Purpose This study aims to examine how interior design attributes are associated with employee performance through the mediating role of aesthetic experience. Grounded in Dewey’s pragmatist esthetics and human-centered spatial theory, it offers a dynamic, process-oriented perspective on how workplace design relates to cognitive and emotional engagement. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 164 employees of FZA Co. in Amol, Iran, using a structured questionnaire based on an adapted version of the Aesthetic Experience Scale. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to examine relationships among interior design, aesthetic experience and employee performance within a quasi-longitudinal pre–post design. Findings Interior design dimensions were significantly associated with aesthetic experience, conceptualized across five dimensions: cognitive synergy, expressive perception, paratelic pleasure, empathic closeness and emotional distance. Aesthetic experience demonstrated a significant and moderate association with employee performance and played a partial mediating role in the relationship between interior design and performance. The results suggest that design features – particularly lighting and visual comfort – are meaningfully linked to employees’ cognitive and affective responses and their self-reported performance outcomes. However, these relationships should be interpreted as associational and context-dependent. Originality/value Rather than identifying a new empirical relationship, this study contributes a theoretically integrated framework that conceptualizes aesthetic experience as a dynamic, multidimensional process linking spatial conditions with employee outcomes. It extends existing environmental psychology approaches by moving beyond static evaluative models. The findings are limited by the single-site sample and reliance on self-reported measures, and therefore should be interpreted as indicative rather than definitive.
Nemati et al. (Sat,) studied this question.