Coworking Spaces: The Better Home Office? A Psychosocial and Health-Related Perspective on an Emerging Work Environment

With the ongoing flexibilization of work, new trends concerning work outside the company’s premises such as coworking spaces are on the rise. Coworking spaces are designed to offer collaboration and community in furnished and equipped workspaces on a rental base. There is a growing body of scientifi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of environmental research and public health Vol. 16; no. 13; p. 2379
Main Authors: Robelski, Swantje, Keller, Helena, Harth, Volker, Mache, Stefanie
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 04.07.2019
MDPI
Subjects:
Adult
Collaboration
Employees
Employers
Employment contracts
Environment Design
Ergonomics
Female
Germany
Humans
Information technology
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Self employment
Surveys and Questionnaires
Telecommuting
Working hours
Workload - psychology
Workplace - psychology
Germany
strain
stress
home office
new ways of work
coworking space
ISSN:1660-4601, 1661-7827, 1660-4601
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:With the ongoing flexibilization of work, new trends concerning work outside the company’s premises such as coworking spaces are on the rise. Coworking spaces are designed to offer collaboration and community in furnished and equipped workspaces on a rental base. There is a growing body of scientific literature on coworking spaces with empirical results of qualitative and quantitative research. The present study adds to the latter by examining psychosocial demands experienced by coworkers in Germany based on a quantitative survey (n = 112). Among coworkers the home office was or still is another frequently used workplace. However, can the coworking space be seen as a better alternative to the home office in terms of work- and performance-related, social, environmental and health-related aspects? Results showed moderate to low psychosocial demands regarding quantitative workloads. Compared to the home office, the coworking space proved to be the preferred work arrangement. Results are discussed with regard to current literature and workplace design. In conclusion, coworking spaces can be seen as an alternative to the home office that was highly valued in the present sample. It is recommended to further emphasize aspects of work environment and ergonomics in order to create health-promoting and satisfying workplaces.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
content type line 23
Helena Keller and Swantje Robelski have equal contribution.
ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph16132379