Offices Identity and the Workplace

This text analyses the role of identity within the workplace and traces its effect on organisational performance. It reviews, maps and measures the influence that the visual environment has upon the individual and the group, within corporate settings, through a series of international case studies.;Analysis of the workplace setting has tended to fall within two distinct categories - the objective and the subjective. The objective view is the one which concentrates on squeezing organisations into buildings without too much waste and leads to an in-depth analysis of space standards, circulation routes, storage, workplace areas and support areas. The subjective has tended towards either the slightly quirky, homespun analysis of interiors; colour, shape, texture or the more heavily laden academic structuralist writings on the influence of myths and symbols. The book unites these two distinct approaches with plain text supported by illustrations, diagrams and photographs.