Mobility & Flexibility: Forerunners for a Sustainable Future? Part I
-- an SWMTHiNKTANK debate
According to a previous survey [1] sustainability is synonymous with 'durability'. One may also interpret this result with 'stability', 'safety', 'predictability', etc. However, when it comes to 'personal mobility' (e.g. with regard to the daily work environment) or to 'personal time flexibility' (in the same context), the first results look different [2], [3]. It is obvious that, today, people increasingly appreciate flexible and open work spaces instead of (apparently old-fashioned) single-space offices. Single room offices with a limited number of work places are clearly disliked. So, apparently, and from the office design open-space offices can be considered a key sustainable alternative (as people prefer this kind of work environment, i.e. productivity can be assumed to be higher). The question of individual time-planning seems to be more tricky: there are the 'individualists' (currently prevailing in the debate [3]) which prefer to have full flexibility and responsibility regarding the time-planning. However a considerable amount of people (>31%) prefer to have a mix of fixed (team-based time planning) and a certain amount of individual time-planning capacity. A minor number of people (23%) prefers to have fixed structures, partly due to the kind of job but also due to the fear to not be able to successfully manage the responsibility of individual time-management.
According to a previous survey [1] sustainability is synonymous with 'durability'. One may also interpret this result with 'stability', 'safety', 'predictability', etc. However, when it comes to 'personal mobility' (e.g. with regard to the daily work environment) or to 'personal time flexibility' (in the same context), the first results look different [2], [3]. It is obvious that, today, people increasingly appreciate flexible and open work spaces instead of (apparently old-fashioned) single-space offices. Single room offices with a limited number of work places are clearly disliked. So, apparently, and from the office design open-space offices can be considered a key sustainable alternative (as people prefer this kind of work environment, i.e. productivity can be assumed to be higher). The question of individual time-planning seems to be more tricky: there are the 'individualists' (currently prevailing in the debate [3]) which prefer to have full flexibility and responsibility regarding the time-planning. However a considerable amount of people (>31%) prefer to have a mix of fixed (team-based time planning) and a certain amount of individual time-planning capacity. A minor number of people (23%) prefers to have fixed structures, partly due to the kind of job but also due to the fear to not be able to successfully manage the responsibility of individual time-management.
Note: both debates - Your preferred work place/space... [2] - and - Your preferred work style... [3] - are running until 2012-05-29.
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