ABSTRACT
Most people, including business leaders and professionals engaged in the design or management of office work environments, assume certain “givens” about the way the world operates and then act in accordance with that belief system. This belief system can significantly affect the way office work environments are designed and implemented. The work environment, in turn, affects the behavior and performance of employees who use those spaces and, to some degree, the success of organizations. In this chapter we contrast “machine” and “biological” metaphors for the way people understand the world. We then explore how these metaphors have been (and could be) applied to the design of organizations and office workspaces.
