Topic 6- territory and personal space

• Hall


  he came up with 4 personal space zones

  • intimate distance - for intimate contacts and physical sports
  • personal distance- contacts between close friends and acquaintances
  • social distance- impersonal and business-like contacts
  • public distance- formal contacts between an individual and the public
• Smith


  • a field observation on different nationalities and how they compete for beach space
  • observations on a French, West German and US beach were conducted
  • interviews were conducted with people on the beach and size, depth and width of occupied space was recorded
  • number and type of territorially markers was also recorded
  • those from West Germany made larger territorial claims
  • the West Germans also used sandcastles to mark territory and even places reserved signs on areas
  • the French could not grasp the concept of territoriality
• Middlemist


  • a field experiment conducted in a men's lavatory
  • participants were made to use the far left urinal of a 3 urinal set
  • a confederate was either next to the participant or left a urinal gap, used the far right urinal
  • observations were made via stopwatch, time between unzipping and beginning of urination and time spent urinating were measured
  • personal space invasions cause physiological arousal with the closer interpersonal distances increases the delay and decreasing the persistence of urination
  • the closer the men's personal space had been invaded and this caused stress and discomfort
• Sommer and Ross


  • sociofugal spacing- seats arranged in lines, better for personal space
  • sociopetal spacing- seats arranged in a circle, makes a more pleasant waiting room
• Wells- background

  • this study investigates the personalisation of office environments
  • Wells defined personalisation as 'the deliberate decoration or modification of an environment by its occupants to reflect their identities'
  • due to the idea that order equals efficiency some employers have chosen to restrict or even ban office space personalisation
• Wells- aim


  • do men and women personalise their workplaces differently?
  • is personalisation of workspaces associated with enhanced employee well-being?
  • is personalisation of workspaces more important to women's well-being than to men's?
  • is a company personalisation policy associated with organisational well-being?
• Wells- sample


  • office workers in 20 companies in Orange County, California
  • the companies volunteers and 661 surveys were distributed and 338 were returned
  • for the case study follow up 23 employees from 5 of the companies were used
• Wells- method

  surveys were given out to each employee with 7 sections

  1. workplace personalisation
  2. satisfaction with physical work environment
  3. job satisfaction
  4. well-being
  5. employee perception of organisational well-being
  6. personal traits
  7. demographic information

  the case study was structured interviews , each interview lasted between 10-15 minutes, their workplaces were inspected and photographed
• Wells- results

  • men and women personalise their workplaces differently
  • women personalise more than males
  • women tended to use items that represented family, friends and pets
  • men tended to personalise with symbols of their achievement
  • personalisation significantly associated with satisfaction of the work environment
  • personalisation was not significantly more important to women's well-being
  • companies who are more lenient with workplace personalisation reported a more positive organisational climate, greater staff morale and less staff turnover
• Wells- conclusion


  • workplace personalisation has many benefits for employees as well as employers
  • Wells did suggest that caution should be taken when generalising the results and when looking at the cause and effect nature of workplace personalisation