THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND OFFICE SPACE DEMAND DYNAMICS

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the mass adoption of remote working and other office market dynamics. As firms continue to adapt to the changes caused by the pandemic through various work patterns, the potential implications for the office market are unclear. Using data from Knight Frank's (Y)OUR SPACE (2021) survey, this paper employs probit and mul-tinomial models to examine the relationship between COVID-19 related remote working and changes to firms' office space strategies. The study confirms that the pandemic has significantly influenced firms' medium-term office space use strategies, and the results show that firms' perception of their employees' work-from-home experience has influenced their strategy re-view. The results specifically show that a positive WFH experience increases the likelihood that firms will reduce their total space quantity, reduce their density of occupation, and negotiate shorter leases in the medium term. We further observe that the pandemic is likely to have weaker effects on space quality than on space quantity, implying that economic factors remain core priorities in future office space use strategies, while social and environmental factors may remain secondary. These insights extend the literature beyond the economic determinants of office space demand to other social factors. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Vilnius Gediminas Technical University.

Content validation of value-adding indicators for corporate real estate management: insights from a developing country

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to test the content validity of value-adding indicators derived from a comprehensive review of literature and expert interviews within the context of the nascent corporate real estate management (CREM) practices in Ghana.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire survey was conducted on a panel of experts to assess the content relevance and clarity of the value-adding indicators. The individual content validity (I-CVI) index as well as the average scale content validity index (S-CVI) were computed. Preliminary interviews were analyzed using summative content analysis.FindingsThe I-CVI for relevance and clarity ranged from 0.33 to 1.00, whereas the average S-CVI was > 0.80. Critical analysis of the results by corrections, eliminations due to lower I-CVI scores and suggestions from the experts resulted in a final list of 50 indicators grouped under 10 domains. The results from the content validity confirm the applicability of the value-adding indicators in literature within the Ghanaian context. The study provides detailed sustainability indicators while introducing a new value-adding parameter that relates to CREM preparedness for pandemics such as the Covid-19.Research limitations/implicationsFurther psychometric assessment such as construct validity, inter- and intra-examiner reliability and internal consistency of the indicators is recommended.Practical implicationsThe indicators developed through the content validation can assist in the design and review of measures for the assessment of added value by corporate real estate managers and researchers.Originality/valueThe paper presents the first attempt to test and develop added value indicators within the context of a developing country by taking a systematic content validation procedure.

Togetherness and (work)Place: Insights from Workers and Managers during Australian COVID-Induced Lockdowns

(1) Background: Pandemic-imposed lockdowns have heightened our awareness of the value of (work)place and made apparent the role it plays in establishing our sense of belonging and professional identity. The opportunity to work remotely during the pandemic has given us an appreciation of the benefits from access to increased flexibility, but there is consistent evidence emerging showing how much workers miss in-office social and learning interactions. This paper focuses on results about (i) reported perceived effectiveness and performance, (ii) sense of adjustment to remote working, and (iii) sense of belonging during the first two COVID-19-induced lockdowns, as reported by managers and workers in Australia in 2020. Findings shed light onto (i) how remote working experience affected our connection to, and the importance of, (work)place and (ii) how to harness insights towards creating spaces responsive to the activities we prefer to undertake in the workplace, permitting employees to choose the workstyle and pattern that suits their professional role and personal circumstances. (2) Methods: Correlational and thematic analyses were conducted on findings from 1579 online surveys focusing on remote working experiences during the first and second rounds of COVID-19-imposed lockdowns. A total of 668 managers and 911 workers from 12 different industry sectors participated in two rounds of the Bates Smart remote work survey (BSRWS). Surveys targeted knowledge workers of all career stages, age, and experience. (3) Results: Employees felt (i) technologically supported and productive whilst working from home, but (ii) aspects of connection, collaboration, and sense of belonging suffered;(iii) collaboration and togetherness are main motivators for returning to the office. Managers' experiences were significantly different with (i) perceived productivity, collaboration, knowledge sharing, sense of belonging, and performance dropping;(ii) face-to-face interaction and business development were key priorities for returning to the office with (iii) challenges of mentoring and managing emotional wellbeing of teams evident. (4) Conclusions: From these surveys we conclude space is an enabler of organisational culture and professional identity, playing a critical role in establishing psychologically safe and equitable workplaces. This paper reports snapshot data showing knowledge workers' experiences and effects of WFH under strict lockdown circumstances on wellbeing, productivity, and culture over time. It proposes two lenses (togetherness and place), through which the future workplace should be considered by industry and researchers alike. © 2022 by the authors.

Working from home and corporate real estate

We examine how corporate real estate market participants adjust to the take-off of teleworking. We develop an index for the exposure of counties to teleworking in France by combining teleworking capacity with incentives and frictions to its deployment. We find that the valuation of offices declined more in areas more exposed to telecommuting, a pattern that we do not observe for retail assets. In addition, we show that telecommuting increases vacancy, decreases construction, while transaction volumes are not affected. It implies that the drop in price is due to a shift in demand for space. In addition, our result suggests that market participants are expecting the shift to teleworking to durably affect the demand for office space.

Work from home: bane or blessing? Implications for corporate real estate strategies

Technological progress and developments in the economy and society are constantly changing the way we work. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the move towards multilocal working: knowledge workers worldwide have been forced to gain experience of working from home. Based on this experience, they are now in a position to weigh up different places of work and articulate desires for the distribution of working time between home workplace, third places and office.Previous studies have shown that working from home can have positive effects for corporates in the form of productivity increases. However, it has so far remained open which employees exactly are successful at different workplaces. The aim of the study is to identify clusters with their own workplace distribution based on personal, work-related and real estate characteristics, and to investigate whether the desire for specific workplace distribution promises success.Identification of the subgroups is done by conducting a hierarchical cluster analysis that includes previously identified personal, work-related and real estate characteristics. The evaluation and interpretation of the cluster solution is based on the desired workplace distribution and identified work success variables. Data from a survey of 2000 German and US knowledge workers is taken into account.The results of the survey suggest that knowledge workers in Germany and the US have developed a good sense of the workplace in which they can work successfully. At the same time, the decision-makers in the corporates have to decide carefully who should work at which workplace with a view to the corporate’s success. It is also clear that as work becomes more multilocational, real estate resources must play an important role in creating a corporate culture and identity.Alternate :Technischer Fortschritt sowie Entwicklungen in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft verändern die Art des Arbeitens fortlaufend. Die anhaltende Covid-19-Pandemie beschleunigt die Entwicklung hin zu multilokalem Arbeiten: Wissensarbeiter weltweit waren dazu gezwungen, Erfahrung mit dem „Work from Home“ zu sammeln. Diese sind nun in der Lage, aufgrund dieser Erfahrungen über die verschiedenen Arbeitsorte abzuwägen und Wünsche an die Verteilung der Arbeitszeit auf Homeoffice, dritte Orte und Büro zu artikulieren.Vorangegangene Studien zeigten, dass die Arbeit von zu Hause für Unternehmen positive Auswirkungen in Form von Produktivitätssteigerungen haben kann. Dabei blieb bisher offen, welche Mitarbeiter genau an den verschiedenen Arbeitsorten erfolgreich sind. Ziel der Studie ist es, aufgrund persönlicher, arbeitsbezogener und immobilienbezogener Merkmale Cluster mit eigener Arbeitsortverteilung zu identifizieren und zu untersuchen, ob der Wunsch nach der spezifischen Arbeitsortverteilung Erfolg verspricht.Die Identifikation der Subgruppen erfolgt anhand der Durchführung einer hierarchischen Clusteranalyse unter Einbezug zuvor identifizierter persönlicher, arbeitsbezogener und immobiliarer Eigenschaften. Die Bewertung und Interpretation der Clusterlösung erfolgt anhand der gewünschten Arbeitsortverteilung und identifizierter Arbeitserfolgsvariablen. Dabei finden Daten aus einer Umfrage unter 2000 deutschen und US-amerikanischen Wissensarbeitern Berücksichtigung.Die Ergebnisse der Untersuchung legen nahe, dass Wissensarbeiter in Deutschland und den USA ein gutes Gespür dafür entwickelt haben, an welchem Arbeitsort sie erfolgreich arbeiten können. Zugleich müssen die Entscheider in den Unternehmen im Hinblick auf den Unternehmenserfolg mit Bedacht entscheiden, wer an welchem Arbeitsort tätig sein soll. Außerdem wird deutlich, dass die immobiliaren Ressourcen bei zunehmender Multilokalität der Arbeit eine wichtige Rolle beim Schaffen einer Unternehmenskultur und -identität einnehmen müssen.

Corporate occupiers’ attitude to flex space in the post-Covid environment

Purpose: This paper investigates how large UK corporate occupiers perceive the potential role of flexible office space in their office portfolios in a post-pandemic context. Design/methodology/approach: The research methodology is qualitative and applied. For a longitudinal survey, convenience sampling was used to obtain co-operation from 11 corporate real estate managers with responsibility for managing large corporate real estate portfolios spread across a range of business sectors and countries. Semi-structured interviews were selected as the core research method to seek and to optimise the balance between discovery and generalisability. Findings: Although the pandemic has led corporate occupiers to fundamentally re-appraise where and when different work tasks are performed, it is not yet clear whether this has major implications for the flex space sector. The flex space model, with its blending of various occupiers and activities, is perceived to be poorly aligned with an increasing emphasis on the office as a core corporate hub facilitating connection, collaboration, enculturation, learning and creativity. Since most flex space is concentrated in central locations, it is also not well positioned to benefit from any decentralisation of office functions. However, as the flex space sector evolves in response to structural shifts in employment and working practices and business change, its various products are likely to be a continuing requirement from corporate occupiers for short-term solutions to demand shocks, the need for rapid market entry, accommodation for short-term projects and access to desk space in multiple locations. Practical implications: Understanding occupiers' drivers in their decision-making on selecting the method of occupation will assist investors in how they might adjust what they offer in the marketplace. Originality/value: Whilst there has been a substantive number of surveys of corporate occupiers' perceptions and intentions regarding their office portfolio, this paper focusses on a specifically on the flex space sector. Whilst previous research has mainly been extensive, this research study is intensive. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Flexibility vs. community: Two studies about coworking space and the member's social connectivity

Although coworking is commonly associated with the concept of community, few studies have explored whether and how coworking empowers social network formations among the members. The primary goal of this dissertation is to explore how coworking members are socially connected and what environmental factors are related to their social networks formation. This dissertation is composed of two studies. Study #1 is an exploratory study that investigates coworking space characteristics and the members' social connectivity. Mixed methods were applied to study coworking spaces in New York City. A total of 12 coworking managers were interviewed, and this qualitative data was complemented by 160 hours of participant observation and surveys finished by 42 coworking members from 7 coworking spaces. The results suggest that social connectivity between the members was low even before the Covid-19 pandemic. Three major reasons were identified: lack of opportunity, lack of motivation, and a behavioral norm of minimizing interaction in the open-plan environment. Both the type of membership plan and space access time were found to be significantly associated with the members' social connectivity.These findings led me to explore the nature of flexibility in coworking. I propose that flexibility is about the spatial-temporal relationship between the space and the occupants, which can be described as how much visibility and mobility the space offers, and how much time the occupants are physically present in the space. A follow-up question was raised: are there potential conflicts between flexibility and the members' social network formation?A 2x2 online survey experiment (Study #2) was conducted to examine whether increased spatial-temporal flexibility negatively affects an individual's attitudes toward social interaction in the work settings. Based on data collected from a sample of 315 participants recruited using Amazon's Mechanical Turk, results suggested supportive evidence for my hypotheses. Increased flexibility in space and time negatively affected an individual's attitude toward social interaction. Increased time flexibility was also negatively associated with social connectivity according to the participants' previous coworking experience.These results suggest that the nature of coworking may embody a conflicting relationship between the two concepts: "flexibility" and "community." Overall, this dissertation offers a critical understanding of the coworking environment, the member's social connectivity, and the relationships between the two. What these findings imply for understanding coworking's future, and how environment and behavior research could be applied to study emerging design concepts are also addressed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Content validation of value-adding indicators for corporate real estate management: insights from a developing country

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to test the content validity of value-adding indicators derived from a comprehensive review of literature and expert interviews within the context of the nascent corporate real estate management (CREM) practices in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire survey was conducted on a panel of experts to assess the content relevance and clarity of the value-adding indicators. The individual content validity (I-CVI) index as well as the average scale content validity index (S-CVI) were computed. Preliminary interviews were analyzed using summative content analysis. Findings: The I-CVI for relevance and clarity ranged from 0.33 to 1.00, whereas the average S-CVI was > 0.80. Critical analysis of the results by corrections, eliminations due to lower I-CVI scores and suggestions from the experts resulted in a final list of 50 indicators grouped under 10 domains. The results from the content validity confirm the applicability of the value-adding indicators in literature within the Ghanaian context. The study provides detailed sustainability indicators while introducing a new value-adding parameter that relates to CREM preparedness for pandemics such as the Covid-19. Research limitations/implications: Further psychometric assessment such as construct validity, inter- and intra-examiner reliability and internal consistency of the indicators is recommended. Practical implications: The indicators developed through the content validation can assist in the design and review of measures for the assessment of added value by corporate real estate managers and researchers. Originality/value: The paper presents the first attempt to test and develop added value indicators within the context of a developing country by taking a systematic content validation procedure. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.