THE INTEGRATION OF IoT (INTERNET OF THINGS) IN ACTIVITY-BASED WORKPLACE DESIGN, AND ITS APPLICATION TO THE LOCAL WORKPLACE. The Evaluation of the Office and the Workplace
Office design is over 400 years old. The word “office” is derived from the Latin word “duty” and has existed in various forms such as monasteries, libraries, scholars’ and studies. Essentially these places primarily existed for the systematic storage of records (Saval, 2015). Workplaces exist because people require a dedicated space to work, but why do people need to work? Research undertaken by Barry Schwartz, in his book, Why We Work, indicates that people work to make a living for themselves and in the process contribute to the economic, social and industrial development of the environment. In 2013, a report published by Gallup, (the Washington, D.C.-based polling organization) revealed that there are twice as many "actively disengaged" workers in the world as there are "engaged" workers, i.e. those who like their jobs. The latest version gathered information from 230,000 full-time and part-time workers in 142 countries. Overall, the Gallup poll found that only 13% of workers felt engaged by their jobs. These people feel a sense of passion for their work and they spend their days helping to move their organizations forward. On the contrary, 63% of global workers are not engaged (Schwartz, B, 2015). This disengagement can be traced back to the days of the industrial economy where creating a successful workplace meant ONLY finding efficiencies through eliminating errors, standardizing performance and creating systems
20
