On Psychosocial Constructs in Office Settings: A Review of the Empirical Literature

Abstract

This paper reviews the empirical literature on the relationships between psychosocial constructs and office settings. The constructs included in the review are face-to face communication and interaction, privacy, territoriality, and control and supervision. The review shows that most empirical studies provide no rigorous analytic definition of a psychosocial construct. Instead, they treat a construct as a synthetic and relatively enduring quality of the internal office environment. Most empirical studies also lack rigorous experimental controls. As a result, they rarely explain any causal relationships between a psychosocial construct and office settings. Additionally, most studies do not involve different structural levels an office organization and their related psychological, social and cultural factors. The direct and indirect effects of different behavioral processes on the perception of a psychosocial construct are also not well studied in the empirical literature. Finally, even though the empirical literature emphasizes the importance of any differences between the desired and perceived levels of a psychosocial construct in dealing with satisfaction, performance or any other office outcomes, any objective measurement of a construct and its impacts on office outcomes remain unresolved in the literature.