Designing Workplaces to Align with Culture(s)

Neuroscience studies indicate that when workplace design recognizes, reflects, and respects both users’ national and organizational cultures wellbeing and performance soar (see, for example, Veitch, 2012), but national and organizational culture are generally separately considered. The reported project integrates neuroscience research related to organizational culture, national culture, and workplace design to develop a straightforward framework that can be used in practice to create work environments that support employees as they work to their full potential within the context of their national and organizational cultures. The system presented has been extensively tested and refined in practice. The tool developed is based fundamentally in the national culture research of Hofstede and also the organizational culture research of Cameron and Quinn. Hofstede et al. (2010) identify 6 factors that describe national culture: individualism-collectivism, power distance, masculine-feminine, tolerance of uncertainty, long-term or short-term orientation, and indulgent-restrained. Hofstede’s system’s relevance to design decision-making has been supported, for example, by Zhang et al. (2006). Cameron and Quinn’s (2006) classification system, which identifies four organizational culture types (hierarchy, market, clan, adhocracy) also has clear design implications, as identified, for example, by Zerella and colleagues (2017). The Hofstede and Cameron and Quinn systems recognise key cultural dimensions at two different scales. Three factors identified by Hofstede are particularly relevant to workplace design (individualism-collectivism, power distance, masculine-feminine) (Augustin, 2018) and a synthesis of research related to these factors indicates that there are four major classes of optimal workplaces (Augustin, 2018). Analyses focused on integrating Augustin’s national culture design system with Cameron and Quinn’s organizational culture types, completed in the context of decades of professional practice and reported in this paper, results in 16 separate national/organizational culture workplace design scenarios and specific, practical office design recommendations to effectively utilize available resources, human, financial, and otherwise. The model established can be used by office design practitioners to develop workplaces that boost wellbeing and professional performance and by researchers doing more conceptual studies.