Employee Reactions to an Open-Plan Office: A Naturally Occurring Quasi-Experiment

June 1979, volume 24 This research examines changes in reactions of employees to work after they moved from a conventional office to an open-plan office design (i.e., an office with no interior walls or partitions). Data were collected from 81 employees three times, once, before the move to the open-plan office and twice after the facility change. Results show that employee satisfaction and internal motivation decreased significantly after the move to the open office. Moreover, analyses suggest that changes in job characteristics that accompanied the change in facilities explain much of the decline in satisfaction and motivation. Implications of these results are discussed.