The Emergence of Place Affected Organisational Change: a complex approach linking environment, engagement and human wellbeing

Anderson, Jane (2018) The Emergence of Place Affected Organisational Change: a complex approach linking environment, engagement and human wellbeing. Doctoral thesis, Northumbria University.

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Abstract

Place Affected Organisational Change (PAOC) is a new approach to organisational culture shift utilising Place and design as a mechanism to respectfully and ecologically stimulate stakeholder involvement in workplace values and personal-professional wellbeing. Arising from the collective trust and individual ownership which emerge from this process, is a potential for more organic participation and collaboration in the co-design and implementation of other organisational systems, processes and structures.

PAOC sits at the intersection of Design Participation and Values-Based Organisational Change, researched and developed over 30 years by the author. It includes a theory, Sociospacial Reciprocity, which attempts to explain the relationship between humankind and their places, in particular, their embodied spaces, and a method, Place Therapy process, based on Sociospacial Reciprocity theory, which uses thoughtful intervention in the people-place process to modify or mitigate it.

The research and development of Sociospacial Reciprocity theory and Place Therapy process, culminating in PAOC have been undertaken primarily in the education sector, although not exclusively so; PAOC has also been implemented in the Small to Medium sized enterprise (SME) field. Significant findings include the observations that most stakeholders enjoy participating in the shaping and nurturing of their places and microsystems once they have the theoretical and methodological means to do so; that this work has the potential to build confidence and open-mindedness in relation to continuing organisational change and development, and that stakeholder-designed and applied interventions to built microsystems can evoke prosperity manifesting as increased personal wellbeing and enhanced professional effectiveness. School staff involved in PAOC report feeling more committed to their colleagues, pupils and the organisation, both during the initial intervention and in the longer term.

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