Territory And Personal Space Flashcards
Territory
Areas that people lay claim to and will defend because they perceive themselves as having ownership of them.
Personal space
An invisible ‘bubble’ that surrounds us wherever we go, regulating how close we let people come to us.
Key research
Wells
Additional research
Smith - territorial behaviour on beaches
Hall - zones of personal space
Middlemist - personal space invasion in urinals
Sommer and Ross - seating arrangements in hospital waiting rooms
Background to Wells’s research; what is personalisation?
A way people in the office mark their territory is by personalisation of their desk (territorial behaviour)
Personalisation = the deliberate decoration or modification of an environment by its occupants to reflect their identities
What were the aims of Wells’s study?
Investigate differences in workplace personalisation between men and women: is it done differently and whos it more important too?
Investigate effect of personalisation on employee well being
Investigate company’s personalisation policy with organisational well being
Original number of companies Wells contacted
700
Final sample of NUMBER OF COMPANIES Wells study of those who responded + were suitable?
20 companies with at least 15 employees
What type of companies were included in Wells’s study?
air conditioning firm
car dealership
real estate agencies
Wells sample of office workers who returned the survey?
338
Where was Wells study?
Orange county, Cali, US
Outline of Wells’s main procedure
Collect data from 338 office workers via self report surveys
Follow up case studies of structured interviews
What did Wells’s self reported survey include?
Rating scales that asked about:
workplace personalisation, how
satisfaction with workplace environment and job itself
well being
personality traits
employee’s perception of organisational well being
How did Wells know which gender answered the survey?
Survey included personal demographic information
How many participants went for the follow up case study?
23 employees
15 women
8 men
Wells results: what gender personalizes more and what data shows this?
Women personalise more than men
11 items relative to men’s 7-8 items on average
Wells results: differences across genders of how personalisation occurs??
Women tend to personalise to express identities and emotions by using items that represent friends and family
Men tend to personalise with sports merchandise and items that represent achievements to show status in company
Wells results;correlation between personalisation and well being?
Strong and significant association between personalisation > work place satisfaction> job satisfaction > improved well being
What did Wells case studies qual data suggest?
Personalisation may be significantly more beneficial to womens well being than mens well being
What did wells conclude about company organisational policy?
Companies more lenient with workplace personalisation report more positive organisation of company, greater morale (well being)
Conclusion of Wells study
Personalisation differs from men to women but it will have a positive effect on improved well being/ company organisation
Problem of Wells study
Cannot generalise personalisation policies to all companies: could have a negative consequence if someone uses offensive items
Cannot assume personalisation is cause and effect: other company policies may effect???????????
Outline of Smiths additional research
A naturalistic observation in the field (a beach) on how different nationalities compete for space (territory) on the beach
What nationalities were investigated in Smiths study?
French
West German
US
Beaches in these countries
