The relation between office type and workplace conflict: A gender and noise perspective

This exploratory study aimed to investigate the impact of the office design on workplace conflicts, with a special attention to noise in the office. A gender perspective was applied. The sample consisted of 5229 employees from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health 2010 (SLOSH), working in different office types. In the multivariate analysis office type was used as the explanatory variable with adjustments for age, supervisory position and labour market sector. Analysis stratified for gender was used. Among women a significant impact of office type per se on workplace conflicts was found, but not among men. For women several office types differed significantly from the cell-office with regard to prevalence of conflicts during the past two years, but for men only the combi-office differed from the cell-office. Noise had an impact on workplace conflicts, but is not the only explanatory factor since the effect of office type remained also after adjustment for noise in multivariate analyses. Other environmental factors inherent in the office type might thus explain the occurrence of conflicts.