Workspace Personalization and Organizational Culture: Does Your Workspace Reflect You or Your Company?
Meredith M. Wells1*,
Luke Thelen2,
Jennifer Ruark1
1 Eastern Kentucky University
2 Hiner & Partners, Inc.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: meredithlepley{at}qx.net.
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Abstract |
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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.
