ABSTRACT
In today’s rapidly changing and seamlessly interconnected global economy, connectedness, collaboration, and creativity (3C) have become increasingly important workforce qualities to cultivate for any business organization. These 3Cs ensure that a business is agile, responsive, capable of adapting to predictable or unpredictable challenges, and prepared to successfully manage change and to grow in the competitive market. Organizations have gradually recognized the value of the physical environment in shaping human and organizational performances; it is the second most expensive resource after human resources (McCoy 2005). With increasing frequency, organizations are transforming their physical spaces and integrating emerging technologies to better facilitate collaboration, as collaboration across disciplines, departments, and silos is recognized as the core of knowledge workers’ creativity and innovation. The effectiveness of innovation labs is a result of escaping from conventional workplace designs to work spaces that facilitate the creative process (Magadley and Birdi 2009). Enhanced creativity is fostered by spaces that enhance the flow of knowledge and the exchange of ideas (Martens 2008) and generate movement and spatial patterns that facilitate serendipitous creative encounters (Wineman, Kabo, and Davis 2009). Organizational “whitespace” (unoccupied territory) can also facilitate organizational innovation (Maletz and
20.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 391 20.2 Workplace Connectedness, Collaboration, and Creativity ................................................... 392
20.2.1 Connectedness .......................................................................................................... 393 20.2.1.1 Ambient Factors ......................................................................................... 393 20.2.1.2 Spatial Factors ............................................................................................ 394 20.2.1.3 Symbolic Factors........................................................................................ 395
20.2.2 Collaboration ............................................................................................................ 395 20.2.3 Creativity .................................................................................................................. 396
20.3 Development of the 3C Design Framework .......................................................................... 396 20.4 Case Study ............................................................................................................................ 398
20.4.1 Design Charrette: Collaborative Design Problem-Solving ....................................... 398 20.4.2 Research Methodology ............................................................................................. 399 20.4.3 Analysis and Results ................................................................................................. 401
20.4.3.1 Connectedness ........................................................................................... 401 20.4.3.2 Collaboration.............................................................................................. 401 20.4.3.3 Creativity.................................................................................................... 401
20.5 Future Directions ..................................................................................................................404 Acknowledgment ...........................................................................................................................405 References ......................................................................................................................................405
Nohria 2001; Jakobsson and Stiernstedt 2010; Johnson 2010). Other important considerations when designing to facilitate creativity include providing separate spaces for different types of activities (Meusburger 2009), accommodating personal preferences for physical environmental conditions, and offering personal control over the task environment (Martens 2011). The presence of creativitysupporting elements (e.g., furniture, indoor plants/flowers, calming colors, inspiring colors, privacy, window view to nature, any window view, quantity of light, daylight, indoor physical climate, positive sound, and positive smell) is related to higher creative performance in knowledge workers (Dul, Ceylan, and Jaspers 2011). The evaluation of a studio environment revealed that the personalization of a studio space enriches the creative process and outcomes (Hasirci and Demirkan 2007). Research also shows that spaces designed to encourage physical activity and movement enhance creativity (Singh-Manoux et al. 2005).
