Thinking for a Living

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The Physical Work Environment and Knowledge Worker Performance

One factor that affects knowledge worker performance that isn’t well understood is the physical work environment—the offices, cubicles, buildings, and mobile workplaces in which knowledge workers do their jobs. There is a good deal said about this topic, but not much known about it. Even more unfortunately, most decisions about the knowledge work environment are made without seriously considering their implications for performance.

In 2002 I and my then-colleagues at Accenture Bob Thomas and Sue Cantrell undertook a study of this issue.¹ We interviewed forty-one companies that had some initiative under way intended to improve the performance of high-end knowledge workers, or ...