Office clutter or meaningful personal displays: The role of office personalization in employee and organizational well-being

It has been suggested that personalization of one's space may enhance well- being, though this relationship has not been empirically studied. Other res earch points to gender differences in personalization. To determine whether office personalization is associated with employee well-being and to deter mine the effect of gender on this relationship, a survey of 338 office work ers at 20 companies was conducted in Orange County California. In addition, 23 of the participants were interviewed and their workspaces observed. Res ults revealed an indirect relationship between personalization and employee well-being with satisfaction with the physical work environment and job sa tisfaction as intervening variables. Further, an association was also found between the company's personalization policy and organizational well-being . There were also gender differences in personalization: women personalized more than men, and men and women personalized with different items and for different reasons. Moreover, the interview data suggested that personaliza tion is more integral to the well-being of women than to that of men, altho ugh the survey data did not confirm this finding. (C) 2000 Academic Press.