Impact of Open Office Work Environment on Employee Psychological Well-Being a Study with Special Reference to the Banking Industry of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Optimizing employee psychological well-being is a must for an organization, so it has become a major concern gaining more importance in organizational disciplines nowadays. However, a gap is found in the extant literature between the ideal condition and the practical level of the employee’s workplace well-being. The open office work environment is a novel concept in Sri Lanka and its effects on employee psychological well-being have not been well addressed yet. Hence, the current study attempts to assess the impact of an open office work environment on employees' psychological well-being with special reference to the banking industry in Sri Lanka. The study was quantitative in which a cross-sectional survey design was followed. A simple random sampling technique was applied, and the final sample consisted of 316 executive level employees selected from three licensed commercial banks in Sri Lanka. Primary data was collected via a standard measurement scale, and the analysis was done with the aid of SPSS employing correlation and regression analysis techniques. Findings reveal a significant impact of the open office work environment on employees' psychological well-being in the banking industry of Sri Lanka. Accordingly, it is concluded that an open office work environment improves the overall psychological well-being of employees due to advantages like allowing them to easily communicate with each other. It is suggested that to maximize the effectiveness of open offices further, organizations can take more initiatives to enhance the level of collaboration, manage the noise level, and increase the level of privacy in the work environment.