Presentation at the conference on performance measurement and management control - Nice, France, 7-9 Sep, 2011. Later on a revised version of the conference paper was published: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/14725961211218749

1. NEW WAYS OF WORKING: MEASURING THE
IMPACTS ON KNOWLEDGE WORK PRODUCTIVITY
NICE, FRANCE, SEPTEMBER 7-9, 2011
Dr. Harri Laihonen, Dr. Aki Jääskeläinen, Prof. Antti Lönnqvist and
Researcher Jenna Ruostela
Performance Management Research Group
Tampere University of Technology

2. Agenda
I. Illustration of the measurement task
II. Some measurement challenges
III. Proposed measurement framework
IV. Towards actual measures

4. Traditional and a new way
Picture: http://www.cartridgesave.co.uk/news/17-inspiring-awesomely-cool-office-interiors/
Picture: http://www.techdivine.com/tdblog/tag/bhutan/

5. Traditional and a new way
Picture: http://www.shanghaidailyphoto.com/index.php/2008/10/ Picture: http://www.ita-savo.fi/Uutiset/8304628.html

6. Traditional and a new way
Picture: http://theworldhates.com/working-in-an-office/
Picture: http://www.ergoware.com/blog/cool-office-furniture-workstations

7. Measurement task
• Benefits of NewWoW initiatives are not self-evident and
thus measurements are needed to verify them. There is a
lack of studies focused on the actual business impacts of
different working arrangements.
• Research question: How to measure productivity impacts
of NewWoW?

8. Measurement challenges
• how to identify which factors are actually impacted?
• how to take into account the fact that impacts may vary
regarding the working role and organizational level in
question?
• how to distinguish the impact resulting from the change in
question in comparison to other factors affecting
productivity at the same time (e.g. changes in business
environment)?
• how to deal with the time lag between the change and the
realization of impacts

9. Proposed measurement
framework
Input
- employees,
technology, facilities
Process
- organization of work
Output
- Qualitative and
quantitative
NewWoW
Initiative
- sociotechnical change
2 Productivity change
3
4
1 Knowledge work productivity measurement?
2 Was there a change in productivity? (before-after)
3 What changed in the way of working? (before-during the change process-after)
4 Was the change induced by the NewWow initiative? (after)
1
Knowledge work

10. Towards actual measures
Phases in performance measurement
system design
Examples in NewWoW impact measurement setting
I. Defining the measurement task in
question (i.e., what is the purpose
for measurement?)
- demonstrating the role of NewWow practices as a strategic issue affecting the
productivity of knowledge-based organisations
- providing evidence about the impacts of a NewWow-related change initiative
- following and managing the functioning of NewWow practices on a continuous
basis
- supporting the change process (guide employees)
II. Identification of the factors to be
measured
- (1) Productivity change
- (2) Change in input and process factors
- (3) Impact of intervention to productivity change excluding other affecting factors
III. Planning the actual measurement
and choosing metrics to be used
- (1) Survey measuring employees’ subjective evaluation on productivity change
- (1) Output/input ratio
- (2) Survey measuring the applicability of facilities for conducting the work
- (2) Employee satisfaction survey
- (2) Knowledge flow audit
- (3) In-depth interviews
- (3) Observations
- (3) Statistical methods
IV. Implementation of the measures;
execution based on the choices
made during the previous steps
- Collecting the data, training personnel etc.
- (1) Before-after comparison
- (2) Before-after comparison
- (3) After the change intervention
V. Analysis and reporting of
measurement results
- Who needs the measurement information?
- How is the information analysed and reported?
- Linking the analysis of the results to managerial actions and decision-making

11. Objective metrics
• Cost efficiency … through the efficiency of office space
utilization
• Manually: walkthrough method…
• Digitally: precise space utilization data available is some advanced
cases
• Environmental performance
• CO2 emissions (from offices and / or from commuting)

12. Subjective measurement

13. Conclusions and our future
research
• Empirical research needed
• The proposed measurement framework provides a basis for the
empirical research and helps both in planning the measurement
arrangement and in designing the actual measures.
• Practical experience of applying the framework in different
organizational contexts (e.g., with different purposes for
measurement) is needed.
• Currently carrying out a empirical study regarding the measurement
of NewWoW initiatives
• Wider societal implications of NewWoW requires different
kind of measurement approach.

14. Thank you