Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here for more information

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Environment and Behavior
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
0013916506295602v1
39/5/616    most recent
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Wells, M. M.
Right arrow Articles by Ruark, J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?

Workspace Personalization and Organizational Culture

Does Your Workspace Reflect You or Your Company?

Meredith M. Wells

Eastern Kentucky University

Luke Thelen

Hiner & Partners, Inc.

Jennifer Ruark

Eastern Kentucky University

Approximately 70% to 90% of American workers personalize their workspaces. Personalization has many benefits for employees (e.g., enhanced job satisfaction and well-being) and organizations (e.g., improved morale and reduced turnover). Personalization is also related to organizational issues such as employee status, workspace quality, and policies. This study extended the research by examining organizational commitment and culture. It was predicted that highly committed employees personalize more than do less-committed employees and that culture has an indirect effect on personalization. Thus, 172 office employees from 19 businesses were surveyed. Path analyses revealed that employee commitment was only indirectly related to personalization through status. As expected, organizational culture had an indirect effect on personalization, via personalization policies or norms and employee status. Thus, this research suggests for the first time that the primary predictors of workspace personalization are organizational rather than personal. Your workspace most likely reflects your company rather than you.

Key Words: workspaces • personalization • culture • organizational commitment • status • survey

This version was published on September 1, 2007

Environment and Behavior, Vol. 39, No. 5, 616-634 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0013916506295602
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?