We investigated the independent and joint effects of four workspace characteristics (social density, room darkness, number of enclosures, and interpersonal distance) on three employee reactions: turnover, satisfaction, and withdrawal from the office during discretionary periods. A total of 109 clerical employees from 19 offices of a large university participated in the research. Results showed that the independent and joint effects of the workspace characteristics accounted for 24% of the variance in employee turnover, 31% of the variance in work satisfaction, and 34% of the variance in discretionary withdrawal. Moreover, the four-way interaction term involving the workspace characteristics contributed significantly to each of the reaction measures, suggesting that employees were most likely to withdraw from offices and to experience dissatisfaction when the following conditions were present: the office was rated as dark, few enclosures surrounded employees’ work areas, employees were seated close to one another, and many employees occupied the office. The implications of the findings for future research on workspace design are discussed.

Numerous studies in social and environmental psychology have demonstrated that characteristics of the physical environment (e.g., density and partitions) have a substantial effect on the behavior and attitudes of individuals (cf. Desor, 1972; Paulus, Annis, Seta, Schkade, & Matthews, 1976; Walden & Forsyth, 1981). Unfortunately, very little is known about the impact that characteristics of the work setting or workspace might have on the reactions of employees (Becker, 1981; Sundstrom, 1986; Wineman, 1982). The purpose of the present investigation was to address this problem. Specifically, we examined the independent and joint effects of several workspace characteristics on a variety of employee reactions (e.g., turnover and satisfaction).

A number of theories in social and environmental psychology have been developed to explain the effects of characteristics of the physical environment on individuals’ reactions (e.g., interference theory, Schopler & Stockdale, 1977; intensification theory, Freedman, 1975; control-loss theory, Baron & Rodin, 1978). Prominent among these is overstimulation theory (Desor, 1972; Saegert, 1978). In this theory it is argued...