that an individual’s sense of coherence plays in supporting higher levels of physical and mental health.”
Michael Roskams and Barry Haynes. 2019. “Salutogenic Workplace Design: A Conceptual Framework for Supporting Sense of Coherence Through Environmental Resources.” Journal of Corporate Real Estate, in press.
Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.