How to research workplaces? New Routledge handbook available
Workplace research necessarily incorporates multiple aspects of its subject of study – people, relationships, emotions, space, and time. Thus, workplace research methods are of utter importance, and surveys are not the answer to all research questions available. A new book published by Routledge and edited by Chiara Tagliaro, Marko Orel (FPH VŠE), and Ying Hua presents various methodological approaches to examining multiple forms of workplace physical environments. The chapters focus on pressing questions regarding the relationship between the spatial component of the workplace, including its progressive hybridization with other physical and virtual places, and its users, be they public organizations, private companies, or start-up businesses and solopreneurs. International contributors address various applicable research and practice methods to confront the most cutting-edge workplace-related issues. The assumption is that work has been changing, thanks to the virtualization of many activities, and that homeworking and hybrid working modes are spreading significantly after COVID-19.
Contributions include facilities management, real estate management, psychology, design, architecture, sociology, and organization studies. Chapters highlight the importance of appropriate methodologies, borrowed from different fields, in addressing contemporary workplace questions and developments. This book will be a critical reading for academics, students, decision-makers, and professionals who deal with workplace design and management by analysing the challenges and opportunities for conducting rigorous research in various workplace settings.
Thus, spaces hosting work need to adapt accordingly. Researchers and practitioners have been struggling to determine how much space will be required by companies, what kind of space will better host different work activities, which workers are more suited for working from home, and which instead are more productive if they have an office-based working arrangement. This volume encourages solid practices and thorough research agendas in workplace design, management, and use.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
