By Jenny Thomas PhD; Patrick McCrae
Edition 1 – August 2012 Pages 09-13
Tags: art • offices • creativity • research
Research, including that reported in this issue of Work&Place, has demonstrated that the workplace can affect job satisfaction, motivation, creativity, mood and productivity. Various aspects of the workplace have been isolated for individual consideration, but they have tended to be the easily measureable aspects like temperature and air quality. However, there is emerging evidence to suggest that the other less tangible and potentially more subjective aspects of the workplace should also be considered. One such aspect of the workplace is the installation of artwork. The incorporation of artwork in workplaces has increased, but is it merely decorative or can it be having a positive impact upon organisations and their employees?
Art in the workplace
Accepting that the workplace matters, we set out to discover whether artwork plays a role in the positive impact that the working environment can have upon people. A survey by New Hampshire Business Committee for the Arts and the International Association for Professional Art Advisors (IAPAA) (2003) revealed that over 800 workplace occupants surveyed across the USA felt that art was an important element of their workplace environment. They reported that it had a very positive impact upon them by reducing stress and broadening employee appreciation of diversity. They also felt that artwork helped to increase their creativity, productivity and enhance morale. Overall, 82% of respondents felt that artwork was important.
More holistic studies of the whole workplace environment have revealed that artwork has a significant impact upon people’s satisfaction with their environment overall. However, in Dr Thomas’ doctoral research (Thomas, 2010) provision of artwork was frequently rated as being the least satisfactory aspect of the workplace environment by the 350 workplace occupants who took part. Whilst many organisations had installed artwork in their reception area and meetings rooms, very few of them had incorporated any artwork in the main office area. Within the research 16 different workplaces were evaluated to discover the impact that the workplace as a whole was having upon satisfaction, stimulation levels and perceived productivity. The results of the research highlighted that 70% of workplaces had no artwork installed in the main office area and 95% of people could not see a piece of artwork from their workstation clearly demonstrating that artwork provision is being neglected.
The team behind the Leesman Index (see page 23) support these findings, reporting that 85.1% of the 7000 plus people who have completed their survey were dissatisfied with the artwork provision in their offices, but 50% thought it was an important part of their workplace environment (Leesman, n.d.).
Thomas also found that perceptions of artwork were significant predictors of satisfaction with the workplace and how stimulated people felt by their working environment. The more people liked their artwork the higher their levels of satisfaction and the more alert they felt in the workplace environment, and when people had artwork in their main office environment they tended to be more satisfied. For an example of where this has worked well, see Case Study Square One (page 10).
Other aspects of the workplace environment studied within the research may also affect the impact of artwork. In particular choice in the design of the workplace which was very strongly correlated with satisfaction. The more choice people had in the design of their workplace, including the artwork installed, the more satisfied they were. For an example, see Case Study Deloitte (page 11).
So if we accept the research findings that the installation of artwork in the workplace is important, how exactly is artwork having an impact? Can the workplace environment affect people by motivating them and increasing how alert they feel at work? To test this theory Thomas conducted some experimental work based upon her evaluation studies. This involved systematically changing aspects of an existing workplace and discovering whether it affected how alert people felt in their workplace environment. The experiment included changing the colour of the walls by washing them with coloured light, changing the temperature and air movement, providing access to a new breakout space, giving people more personal control of the internal climate and the addition of artwork. The artwork was projected on the wall and consisted of a range of nature scenes which were changed daily.
Of all the aspects changed, the biggest impact came from the introduction of artwork. When assessing how alert people perceived themselves to be in the afternoon, during the traditional post-lunch slump in concentration, compared with the morning there was less of a dip reported when there was artwork displayed. Qualitative data collected in the study revealed that this effect was the result of a number of factors which included providing people with something to look at rather than their work and giving people something to talk about which promoted social interaction.
In light of this we were interested in further exploring the power of artwork in the workplace. Our starting point was the field of art appreciation, to establish how it is embedded within our culture, and to understand the relationship between artwork and people.
Art appreciation
Culturally, art can define nations. Socially, we dedicate great institutions to art. And financially, it is a multi-billion industry in most countries and currencies. The art industry’s products receive great media attention, which everyone has an opinion on. Whether positive or negative, art inspires conversation. We are taught it from an early age, we appreciate it at school, we have it on the walls of our home but we forget about it in our workplaces. Yet, as mentioned above, we have found that the provision of art in the workplace is a neglected area, despite its obvious cultural significance.
Research undertaken into the importance of art in education showed that 93% of people agreed that the arts are vital to providing a well-rounded education for children, and that 83% believed that arts education helps teach children to communicate effectively with adults and peers. Research into collective decision making in care homes also referred to the importance of displaying “recognisable artefacts that have meaning” to the residents. The paper went on to focus on the importance of the idea of collective decision making; indeed later, we propose that this ‘empowerment’ is just as important in ensuring the art of a workplace works. So if art positively affects the young and the old, and we think it is tantamount to our education, is it such a jump to think it has a positive impact at work? And if that is the case, why are we forgetting about it in the place many of us spend most of our daylight hours?
At the heart of The Arts Council England’s raison d’être for 2011-15 is to get more people to experience and to be inspired by the arts. Their publication, Achieving Great Art for Everyone, the product of an exhaustive consultation process, states that success of their experience/engagement goal is that there will be “an increased likelihood of people’s engagement in the arts, irrespective of their socio-economic or educational background.” Our national institutions are behind the move to have more people experience and interact with art. We want to take this a step further and prove that a well-thought out, relevant provision will increase well-being, satisfaction, happiness and even productivity in a workplace.
Art Works! – pilot studies
Patrick McCrae’s company, Works in Print, has been supplying artwork to workplaces in the UK for two years, and has placed around 1,000 pieces. From this experience, an understanding has developed concerning how and why organisations select artwork for their workplaces. Despite a belief that preferences for artwork are very subjective, McCrae has observed patterns in peoples’ preferences for the types of art they would include in certain spaces in the workplace.
Based upon this observation, and the research evidence, we have started to explore whether it is possible to understand more about the positive impact that artwork can have, and how this can be harnessed by organisations. We have conducted some initial pilot studies to gauge the reasoning behind the selection of artwork and also to establish what people really think of the artwork in their workplaces….