[01] Sanaz Ahmadpoor Samani, Faculty of Management and Human Resource Development, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Johor, Malaysia.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the background information regarding to personal control over the physical aspects of the workspace and the impact of that on individual satisfaction with work environment and performance. Today’s work environment considerably vastly different to what it was several centuries ago; man-made objects dominate the physical surroundings. In today’s workplace development the tendency to move from private offices to open layout is increasing which is affect the ability of control ambient conditions in workspace such as lighting, room temperature, privacy and so on. This situation may affect employees’ reaction, behaviour and outcome. In fact while individuals are working in open layout workspaces the distractions from uncontrollable ambient conditions happen again and again which reduce their satisfaction with work environment and overall work outcome. It is therefore important to emphasize the significance of personal control over the environmental features and the effect of that on individual’s environmental satisfaction and performance based on the conflict results in the literature. Consequently, the outcome of reviewing literatures will contribute to understand that part of existing knowledge of ergonomics and designing workplaces could be applied to promote individuals outcomes by focusing more on their office design and they ability to control their workspace and environmental satisfaction.

Control, Physical Aspects, Open-plan Office, Workspace, Satisfaction with Work Environment, Performance

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