WORKSPACE ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT: RECENT CHALLENGES AND FUTURE TRENDS FOR ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Организационная психология. 2021. Vol. 11. No. 4. P. 190–202.

Ivanoff D., Podolskiy D.

Organizational psychologists deal with psychological and business problems that appear in real-life environments. As a result psychologists improve the built environment and everyday settings, enhance the potential of individuals actively cope with and shape environments. The more elaborated interaction and management of the environment leads to higher well-being and more efficient organizational behavior. Environmental perception is an important scale of analysis in organizational psychology. The way employees perceive working environment lead to effective or ineffective adaptation to job requirements and work efficiency. This process may be mediated by cultural and individual differences that organizational and business psychologists account for in dealing with organizational change. One of the important characteristics of the interaction between environment and person is personal space. Personal space is a measure of comfort for a person. In different cultures personal space may vary. Also optimal personal space may be calculated taking into account the task of interaction: discussion and cooperation tasks might need less personal space and negotiations or formal events may presuppose larger personal space. The design of the space may lead to well organized people flows or high density. Environmental factors determine employee’s productivity and satisfaction at work that includes both physical environment and cultural factors. Such factors affect work adjustment, performance, feelings, social behavior, level of stress at work.

Keywords: организационная психология, Organizational psychology