An Empirical Evaluation of Indoor Environmental Quality Factors’ Impact on Productivity between Office- and Home-Based Work Environments among Occupants with Different Genders and Ages
Publication: Computing in Civil Engineering 2021
ABSTRACT
Since the pandemic, most work environments have changed to home-based settings, which mainly serve for living purposes other than working purposes. There is no lack of studies in the impact of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) factors on occupant productivity in regular work environments; however, limited studies are conducted in home-based work environments, not to mention in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, an online survey was developed to explore the impact of IEQ factors on productivity between office- and home-based work environments among occupants with different genders and ages. A comprehensive list of key indicators was first developed. Then a survey was developed, distributed, and received 204 complete responses. The descriptive analysis and t-test are performed to evaluate the impact difference of all the IEQ factors on productivity of different occupants. The findings indicate that the visual factors’ impact on productivity decreases for both genders, the impact of all factors on productivity for younger occupants increases when work from home (WFH), and the impact of acoustic quality is the highest among all five IEQ factors. Because of WFH as the future of work, this study can provide insights for future built environment design.
Get full access to this chapter
View all available purchase options and get full access to this chapter.
REFERENCES
Al Horr, Y., Arif, M., Kaushik, A., Mazroei, A., Katafygiotou, M., and Elsarrag, E. (2016). Occupant productivity and office indoor environment quality: A review of the literature. Building and Environment, 105, 369–389. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2016.06.001.
Boyce, P. R., Eklund, N. H., and Simpson, S. N. (2000). Individual lighting control: Task performance, mood, and illuminance. Journal of the Illuminating Engineering Society, 29(1), 131–142. https://doi.org/10.1080/00994480.2000.10748488.
Choi, J. H., Loftness, V., and Aziz, A. (2012). Post-occupancy evaluation of 20 office buildings as basis for future IEQ standards and guidelines. Energy and Buildings, 46, 167–175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2011.08.009.
Day, J., Futrell, B., Cox, R., and Ruiz, S. N. (2019). Blinded by the light: Occupant perceptions and visual comfort assessments of three dynamic daylight control systems and shading strategies. Building and Environment, 154, 107–121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.02.037.
Dhungana, P., and Chalise, M. (2019). Prevalence of sick building syndrome symptoms and its associated factors among bank employees in Pokhara Metropolitan, Nepal. Indoor Air, December 2019, 244–250. https://doi.org/10.1111/ina.12635.
Ekpanyaskul, C., and Padungtod, C. (2021). Occupational health problems and lifestyle changes among novice working from home workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Safety and Health at Work. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2021.01.010.
Fisher, J., Languilaire, J. C., Lawthom, R., Nieuwenhuis, R., Petts, R. J., Runswick-Cole, K., and Yerkes, M. A. (2020). Community, work, and family in times of COVID-19. In Community, Work and Family (Vol. 23, Issue 3, pp. 247–252). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2020.1756568.
Frontczak, M., Schiavon, S., Goins, J., Arens, E., Zhang, H., and Wargocki, P. (2012). Quantitative relationships between occupant satisfaction and satisfaction aspects of indoor environmental quality and building design. Indoor Air, 22(2), 119–131. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0668.2011.00745.x.
Geng, Y., Ji, W., Lin, B., and Zhu, Y. (2017). The impact of thermal environment on occupant IEQ perception and productivity. Building and Environment, 121, 158–167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2017.05.022.
Guo, X., and Chen, Y. (2020). Evaluation of Occupant Comfort and Health in Indoor Home-Based Work and Study Environment. International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, 480–494. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59987-4_34.
Kallio, J., Vildjiounaite, E., Koivusaari, J., Räsänen, P., Similä, H., Kyllönen, V., Muuraiskangas, S., Ronkainen, J., Rehu, J., and Vehmas, K. (2020). Assessment of perceived indoor environmental quality, stress and productivity based on environmental sensor data and personality categorization. Building and Environment, 175, 106787. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.106787.
Kang, S., Ou, D., and Mak, C. M. (2017). The impact of indoor environmental quality on work productivity in university open-plan research offices. Building and Environment, 124, 78–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2017.07.003.
Kim, J., and de Dear, R. (2012). Nonlinear relationships between individual IEQ factors and overall workspace satisfaction. Building and Environment, 49(1), 33–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2011.09.022.
La Roche, P., and Milne, M. (2004). Effects of window size and thermal mass on building comfort using an intelligent ventilation controller. Solar Energy, 77(4 SPEC. ISS.), 421–434. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2003.09.004.
Landström, U., Åkerlund, E., Kjellberg, A., and Tesarz, M. (1995). Exposure levels, tonal components, and noise annoyance in working environments. Environment International, 21(3), 265–275. https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-4120(95)00017-F.
Logadóttir, Á., Christoffersen, J., and Fotios, S. A. (2011). Investigating the use of an adjustment task to set the preferred illuminance in a workplace environment. Lighting Research and Technology, 43(4), 403–422. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477153511400971.
MacKenzie, S. B., Podsakoff, P. M., and Podsakoff, N. P. (2011). Construct measurement and validation procedures in MIS and behavioral research: Integrating new and existing techniques. MIS Quarterly: Management Information Systems, 35(2), 293–334. https://doi.org/10.2307/23044045.
Moeckel, R. (2017). Working from Home: Modeling the Impact of Telework on Transportation and Land Use. Transportation Research Procedia, 26, 207–214. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2017.07.021.
Mujan, I., Anđelković, A. S., Munćan, V., Kljajić, M., and Ružić, D. (2019). Influence of indoor environmental quality on human health and productivity - A review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 217, 646–657. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.01.307.
NIOSH. (2006). Indoor Environmental Quality - NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topic. Cdc.Gov.
Seppänen, O. A., and Fisk, W. (2006). Some quantitative relations between indoor environmental quality and work performance or health. HVAC and R Research, 12(4), 957–973. https://doi.org/10.1080/10789669.2006.10391446.
Serghides, D. K., Chatzinikola, C. K., and Katafygiotou, M. C. (2015). Comparative studies of the occupants’ behaviour in a university building during winter and summer time. International Journal of Sustainable Energy, 34(8), 528–551. https://doi.org/10.1080/14786451.2014.905578.
Wang, C., Zhang, F., Wang, J., Doyle, J. K., Hancock, P. A., Mak, C. M., and Liu, S. (2021). How indoor environmental quality affects occupants’ cognitive functions: A systematic review. In Building and Environment (Vol. 193, p. 107647). Elsevier Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.107647.
Wong, S. K., Wai-Chung Lai, L., Ho, D. C. W., Chau, K. W., Lo-Kuen Lam, C., and Hung-Fai Ng, C. (2009). Sick building syndrome and perceived indoor environmental quality: A survey of apartment buildings in Hong Kong. Habitat International, 33(4), 463–471. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2009.03.001.
Wu, H., and Chen, Y. (2020). The impact of work from home (wfh) on workload and productivity in terms of different tasks and occupations. International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, 12427 LNCS, 693–706. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60152-2_52.
Xiao, Y., Becerik-Gerber, B., Lucas, G., and Roll, S. C. (2021). Impacts of Working From Home During COVID-19 Pandemic on Physical and Mental Well-Being of Office Workstation Users. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 63(3).
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Computing in Civil Engineering 2021
Pages: 679 - 687
History
Published online: May 24, 2022
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.