Fyysinen tila strategian jalkauttamisen apuvälineenä

Abstract

The relationship between organizational efciency and employee motivation has long been an object of interest in management and organization research. In other words, how can an organization improve its efciency by increasing its employees’ inner willingness to be productive? A noteworthy factor that organizations have not been able to utilize adequately in concretizing change is the physical space of the organization. Yet, physical space and related elements (e.g. colours and shapes) are among the most concrete features of an organization. If the space is so designed that it does not enable a change in work practices, it may become a limiting factor and decrease efciency. This is why it is necessary to ensure that the chosen solutions are exible enough to allow for development and adaptation in line with the rapid pace of technological developments in a changing work environment. Indeed, organizations have frequently failed in this regard. One reason for this may be that, due to the fast development of technology, employees have not been sufciently aware of the many new possibilities and solutions at their disposal. Humanistic geography, Schein’s (1999) organizational culture theory, and Argyris and Schön’s (1978) double-loop learning model are among the tools by means of which we feel it is possible to concretize and make visible such issues related to operating space that are essential for strategy and business and that the organizational members should reect on and the management wants to promote. This article is based on a reection of the literature and is not intended to create any new strategy or new strategic model. Instead, we introduce a new perspective to the deployment of strategy which is founded on the theories of humanistic geography, organizational culture and the double-loop learning model. The model developed in this article understands physical space and sense of space, as well as the measures related to its modication, as a means to deploy the organization’s strategy. The idea of using physical space for strategy deployment and organizational development may at rst seem like a specious alternative. This article argues that space can, in fact, be utilized for operational development and understood also from the viewpoint of organizational strategy. Physical space acts as a tool to inspire change, as an instrument for making change visible and motivating to personnel, because it attracts the interest of employees and at the same time has a strong impact on the organizational reality. In a sense, physical space anchors and denes the organization’s operations. Humanistic geography examines space, or place, through individual experience, making it a subjective issue dened through everyone’s own experience world. Organizational culture refers to experiences shared by the organizational members in everyday life in a common ”social construction of reality”. In our model of thought, humanistic geography creates a framework around organizational theory to increase the understanding of shared axioms and artefacts. The basic idea is that organizational change and learning (double-loop learning) can occur through renewal learning based on the organizational members’ conscious critical reection and mental capacity. Changing the physical space is best accomplished in collaboration with personnel, since their participation in planning and implementing change is a key factor for success. Participation will increase the commitment, understanding and competencies of the organizational members along the principles of Argyris and Schön’s (1978) double-loop learning - that is, renewal learning based on critical reection and mental capacity.