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Tobin Im and Hyun Kuk Lee. (2012) The Importance of Applying the Concept of ‘Space’ to the Study of Public Organization for the Government Competitiveness Enhancement. Korean Review of Organizational Studies 9(2). 1-33
This study presents the necessity of applying the concept of ‘space’ to the study of public organization based on the comparative analysis on office layout of government of Korea, Japan and that of US. Differently from the existing view on ‘space’ that is limited to the concept of ‘physical space’, we extended the meaning of ‘space’ to more inclusive concept, ‘spaciality’, which covers from the physical space to the subjective perception on space. The elements influencing spaciality can be categorized as organization structure, the characteristics of work, the culture of organization, difference between public organization and private one. Based on these precedents of spaciality, we suggested the possibility of applying the concept of ‘spaciality’ on organization study. We suggest this approach if useful because, spaciality is inter-wined with the job satisfaction, activating communication among office colleagues, satisfaction of citizen(or client) based on the comparative analysis of office layout of Korea, Japan and US.. As a result of analysis, we could find out the office layout of Korea and Japan government the administrative culture of which is authoritative tends to pursuit office of open structure that promotes interactive communication and collective decision. On the contrary, the office layout of US the administrative culture of which values on privacy and autonomy has closed structure that promotes personal boundary of space and work. This office layout is assumed to reflect the position classification system and the clear cut work allotment of US.
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