‘Green’ offices with plants make staff happier and more productive than ‘lean’ designs stripped of greenery, research shows.
In the first field study of its kind, published in September 2014, researchers found enriching a ‘lean’ office with plants could increase productivity by 15%. The team examined the impact of ‘lean’ and ‘green’ offices on staff’s perceptions of air quality, concentration, and workplace satisfaction, and monitored productivity levels over subsequent months in two large commercial offices in the UK and The Netherlands.
The research showed plants in the office significantly increased workplace satisfaction, self-reported levels of concentration, and perceived air quality.
Analysis into the reasons why plants are beneficial suggests that a green office increases employees’ work engagement by making them more physically, cognitively, and emotionally involved in their work.
Co-author Dr Craig Knight, of Psychology at the University of Exeter, said: “Psychologically manipulating real workplaces and real jobs adds new depth to our understanding of what is right and what is wrong with existing workspace design and management. We are now developing a template for a genuinely smart office.”
Professor Alex Haslam, from The University of Queensland’s School of Psychology, who also co-authored the study added: “The ‘lean’ philosophy has been influential across a wide range of organisational domains. Our research questions this widespread conviction that less is more. Sometimes less is just less”.
The study involved academics from the University of Exeter; the University of Groningen in The Netherlands, and the University of Queensland, Australia.
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