Bringing the inside out: Understanding the office worker experience of well-being and productivity when they take their work outside

Office work has historically been considered ‘indoor work’ and research has shown that bringing nature and the outdoors into this indoor environment has potential benefits for workforce well-being (e.g., Sanchez et al., 2018) and productivity gains (Lei et al., 2021). However, little research has considered the reverse: taking indoor work outside. This is a concern because, anecdotally, people and organisations are now starting to use alternative outdoor workspaces in the hope of enhancing autonomy and well-being whilst still encouraging productivity (Case, 2021). We know that outdoor working has been well received as an alternative workspace in Sweden (Petersson Troije et al., 2021) but we have little knowledge of how people experience such outdoor working and how or why they may (or may not) experience well-being and/or productivity. Thus, this PhD contributes by developing a theoretical understanding of the autonomous use of alternative outdoor workspaces in the UK. It also makes a practical contribution by providing organisations with valuable insight into implementing an outside workspace.
Building on Attention Restoration Theory from the environmental psychology literature I undertook an abductive study exploring why taking work outdoors may influence well-being and productivity and more broadly about what this experience meant for people. Through three studies I developed theoretical insights that add to the existing literature of Workplace Design, Management and HR and provide specificity to the existing theoretical framework. The results demonstrate that people can feel well and be productive when working outside, but that well-being is affected by perceived location autonomy and productivity is experienced in varying degrees. I develop theoretical propositions suggesting that the degree to which well-being and productivity can be experienced when working outdoors is moderated by location autonomy and levels of fascination. For practitioners, I recommend clear, transparent communication in conveying the viability of taking work outside.