Study Selection Criteria
Open-plan office furniture design features and layout effects on environmental satisfaction, as reported in the scientific literature (i.e., publicly-available books, book chapters, journal articles and conference proceedings) between 1975 and 2002, were the targets of this review. Studies directly related to density, noise, temperature, ventilation, and lighting conditions were excluded because other COPE project reports address these topics specifically. In addition, studies focussing on micro-design issues such as ergonomics were not discussed because they lie outside the scope of the COPE project.
In spite of an exhaustive search of over 20 major databases with more than 75 search terms (over 460 individual searches were performed, see Appendix A) and a study of the reference lists of every relevant article, little directly relevant material was found. Studies of open-plan office environments where environmental satisfaction measures were the dependent variable and aspects of the physical environment (e.g., partition height) were the independent measures were considered directly relevant (O'Neill, 1994).
Because there were not many directly relevant studies, the focus of the review was broadened to include indirectly relevant material. These studies examined furniture aspects of offices in general, including enclosed private offices, bull-pen (no walls or partitions) and open-plan layouts. Measures of environmental satisfaction were not usually the main focus of these studies (Brill et al., 1984).