Wellness has been forecasted as the next trillion-dollar industry. Places of business that prioritizes employee, sense of community, holistically through connectedness and belonging tied to the workplace-built environment, commons space will benefit not only employees by advancing workplace, communal cultural social ergonomics, but additionally, benefit the entirety of corporate wellbeing through the triangulation relational strength of trust amongst employees. A defined community commons space within the workplace as a micro-ecosystem Placemaking planning approach linked to the outer macro workplace landscape, will ensure a compassionate lens of wellbeing through connectedness, resulting in a sense of community for all employees: remote, coworking and full time in both blended and homogeneous workplace environments.This study undertook an extensive review of literature, whereby, Jane Jacobs's espoused writings and lexicon of urban vocabulary applied to a sense of community called the "neighborhood", acted as a guidepost for the research set forth. Given the rise in open planning, ancillary furnishings, and flexible workplaces on-demand, this research study examined a "key-defined" built environment anchor, that must be present, in order that a sense of community exists, as a thriving neighborhood in the workplace. Special attention was paid to how autonomy can advance connectedness in the workplace, anchored by the compelling theory-based research of the Self-determination theory (SDT) Autonomy, Relatedness, and Competence (Gagne and Deci, 2005) coupled with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and ten contributing seminal theories and principles. Identifying the built environment tied to employee sense of community, specifically communal behavior resulting in strengthening workplace communal cultural social ergonomics and trust, amongst employees, under a single corporate identity was unfounded. The research utilized a mixed-method methodology and implemented three custom instrument tools in an exclusive case study. The independent variable measured was workplace sense of community with two dependent variables measuring for: communal cultural social ergonomics and trust. The case study raw data collection was conducted at a North American Fortune 500 global corporate headquarters workplace. The method-tools and resulting statistical analysis was based on: 1) an employee preference image- sorting exercise based on theories and principles; 2) an online survey questionnaire administered to employees; and 3) on-site observations, augmented with a protocol field note checklist of observed activities and usage. The findings illustrate a highly significant correlation between the variables measured. The tools outcome combined with the twelve theories and principles comprised the proposed Workplace Sense of Community (WSOC) theoretical framework. This framework can be used as a guideline for planners of work environments to advance social ergonomics through a nexus micro-Placemaking ecosystem.
Read
