Office without an office - The future organizing as virtual and physical communication and leadership

Purpose and goal

The aim was to study the effects of the innovative concept ABW, activity-based workplaces, in order to create knowledge about leadership and communication in organizations that are both physically and virtually organized. This has been done. In this it became clear how important it is to study these activity baced workplaces itself. The fulfillment consists of a designed research project of a team of nine hand-picked scientists with different scientific expertise on various aspects.

Results and expected effects

The result of the stage 1 of the project is the demonstration of lack of scientific knowledge about activity-based workplaces. The collaboration with the corporate partners has shown that there is a need for knowledge from many different areas to be able to support efforts to develop these workplaces. The work in step 1 has ended in an extended project with more scientists: more corporate partners and interaction partners. The practical result of this research is an extensive application to the Vinnova call ´Innovative Organization´.

Approach and implementation

The project has been implemented by: - Mapping of existing research on activity-based workplaces - Contacts and interviews with companies and organizations that have introduced or plan to introduce activity-based workplaces. - Search and contacts with researchers who are experts in fields related to activity-based workplaces. This has resulted in an interdisciplinary research project with nine scientists, three corporations and a handful of partners.