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Putting Employees in Their Place: The Impact of Hot Desking on Organizational and Team Identification

Department of Psychology, School of Human Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7HX, United Kingdom
School of Psychology, University of Exeter, Perry Road, Exeter, Devon EX4 4QG, United Kingdom
School of Psychology, University of Exeter, Perry Road, Exeter, Devon EX4 4QG, United Kingdom
l.purvis{at}surrey.ac.uk
a.haslam{at}exeter.ac.uk
t.postmes{at}exeter.ac.uk

A study of employees in the finance industry tested the propositions (a) that work team identity is more salient than organizational identity when desks are assigned, whereas organizational identity is more salient when they are not; and (b) that this is partly because physical arrangements have a significant bearing on the way in which employees engage with the organization as well as who they are most likely to engage with (i.e., impacting on the type and focus of organizational participation). The study measured levels of work team and organizational identity in matched samples of employees (N=142) assigned to desks and not assigned (i.e., hot desked), as well as their perceptions of the use, importance, and effectiveness of electronic and face-to-face communication as indicators of different types of organizational participation. Results support the hypotheses. The perceived value of electronic communication also accounted for significant variance in organizational identification for all employees. Findings point to a number of practical implications relating to the use of hot desking in the workplace.

Key Words: hot desking; space management; organizational identity; team identity; participation communication

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