ABSTRACT
Amoco and Hypertherm case histories illustrated various ways in which
employees made their needs felt. Examples of new workspace design being
imposed with little or no user consultation, as illustrated by the Chiat-Day
scenario, are more typical, leading to costly and hard-to-fix building mistakes
as well as uncomfortable and resistant users. In this chapter, the concept of
territoriality is put under the microscope. Long recognized as an organizing
principle of animal behavior, the need to occupy, own, mark and defend one’s
‘place’ has a biological heritage as a natural instinct. Territoriality is also defined
in human and social terms as a force affecting social behavior and relation-
ships. The urge to occupy and defend territory is recognized as a salient
feature of people’s behavior in organizations, extending to social roles and
even ideas.2 Status, recognition by others, and achievement or self-image are
what territoriality at work is all about.
