Integrating workspace design, web-based tools and organizational behavior

Industrial research organizations are constantly concerned with maximizing their business value by developing optimum organizational structures and wo rk processes. A current preoccupation is how to capture the benefits of the burgeoning availability of networked electronic tools and the local and gl obal connectivity, they enable. An experiment designed to answer these issu es was conducted at the Xerox Wilson Center for Research & Technology. Invo lving real R&D people in an existing organization, the experiment introduce d several change agents, including workspace design, and web-based digital tools, together with organizational structures and behaviors. Unexpectedly the outcome was an emergent "innovation" involving a fusion of these change agents. Positive impacts on organizational behavior and work processes, an d factors that proved critical to these outcomes were also identified.