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IWSP Publications
The Hotel as Office
Excerpt
- Benefits
and Issues
Becker, F. (1995) New Placemakers: Unconventional
Workplace Providers: The Hotel as Office. New York: Cornell
University International Workplace Studies Program (IWSP).
This study examined an alliance in which a Pacific
Bell Directory (California) sales team, by housing all its employees
at the same hotel, was given complimentary use of the hotel's conference
rooms for the duration of its sales campaign. This new work arrangement
provided the opportunity to examine not just the cost benefits of
new workplace strategies, but some issues that all organizations
attempting to implement new work strategies have been struggling
to address, including: social isolation, separation of work from
home life; and communication, learning, and cohesiveness among coworkers
and teams who do not physically work together.
Comparison of Traditional Versus New Campaign
Arrangement
| Traditional Arrangement |
New Arrangement |
| Temporary commercial offices |
Apartment/Hotel facility |
| Office with workstations and equipment |
Main office in hotel conference room, representatives' offices
in hotel rooms |
| Previous year's office usually unavailable |
High likelihood of securing same location each year |
| Individual choice of lodging |
Lodging in same facility |
| Multiple reimbursement options allow "taking advantage"
of company |
Reduced reimbursement options limit "taking advantage"
of company |
Benefits and Drawbacks of the New Campaign
Office Arrangement
| Benefits |
Drawbacks |
| More productive use of time, less time wasted |
Loss of opportunities for learning |
| Improved concentration in privacy of own suite |
Loss of opportunities for positive sharing and morale building |
| Ability to avoid being depressed by other sales representatives
who may be dissatisfied with their own sales record |
Feelings of loneliness and isolation |
| Ability to avoid other representatives with whom one does
not get along |
|
Savings of New Campaign over Traditional
Campaign
|
Percent Savings vs. Traditional Campaign |
Per Campaign Savings |
Savings Across All Out-book Campaigns |
| First Use of New Approach |
21% |
$75,000 |
$1.2 million |
| Later Reuse of Same Facilities-Avoiding
One-time Costs |
23% |
$87,000 |
$1.5 million |
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