Open Plan Office: Experiences of Apple and Facebook

This article explores how Apple and Facebook adopted the open plan office and their experiences, good and bad. While Facebook's open plan office boosted productivity and communication, Apple's employees revolted against it. The article discusses the impact of open plan office on productivity and communication.

Organization behavior

Organization Behavior
“How APPLE AND FACEBOOK has adopted the open plan office and their
experiences, good and bad”
Open plan is considered as the generic term which is used in the
architectural and interior designing of the floor plan. It makes the use of large,
open spaces and also reduces the use of small enclosed rooms like private offices.
Apple and Facebook also considered this method related to open plan office. The
open plan offices also boosted the confidence level of the employees towards the
organizational activities.
Facebook and Apple adopted open plan office by focusing on the concept of
modern office and also on the building which was designed by Frank Lloyd
Wright. When Facebook introduced its new campus in 2012, Mark Zuckerberg
stated that it would be the biggest open floor plan in the world. The campus which
is a single room stretching 10 acres and it was designed by architect Frank Gehry
(Frankel, 2015).
By focusing on the experience in context to Facebook, it has been seen that
it is a good experience for the employees and also for the top management of the
company. The design of the building states that the company focused on openness
and transparency. The open plan office provides flexibility and also creates
positive environment in the workplace. Through this concept it can be easy for the
employees to share their views and opinions with each other and it also made the
process of communication easy and flexible. With this concept the company also
considered the needs of the employees like physiological need, safety need, esteem
need and self-actualization need (Osemeke & Adegboyega, 2017).
It is designed so that collaboration and speed can be enhanced and also the
natural lights pour in the skylights through windows. The employees who are
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Organization Behavior
working in the world’s biggest office named as Building 20 also believed that the
open offices helps to enhance the productivity and also brings more creative in
context to work. If productivity level of the employees is enhanced then it can be
simple to enhance the overall sales of the company. It has been seen that
employees are happy with the interior of the company and with this they can easily
give their best towards the activities of the company (de Bakker, Aries, Kort &
Rosemann, 2017). Due to this the confidence level of the employees boosted and
they work in a dedicated manner towards the assigned activities.
Also, Apple takes into consideration the concept of open plan office and it
has been seen that experience is bad. The employees of the company revolt for this
concept when it is considered by the company. The employees of the company
stated that open floor plan focuses on the pods which have huge open workspaces
and also shared tablets. It has given effect on the engineers and developers of the
company who are used to work in the private offices or in cubicles.
The internet software teams of the company resisted to move from the old
headquarter to the new headquarter because they believe that the work
environment at the new headquarter is not good. It includes the bench seating, long
work tables and also open cubicle spaces which are not accepted by the employees
of the Apple Company. The employees also stated that open plan office will
negatively impact the overall productivity level of the employees which is not
beneficial for the growth of the company. So, the experience of the employees in
the Apple Company is not good they resist the method of open plan office. Also
because of this concept the negative impact can be seen on the entire operations of
the company.
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Organization Behavior
Therefore, it has been analyzed that for Facebook the open plan office is one
of the effective concept that has given success to the company. The employees of
the company also accepted this method and impact can be seen on the overall level
of productivity of the employees. When Facebook considered this method it has
been seen that it is beneficial in context to the communication process also
(Hongisto, Haapakangas, Varjo, Helenius & Koskela, 2016).
By focusing on the Apple Company it has been seen that this concept was
not accepted by the employees. Also the experience of the company is bad because
the employees do not find it a solution concept. They believed that negative impact
can be seen on the overall working environment of the company. The company
also neglected this concept which has created bad experience for the company.
Therefore, it can be stated that for Facebook open office plan concept is
good but for Amazon open plan office concept is bad.
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Organization Behavior
References
de Bakker, C., Aries, M., Kort, H., & Rosemann, A. (2017). Occupancy-based
lighting control in open-plan office spaces: A state-of-the-art review. Building
and Environment, 112, 308-321.
Frankel, T. (2015). What these photos of Facebook’s new headquarters say about
the future of work. Retrieved from:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/11/30/what-these-
photos-of-facebooks-new-headquarters-say-about-the-future-of-work/?
utm_term=.207cf5639467
Hongisto, V., Haapakangas, A., Varjo, J., Helenius, R., & Koskela, H. (2016).
Refurbishment of an open-plan office–environmental and job
satisfaction. Journal of environmental psychology, 45, 176-191.
Osemeke, M., & Adegboyega, S. (2017). Critical Review and Comparism between
Maslow, Herzberg, and McClelland‟ s Theory of Needs. Funai Journal of
Accounting, Business and Finance, 1(1), 161-173.
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