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Summary Name Institution Course Tutor Date
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Summary The title of the article under consideration is Understanding the physical environment of work and employee behavior: An affective events perspective. The title is very appropriate for the focus of the study because there is an emphatic attempt to argue that open-plan office settings constitute a source of "affective events" that, in turn, shape office workers' behaviors and attitudes. The theoretical framework is well deployed throughout the paper. The problem statement has stated that there is a gap in understanding the connection between the physical workplace environment and office workers' behaviors and outcomes (Ashkanasy, Ayoko & Jehn, 2014). There is the need to debunk this as most research revolves the architectural design and other disciplines that may be outside organizational behavior. A literature review has not been categorically put in place. However, there is a synthesis of various studies that have been incorporated throughout the article. Literature reviews have been used to demystify various attributes of the physical environment in office settings, e.g., personal space and privacy, spatial density and crowding, and the aspect of personalization and identity in the workplace, among many other attributes. For instance, personal space is underscored by literature as a core aspect of the physical work environment in the context of office space (Ashkanasy, Ayoko & Jehn, 2014). The level of experienced discomfort is proportional to the extent of intrusion into the individual’s personal space. The research did not adopt any conventional research methodology. As earlier mentioned, there is evidence of a synthesis of research previously done, which aid in arriving at a logical conclusion. The study can be categorized as qualitative, given that other findings are being synthesized, even though no firsthand information has been collected in the process. There
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were no participants hence no samples or instruments were used in the collection of data in the study. The research objectives were clearly stated. The objective was as follows to help spur conversations on the nature of physical work environments and how they might serve to shape employee attitudes, behaviors, and outcomes. Specifically, we need to unpack four broad issues that are critical to an employee's physical work environment, i.e., Personal space, spatial density and crowding, workplace personalization and identity, and workflow interdependence. Given that this is not a scientific study, there are no sources of error that might influence the results of the study. However, the credibility of the article's findings depends on the credibility of the sources used in the article. The qualitative technique that has been used in the analysis of information, in this case, is thematic analysis, whereby various themes have been crunched out of the already existing studies that are both qualitative and quantitative (Ashkanasy, Ayoko & Jehn, 2014). The study's primary finding is that physical work environment features, especially in the context of high-density open-plan offices, constitute critical workplace variables capable of influencing processes, attitudes, behaviors, and employee performance and well-being. This has been presented as part of the conclusion. The limitation of the study has not been stated. However, the conclusions suggest the paths that should be taken by new research, e.g., there is a proposal that an affective events perspective (AET) should be used as a framework in order to shed light on the processes by which working in open-plan workspaces leads to affective reactions (Ashkanasy, Ayoko & Jehn, 2014). The results apply to my work environment in the sense that they can help in shaping the attributes of my workplace to improve the productivity of employees.
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Reference Ashkanasy, N. M., Ayoko, O. B., & Jehn, K. A. (2014). Understanding the physical environment of work and employee behavior: An affective events perspective. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(8), 1169-1184.