The aim of this study is to examine job insecurity from a multilevel perspective and to investigate the roles of two types of job insecurity - job insecurity climate and individual job insecurity - for work-related attitudes and health outcomes. It further explores the role of the workgroup - as a social context - in shaping job insecurity perceptions. Data were collected from white-collar employees in a Swedish organization, with 126 participants nested in 18 groups. The results show that 19% of the variance in job insecurity climate perceptions, and none of the variance in individual job insecurity perceptions, could be attributed to group membership. Further, compared to other members of their group, those perceiving a stronger job insecurity climate reported lower levels of negative self-rated health and higher burnout scores. These results imply that the workgroup is an important social context for job insecurity climate perceptions.

This study investigates the joint effect of office type (cell, shared room, open-plan, and flex) and personality, measured by the Big Five personality traits, on self-rated measures of distraction, job satisfaction, and job performance (measured by professional efficacy). Regression analyses with interactions between personality and office type were conducted on 1205 participants working in 5 organizations from both the private and public sectors. While few interactions were observed in the cases of professional efficacy and job satisfaction, several were observed between personality traits and office type on the level of distraction reported. Specifically, more emotionally stable participants reported lower distraction, particularly those working in flex offices. Both agreeableness and openness to experience were associated with higher levels of distraction among participants in open-plan compared to cell offices.

Noise has repeatedly been shown to be one of the most recurrent reasons for complaints in open-plan office environments. The aim of the present study was to investigate if enhanced or worsened sound absorption in open-plan offices is reflected in the employees' ratings of disturbances, cognitive stress, and professional efficacy. Employees working on two different floors of an office building were followed as three manipulations were made in room acoustics on each of the two floors by means of less or more absorbing tiles & wall absorbents. For one of the floors, the manipulations were from better to worse to better acoustical conditions, while for the other the manipulations were worse to better to worse. The acoustical effects of these manipulations were assessed according to the new ISO-standard (ISO-3382-3, 2012) for open-plan rooms acoustics. In addition, the employees responded to questionnaires after each change. Our analyses showed that within each floor enhanced acoustical conditions were associated with lower perceived disturbances and cognitive stress. There were no effects on professional efficiency. The results furthermore suggest that even a small deterioration in acoustical room properties measured according to the new ISO-standard for open-plan office acoustics has a negative impact on self-rated health and disturbances. This study supports previous studies demonstrating the importance of acoustics in work environments and shows that the measures suggested in the new ISO-standard can be used to adequately differentiate between better and worse room acoustics in open plan offices.

Today, many organisations are adopting offices that have an open design with or without flexible seating. While advocates of open-plan offices propose that these office types lead to cost savings and aid inter and intra-team communication, opponents argue that these office types are associated with decreased performance and worsened health among employees. This thesis investigates how the type of office (cell offices, shared room offices, small open-plan offices, medium-sized open plan offices, large open-plan offices and flex offices) influences employee health and performance, and whether this is different for different personalities and jobs with different concentration demands. Data were gathered by means of surveys and cognitive tests from five organisations with different office types. In Study I (N=1241), the aim was to investigate the main effect of office type on indicators of health and performance and the interaction effect of office type with the need to concentrate in order to carry out work tasks. Office type alone was associated with distraction and cognitive stress in such a way that cell offices were associated with fewest problems, followed by flex offices, while open-plan offices were associated with the most problems. While employees in open-plan offices and employees in flex offices reported more problems as the need for concentration increased, employees in cell offices reported the same level of problems regardless of the need of concentration. Study II (N=527) investigated how performance on a memory test was affected during normal working conditions as compared to a quiet baseline. There was a negative dose-response relationship between the size of the open-plan office environment and the drop in word recall during the normal working condition. However, Study II also showed that individuals working in cell offices had as high a drop in performance during normal working conditions as did those working in large open-plan office environments. Study III (N=1133–1171) focused on the interaction effect between office type and individual differences in personality. The personality trait agreeableness interacted with office type on the outcome variables distraction and job satisfaction. Specifically, Study III may indicate that as offices get more open and flexible, agreeable people will report more problems. In conclusion, the studies in the present thesis have implications for practice and suggest that office type impacts on employee health and performance, while concentration demands of the job and agreeableness moderate the effects. Although employees report higher level of distraction in open-plan office environments, when performance on a demanding task is measured, cell offices are not as favourable during normal working conditions as self-reported data usually indicate. Organisations should also be aware that, among open-plan offices, small open-plan offices are associated with fewer problems.

Kontorslandskap med eller utan fasta arbetsstationer förekommer idag i många organisationer. Förespråkare för kontorslandskap hänvisar till kostnadsbesparing samt förbättrade förutsättningar för kommunikation, medan motståndare hävdar att kontorslandskap leder till försämrad prestation och hälsa bland medarbetarna. Denna avhandling undersöker om kontorstyp påverkar de anställdas hälsa och prestation, samt om effekten av kontorstyp varierar beroende på de anställdas personlighet och typ av arbetsuppgifter. Data i form av enkätsvar och prestation på kognitiva tester samlades in från fem organisationer med olika typer av kontorslösningar (cellkontor, delade kontorsrum, små kontorslandskap, mellanstora kontorslandskap, stora kontorslandskap och flexkontor). I studie I (N = 1241) var syftet att undersöka huvudeffekten av kontorstyp på indikatorer för hälsa och prestation samt om effekten är beroende av koncentrationskraven i arbetet. Kontorstyp visade samband med distraktion och kognitiv stress på så sätt att medarbetare i cellkontor uppgav minst problem, följt av de i flexkontor, medan kontorslandskap var förknippade med mer problem. Vidare rapporterade anställda som hade arbetsuppgifter som krävde koncentration mer problem i kontorslandskap och flexkontor, medan anställda i cellkontor, oavsett arbetets krav, rapporterade lika mycket problem. I studie II (N = 527) undersöktes hur prestation på ett minnestest påverkades under normala arbetsförhållanden jämfört med en tyst referensmätning i olika kontorstyper. Det fanns ett negativt dos-responssamband mellan storleken på kontorslandskapet och hur många procent sämre medarbetare presterade under normala arbetsförhållanden. Men Studie II visade också att personer som arbetar i cellkontor hade ett lika högt bortfall i prestation under normala arbetsförhållanden som de som arbetade i stora kontorslandskap. I studie III (N = 1133-1171) låg fokus på interaktionseffekten mellan kontorstyp och personlighet. Vänlighet var den enda personlighetsvariabeln som interagerade med kontorstyp på utfallsvariablerna distraktion och arbetstillfredsställelse. Mer specifikt visade Studie III att när kontoret blir mer öppet och flexibelt, så rapporterar människor som skattar sig högt på personlighetsvariabeln vänlighet fler problem. Resultaten i avhandlingen kan få flera praktiska implikationer då den visar att kontorstyp påverkar medarbetarnas hälsa och prestation, medan koncentrationskrävande arbetsuppgifter och vänlighet modererar effekterna. Vidare visar avhandlingen att även om anställda rapporterar mindre distraktion i cellkontor jämfört med i kontorslandskap, behöver inte cellkontor vara lika gynnsamma som självskattade mått visar när prestationen mäts med objektiva mått under normala arbetsförutsättningar, i det här fallet ett minnestest. Slutligen bör organisationer även vara medvetna om att avhandlingen visar en viss tendens att små kontorslandskap är förknippade med mindre problem än stora.

The physical office environment has been shown to be associated with indicators of both health and performance. This study focuses on how memory performance is affected in normal working conditions compared to a quiet baseline (with low amount irrelevant stimuli) in different office types, including cell offices, small open-plan offices, medium-sized open-plan offices and large open-plan offices. The results showed that the drop in performance from the quiet baseline to normal working conditions was higher in larger, compared to smaller, open-plan offices. However, contrary to our hypothesis we found that cell offices might have negative effects on performance comparable to those of large open-plan offices. These results indicate that employees in small open-plan offices, in comparison to large, have better possibilities to conduct cognitively demanding tasks and that cell offices might not be as advantageous as previously thought.

This paper investigates the interaction between need for concentration on the job and six office types in relation to distraction, cognitive stress, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, personal efficiency and general health. 1241 employees from five organizations participated in the study. Cell offices were associated with lower reported levels of distraction and cognitive stress, and flex offices with lower distraction, among the employees compared with all other open-plan office types. There were no significant differences in the outcome variables between different types of open-plan offices. However, there was an interaction between office type and the need for concentration for the job; employees in the high need for concentration group reported more distraction in all office types except in cell offices and also more cognitive stress in all office types except cell offices and flex offices. In conclusion, cell offices may be preferable for tasks that require higher need for concentrations.

Studies of the impact on health and productivity of different types of office environments usually compare cell offices with open-plan offices. This paper investigates the interaction between need for concentration on the job and six more specific office types (cell office, shared-room office, small open-plan office, medium-sized open-plan office, large open-plan office and flex office) in relation to measures of health and productivity.

A 2x6 between-subject multivariate analysis of covariance was conducted on the dependent variables distraction, cognitive stress, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, personal efficiency and general health while controlling for age, educational level, gender and sector of the labourmarket. The independent variables were need for concentration (two categories) and office type (six categories). 1,241 employees from five organizations, both in the private and public sectors, participated in the study.

Cell offices were associated with lower reported levels of distraction and cognitive stress, and flex offices with lower distraction, among the employees compared with all other open-plan office types. However, there were no significant differences in the outcome variables between different types of open-plan offices. There was an interaction between office type and the need for concentration for the job; employees in the high need for concentration group reported more distraction in all office types except in cell offices and also more cognitive stress in all office types except cell offices and flex offices.

This study suggests the presence of negative health and productivity aspects in individuals working in open-plan offices. This seems especially true for those who have tasks that require a high need for concentration. In order to prevent poor health and lost of productivity, organizations working in similar office types should have an action plan in order to lower the amount of distraction and cognitive stress prevalent in open-plan offices.

Job insecurity is a work stressor that has detrimental effects on work related attitudes, well-being and health. Job insecurity has mainly been investigated as an individual level phenomenon. Consequentially, the focus of past research is only on personal determinants and consequences of the employee’s perception, and social/organizational factors have not been taken into account to any large extent. However, drawing on sense making theory, it can be argued that job insecurity is a social phenomenon as well. Conceptualized as job insecurity climate, job insecurity could be considered a product of the reciprocal relationship between behavior, cognitive and other personal factors, and the social environment.

The aim of this study is to examine job insecurity from a multilevel perspective and explore to what extent the variance in job insecurity perceptions is dependent on the individual, and how important the work group as a social context in shaping job insecurity perceptions. We also aim to investigate the effects of job insecurity, both climate and individual job insecurity, on job satisfaction, productivity, burnout, and subjective health. By including both individual level job insecurity and job insecurity climate perceptions in the analysis, a deeper understanding is gained of the relation between job insecurity and negative outcomes, and thus contributes to extending our knowledge about job insecurity as a work life stressor.

Results from a pilot study of a Swedish sample using multilevel modeling showed that the work group accounts for about 5% of the variance in job insecurity climate perceptions and 2.6% of individual job insecurity perceptions. This indicates that the social context has some impact on perceptions of job insecurity. However, since the respondents in this sample perceived a very low sense of job insecurity, these results had to be replicated with another sample. Data from a second sample (N=126) were recently collected, and preliminary results show that belonging to a group accounted for 20% of the variance in job insecurity climate perceptions and 0% of the variance in perceptions of  job insecurity. These results could have implications for future studies on climate, indicating that perceptions of one’s own job insecurity do not necessarily match one’s perceptions of the job insecurity climate.

Job insecurity is a work stressor that has detrimental effects on work related attitudes, well being and health. In psychological research, studies on job insecurity focus on the subjective perception of insecurity and not on the objective circumstances. Job insecurity has mainly been investigated as an individual level phenomenon. Consequentially, the focus of this research is only on personal determinants and consequences of the employee’s perception, and social/organizational factors are not taken into account. Drawing on social cognitive theory, it can be argued that job insecurity is a social phenomenon as well. Conceptualized as job insecurity climate, job insecurity could be seen as a product of the reciprocal relationship between behavior, cognitive and other personal factors, and the social environment. Previous studies on job insecurity climate used aggregated individual level data from individual level job insecurity scales. However, a possible limitation of this research is that aggregating individual level data does not necessarily reflect a social climate. In this study, we measure job insecurity climate with a scale that contains organizational level referents. Thus, the study contributes to answering pressing methodological questions in research on job insecurity climate. Aim: The aim of this study is to examine job insecurity conceptualized both as a psychological climate and as an organizational climate. We also aim to investigate possible effects on work related attitudes and subjective health. Methods: The data were collected in a Swedish organization (N=1280) through online questionnaires with a response rate of 73%. The questionnaire consisted of validated scales measuring individual level perceptions of job insecurity, job insecurity climate, work related attitudes and subjective health outcomes. Analyses and results: We will perform multi-level analyses on the data set. Conclusion: Including both individual perceptions and climate in the analysis will provide a deeper understanding of the relation between job insecurity and negative outcomes, thereby contributing to deepening our knowledge about job insecurity as a work life stressor. Furthermore, comparing job insecurity conceptualized as a psychological climate with job insecurity as an organizational climate will contribute to the methodological discussion about how to best conceptualize job insecurity climate.