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The values fostering the adoption of teleworking

The eleven cultures have been studied according to their occupation density, tolerance, and their likeliness to work outside of the office, encouraging new solutions in space optimization. One will then note, that when hierarchy is no longer considered to be as culturally important, there can be room for coworking and teleworking to be seen as a solution for optimization. 

In these same cultures, people could work in varied ecosystems: business centers, transports, coworking spaces and other third places. It is the case in the US and Great Britain, where the line between professional and private life is rather blurred, that employees are more willing to work in different places. This was compared to the other cultures studied, which create clear boundaries between office hours and personal time.  

However, beyond this separation, trust allows people to work in varied workspace ecosystems. In countries where the managerial culture is more based on control, rather than on trust, like in France, Spain or China, it appears more logical for managers to control their employee’s productivity at the office. This is an interesting point when one is aware that Spain is the country that has the most coworking spaces per capita.

Trust leads to collaboration. It seems like the same 4 countries, having a trust-based management, are more willing to be drawn to collaboration. According to Steelcase, cultures that have a higher tolerance for uncertainty, have workers who are more open to sharing information. For cultures, which have limited tolerance in regards to uncertainty, Steelcase proposed more leverage in social places, specific to each culture, in order to foster collaboration.

Even though it looks like some countries are more willing to adopt teleworking, this conclusion calls for us to understand the nuances found in different work environments. The study only focused on big companies, workspaces, and their population of employees. Nevertheless, this study reminds us that a cultural approach, in regards to the design of coworking spaces, still remains a vast field waiting to be explored. We are now left to wonder: when will there be a cross cultural comparison of coworking spaces?

References:

«Culture Code» - The complete study by Steelcase
«Same but different: Mapping the pattern of work cultures»

ssfCoworking Statistics

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