ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of approaches to studying, understanding and applying workspace psychology to planning for worker comfort and productivity, cost effectiveness of accommodation, technology-supported mobile work, and rapid organisational change. It focuses on the behaviour of building occupants–meaning not only workers' actions and responses, but also their attitudes, feelings, expectations, values and beliefs towards their workspace. It is useful to think of the user-environment relation as dynamic and interactive: that is to say, the user's environmental experience includes the consequences of his or her behaviour in that environment. Space for work–or workspace–is increasingly diverse. Contemporary workspace includes a range of individual and shared spaces and access to sophisticated electronic tools. Workspace is no longer a backdrop–that is, a passive setting–for work. Environments are planned and designed to actively support workers' tasks. Consequently, knowledge of how building occupants behave as a function of their physical environment is increasingly being applied to the creation of supportive, efficient and adaptable workspace.
