Another factor that affects organizational communication is workplace design. Despite all the information technology and employee mobility, much of an organization’s communication still happens in the workplace. In fact, some 74 percent of an employee’s average workweek is spent in an office.60 How that office workspace is designed and configured can affect the communication that occurs as well as influence an organization’s overall performance. In fact, in a survey of American workers, 90 percent believed that better workplace design and layout result in better overall employee performance.61

Research shows that a workplace design should successfully support four types of employee work: focused work, collaborative work, learning work, and socializing work.62 Focused work is when an employee needs to concentrate on completing a task. Collaborative work is when employees need to work together to complete a task. Learning work is when employees are engaged in training or doing something new and could involve both focused and collaborative work. Finally, socializing work is when employees gather informally to chat or to exchange ideas. A survey found that when workers had these types of “oases” or informal meeting places nearby, they had 102 percent more face-to-face communication than people who had only minimal access to such spaces.63 Because communication can and does take place in each of these settings, the workplace design needs to accommodate all directions and all types of organizational and interpersonal communications in order to be most effective.

Many organizational workplaces today—some 70 percent—are open workplaces; that is, they include few physical barriers and enclosures.64 In these open workplaces, individual work spaces are being designed around the type of work an employee needs to do rather than an assigned place.65 Because mobile communication technology is so widely available and powerful, some companies even are replacing the one-desk-per-employee workspace arrangements with first-come, first-served desks and then providing additional workspaces for team or one-one-one meetings.66 For example, in Apple’s new futuristic headquarters building, employees may be working at long tables with coworkers or working in “pods” made with a lot of glass (which has created a safety hazard, as distracted employees keep walking into them).67 So, the point of all this attention on workplace design is that it can and does have an impact on how communication takes place and how effective that communication can be.