The effects of activity-based workplaces on contributors to organizational productivity: A systematic review

The activity-based workplace (ABW) provides a variety of spaces where work can be performed. Employees have no assigned seats but are expected to change their locations in the workplace to suit their activities. We conducted a systematic review of the literature evaluating this strategy, identifying 23 investigations between 2000 and 2020 in which there was a comparison between ABW and another workplace layout examining outcome measures that influence organizational productivity, and which met criteria for internal and external validity. We grouped the office layouts into cellular offices (1–2 occupants), small rooms (2–9 occupants), medium open plan (10–24 occupants), large open plan offices (>24 occupants), and ABWs. We categorised 78 dependent variables into nine categories: environmental satisfaction, social relations, personal space, cognitive performance, work output, job satisfaction and commitment, job characteristics, health and well-being, and physical activity, and evaluated each paper's results for the comparisons between ABW and the other layouts. Comparisons of ABWs to cellular offices favoured the cellular offices for all categories except physical activity, for which there were no data. For other office types, as the number of people in the comparison office increased, the greater the tendency for the comparison to favor ABWs. People want and need spaces to support attention and focus. Organizations looking to save real estate costs should weigh these savings against the overall effect of their design choices on organizational productivity. [Display omitted] •This is a systematic review of activity-based workplace (ABW) effects on organizational productivity-related outcomes.•Twenty-three studies met the inclusion criteria;d 78 dependent variables were classified into nine conceptual categories.•Comparisons of ABWs to cellular offices favoured the cellular offices for all categories for which there were data.•Places that support attention and focus also show the best social relations, health and well-being, and job satisfaction.