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Opportunities and challenges of workplace concept creation in Finnish government agencies

Heidi Rasila (Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, School of Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland)
Tuuli Jylhä (Department of Real Estate, Planning and Geoinformatics, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland)
Anne Sundqvist (Senate Properties, Helsinki, Finland)

Journal of Corporate Real Estate

ISSN: 1463-001X

Article publication date: 4 November 2014

349

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to study the opportunities and challenges of the government workplace concepting process. Several Finnish government administrations have created nationwide workplace concepts for their network of agencies. These concepts give guidelines for designing workplaces for modern knowledge workers as well as service channels for the customers.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper discusses five Finnish government workplace concepts that include guidelines and recommendations for workplace design. The five workplace concept manuals were studied using content analysis. Additionally, seven interviews were conducted with participants involved in the concepting process.

Findings

The opportunities and challenges of the governmental workplace concepting process were studied using a six-step process framework. Each step has its own unique opportunities and challenges, which affect the outcome and the progress in implementing the concepts. Studying the opportunities and challenges helps to improve the concepting process and thus improve the potential for effectively implementing the concepts.

Practical implications

Creating office concepts in the public sector is at an immature phase both in Finland and in other countries. This paper helps take steps towards creating public offices that are cost efficient and at the same time support modern work activities. This allows governmental actors to rationalise and make the best possible use of their extensive stock of real estate.

Originality/value

Public offices have been little studied and office work in this context is also a less studied topic. The findings of this paper offer a novel way to look at government office concepts.

Keywords

Citation

Rasila, H., Jylhä, T. and Sundqvist, A. (2014), "Opportunities and challenges of workplace concept creation in Finnish government agencies", Journal of Corporate Real Estate, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 266-274. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCRE-11-2013-0033

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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