Adaptability of shared workspace concept in office buildings in Sri Lanka

Abstract

A well-organised, well-designed workspace in an organization will help it to fully achieve its goals. Although visiting staff are also considered as staff of an organisation, they often face difficulties in finding space within the organization for working as they are not generally assigned specific workspace to work from. In Sri Lanka, many office buildings have unutilised floor space. These unutilised spaces are quite costly to maintain. Moreover, an unutilized space will have an adverse impact on the sustainability of the organisation. This study addresses these issues by investigating the adaptability of shared workspace concept in office buildings in Sri Lanka. To achieve this aim, a literature review, 14 expert interviews and two case studies were conducted. Content analysis was used to analyse the findings. The study identifies the type of office spaces that can be used as shared workspaces. It is found that not all offices with unutilised space will be able to decide to adopt the shared workspace concept as that decision has to be based on the type and operating hours of the office, core business of the organisation, organisational culture and the support structure and the accessibility of the building in which the office is housed.