Integrating Open Office Design Strategies for Improved User Satisfaction in Industrial Work Environments

As the cost of space is increasing and the nature of work is changing to greater collaboration and collective intelligence, managers and organisations prefer to change the office layout to an open office layout. Although open office spaces foster greater employee contact and communication, they also increase noise and visual distractions, diminish perceived privacy, and make it more difficult for workers to focus on important work tasks when necessary. Thus, we need to find a balance between the type of open office workspace, social density, and spatial density according to job activities. However, there is very little study on open office workspaces in the Malaysian electronics and electrical industry. There is still a knowledge gap about open office workspaces that has to be filled in the context of Malaysia's electronics and electrical industries. Thus, this study explored how different job activities in open office workspaces influenced Workplace Satisfaction, Perceived Productivity, and Team Collaboration while also examining the impact of social and spatial density in these environments in the Malaysian electronics and electrical industry. Data were collected from 280 respondents, and data from questionnaires, analysed using SPSS software. The study shows that there is a strong negative correlation between open office workplaces' Spatial Density toward Workplace Satisfaction, Perceived Productivity, and Team Collaboration. The correlation coefficient of the impact of work categories is moderate negative correlations [WS (r: -0.433); PP (r: -0.359); TC (r: -0.457)]. Weak negative correlations were observed for the impact of Social Density [WS (r: -0.362); PP (r: -0.200); TC (r: -0.309)]. Strong negative correlations were observed for the impact of Spatial Density [WS (r: -0.710); PP (r: -0.685); TC (r: -0.710)]. The results suggested that organizations should adopt open office design strategies that meet the diverse needs of employees. Future research should incorporate qualitative methods, such as interviews, focus groups, or observational studies, to gain a deeper understanding of employee experiences in open office environments.