Spatial Organization

Conceptual Overview

Historically, the manipulation of space developed alongside other theories and techniques of managing organizations. Foucault's example of the panopticon is a case study par excellence: the round tower with a centrally located surveillance cell in the middle was a simple architectural device that should allow the control of inmates, the study of their character, and the change of their behavior. Early management theorists implicitly understood the importance of space as a tool to manage organizations. In Frederick W. Taylor's scientific management, large groups of workers are broken up and individuals are distributed in space to ensure that each individual function would be performed and monitored in its own space or cell. Henry Ford's assembly line (which was inspired by the design of Chicago's slaughterhouses) is another example of the organization of space that reinforced and made possible a certain organization of work.

Conceptually, there are different ways of theorizing space and organization. Following a more functionalist paradigm, scholars such as Horgen and others have [Page 1452]explored how space can be used as a strategic tool to increase performance of organizational members. Such an approach focuses on the impact of appropriate spatial design on motivation, improved communication, and satisfaction of organizational members. More critically oriented researchers have focused on the relationship between space, artifacts, and organizational culture. As Gagliardi has argued, culture is expressed in and through space. Hence, an analysis of the spatial organization can reveal interesting stories about an organization and its cultural fabric. Rather then seeing space as a tool to manage organizations, it is used as a concept to understand them critically. In a similar vein, scholars have analyzed the relation between social organization and spatial arrangement of an organization. In his influential book, Hillier argued that space constitutes social relations, and in turn social relations express spatial organization. According to this line of inquiry, space shapes patterns of interaction by structuring people's movements in and through space. For example, an open plan office or a shared water cooler might make communication between people more likely. By doing so, it might also have an impact on an organization's capacity to innovate and change, as Kornberger and Clegg have pointed out. Finally, scholars including Markus and Cameron have analyzed how space is expressed symbolically and enacts relations of power and domination. Spatial organization is analyzed as a mechanism that structures interaction between people and, by extension, individual identities. For instance, the physical interface between teacher and pupils or doctor and patient structures their social relationship in way that the power imbalance between them is sustained.

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