Academics sharing the workspaces – a case study

Purpose This study aims to understand the shared use of academic workspaces from the staff’s perspective. The paper first examines the factors and readiness for shared use of academic workspaces. Second, it illustrates nine possible work modes and users’ preferences. Thereby, the paper discusses the access-based consumption of academic workspaces. Design/methodology/approach The study focuses on a Finnish case university, where both qualitative and quantitative data were collected in 2022 during the campus development process. The qualitative findings use an inductive analysis of 18 semi-structured and 10 focus group interviews. The interviewees represent two faculties and all levels of academia. The quantitative results use descriptive statistical analyses of university-wide workplace preference survey data (n = 1,507 respondents). Findings The findings illustrate that the shared use of academic workspaces depends on: the sharing partner level, the time and length of use and the access options and spaces. The respondents were more ready to share workspaces with a closer community. The nine work modes present possible shared use options for workspaces. Half of the respondents chose the typical non-sharing mode and the other half chose less typical solutions. The results indicate a move towards preferences for more varied work modes. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to examine the spectrum of shared use of academic workspaces on campus, which typically are not viewed as shared and are also under-researched. It systematically maps the factors to benefit the user-oriented campus development processes.