By Kate Lister
Edition 3 – June 2014 Pages 25-26
Tags: technology • co-working • shared space
“Co-working offers a petri-dish-view of the future of work,” says Melissa Marsh, Founder of Plastarc, an expert in Workplace Strategy and a leader in Change Management services.
“It’s a unique microcosm that can tell us a lot about what happens when individuals are left to decide where and how they work.”
She describes co-working as: “both a spatial and an organizational business model where individuals or teams come together in ad-hoc or purpose-built spaces rather than – or sometimes in addition to – working in traditional offices, in home offices, or in third places such as coffee shops, libraries, and the like.”
Marsh and Ingrid Erickson, PhD (Assistant Professor, Rutgers University), are conducting research [1] to discover:
• Why entrepreneurs, freelancers, and corporate employees choose co-working over traditional offices.
• The impact “4th places”, as they are sometimes called, have on organizational identity, culture and work practices.
• The role that tenure, proximity, motivations and organizational-type plays on collaboration and cooperation.
• What co-working portends about the future of the traditional workplace.
The Why of co-working
While Marsh and Erikson’s preliminary research suggests that small companies look to co-working as a way to leverage precious resources, obtain work, and scale growth; large companies are looking to inspire innovation, foster creativity and increase agility.
Their analysis of survey data indicates that co-working spaces are attractive because they:
• Fulfill social needs, foster learning and provide social context for members.
• Provide freelance income opportunities for struggling entrepreneurs.
• Provide respectability, brand expression, and meeting place options that enhance client interactions.
• Provide an economical solution to social, technological, administrative and physical infrastructure needs.
• Allow individuals and teams to connect in a variety of ways: face to face, with digital tools and even through games.
• Offer access to a diverse groups of people, new networks, and potentially new ideas…