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Employee affective and behavioral reactions to the spatial density of physical work environments
Author(s) -
May Douglas R.,
Oldham Greg R.,
Rathert Cheryl
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
human resource management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.888
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1099-050X
pISSN - 0090-4848
DOI - 10.1002/hrm.20038
Subject(s) - crowding , perception , work (physics) , psychology , field (mathematics) , business , social psychology , applied psychology , cognitive psychology , mathematics , engineering , mechanical engineering , neuroscience , pure mathematics
Abstract This field study of a medical clinic found that employees in spatially dense work areas (i.e., those with little space available per person) experienced higher levels of perceived crowding, transfer intentions, and tardiness, as well as lower work area satisfaction, than employees in low‐density areas. Crowding perceptions explained the relations between spatial density and the measures of work area satisfaction and tardiness. Finally, when employees had high workloads and their jobs required physical movement, spatial density had weaker relations to crowding perceptions and area satisfaction than in other conditions. Implications of these findings for human resource practitioners are discussed. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.