Workspace Integration and Sustainability: Linking the Symbolic and Social Affordances of the Workspace to Employee Wellbeing

Iris Vilnai-Yavetz and Anat Rafaeli
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Iris Vilnai-Yavetz: Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ruppin Academic Center, Emek Hefer 4025000, Israel
Anat Rafaeli: Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200003, Israel

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 21, 1-22

Abstract: Our goal in this paper is to connect workspace design to employee wellbeing and social sustainability. Toward this connection, we introduce and empirically test a new concept of “workspace integration”. This concept refers to the continuum of integration of an employee’s workspace with the organizational, physical space. We further define three workspace affordances that predict the social sustainability of workspace arrangements by influencing employee wellbeing. The three affordances are perceptions of symbolism of the organization and of symbolism of the self, and opportunities for social interactions. We evaluate our theory using data collected from an online survey of British employees ( n = 392) working in offices at home and/or in the organization in various industries. As predicted, workspace integration positively influences wellbeing directly as well as indirectly via mediation of symbolism of the organization and opportunities for social interactions. The third affordance—symbolism of the self—positively influences wellbeing, but is not affected by workspace integration. Our findings confirm the impact of workspace affordances on employee wellbeing, and thus their utility for the analysis of social sustainability. The findings also contribute to understanding of the differences between workspace symbolism of the organization and of the self, their impact on wellbeing, and thus their implications for social sustainability.

Keywords: work environment; workspace; affordances; symbolism; opportunities for social interactions; workspace sustainability; social sustainability; wellbeing; teleworking; office design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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