For many years much of the work force of an organisation would be confined to individual offices, but the trend in the 21st Century is to remain open plan. This is essentially where a large office space is predominantly set up with desks in an open layout, usually with partitioned individual offices around the sides for senior members of staff, meetings or training purposes.

The question is; why have we gone in this direction, and is this really the most effective working environment for a modern office working population?

The answer lies partly in changing business cultures and needs, but day-to-day benefits include the following.

1. Improved communication – it’s much easier to ask a colleague a quick question when you are sitting nearby. Otherwise you would have to either go into their office or make an internal phone call which can be much more distracting. Being in the same office you are able to gauge much more accurately when it is a "good time" to speak to your colleague, so as to minimise the disturbance.

Of course, all of this might be irrelevant if you work in a different country to your colleague, as is increasingly common; but of course we have much more advanced technology for.

2. Overhearing – although seen as rude outside of work, overhearing the conversations of others is often encouraged in open plan offices. It allows everyone to keep themselves updated with relevant goings on without regular meetings, thus saving time. It can also allow a problem to be solved much more quickly if someone with a solution happens to hear a conversation discussing it.

3. Space saving – Space is often a concern, particularly in city centre locations, with rents going up all the time. Laying an office out in an open plan format can save a lot of space and thus money.

4. Improved morale – Humans are social animals and want to be able to interact with each other. Keeping them cooped up in a confined environment is unlikely to be inspirational for them. Being able to easily converse with colleagues partly fulfils the social aspect of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and improves the mood of employees.

5. Easier management – When a supervisor has easy access to all of their employees in one place, it makes for much more efficient meetings. This is because a small group can easily have an informal work discussion with distracting others or even leaving their desks.

We can see that the changing needs of companies has led to a changed attitude towards how we should work. An open plan environment is clearly a great option, particularly for any organisation for whom the majority of staff work in teams. It should be said however that there is still room for individual offices, particularly for strategic or director level employees. These people often do not need to regularly have informal discussions, depending on their role within the company.

The decision is down to the requirements of the individual organisation when all is said and done, but as you can see there are often some convincing arguments from a number of areas to suggest that it’s a good idea.