Office layout affecting privacy, interaction, and acoustic quality in LEED-certified buildings

The study investigated differences in worker satisfaction and perceived job performance regarding privacy, interaction, and acoustic quality issues in personal workspaces between five office types in LEED-certified buildings. It finds that people in high cubicles showed significantly lower satisfaction and job performance in relation to visual privacy and interaction with co-workers than both enclosed private and enclosed shared office types. They also showed significantly lower satisfaction with noise level and sound privacy and lower job performance perceived by acoustic quality than enclosed private, enclosed shared, and bullpen types. The bullpen type, open-plan office without partitions, presented significantly higher satisfaction with noise level and higher performance perceived by acoustic quality than both high and low cubicles. Considering the bullpen type also showed higher satisfaction with sound privacy than the high cubicle type, high partitions donʹt seem to contribute to creating workspaces where people can have a secure conversation. The bullpen type didnʹt show any difference from the enclosed shared type in all privacy, interaction, and acoustic quality questions, indicating it may be a good option for a small office space instead of the enclosed shared type.