Needle and Mallia probe the sorts of workplaces that support creative employees. They report that “Open-office plans have become the dominant mode for creative workplaces, designed to encourage collaboration. . . .This . . . study surveys . . . people working in advertising and the creative industries, assessing perceptions of productivity and satisfaction with work environment A majority of respondents yearned for solitude to complete certain tasks. Findings suggest that open-office environments may indeed undermine creative productivity, not just among introverts, but others as well.”
Rose Needle and K. Mallia. “Creatives in the Office: Personality and the Environmental Effects of Workspace.” Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, in press, https://doi.org/10.1080/10641734.2020.1770144
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.