Avdelningschefers perspektiv på medarbetares psykosociala hälsa i öppna kontorslandskap

Sammanfattning: The purpose of the study was to investigate the department manager’s experiences of how open-plan offices affect employees' psychosocial health and how they can affect the psychosocial health of employees' in open-plan offices. The method had a qualitative approach and consisted of semi-structured interviews. The sample involved four department heads who worked at government agencies in a medium- sized city in central Sweden whose employees worked in open-plan office spaces. The study interview material was analyzed by a thematic analysis method. The main result indicated primarily that the department managers perceived the open-plan offices as socially reinforcing, a factor that promotes employees' psychosocial health. However, the department managers felt that open-plan offices may have a negative impact on employees' psychosocial health through disruptive elements. These disturbances were mainly caused by noise levels that often occurred in these office design spaces. The conclusion is that the open-plan offices strengthened the psychosocial health of the employees through proximity and collaboration. However, employees often experienced high noise levels in the open-plan offices, which negatively affected their ability to concentrate. Department managers considered themselves able to influence this issue by using behavioral guidelines to reduce noise levels in the open-plan offices.