The focus of this project is the workplace for knowledge workers, whose work features extensive interactions. Through a multiple-site field study in Japan, this study will identify key elements of the “shared context” in workplace, both tangible and intangible, that are playing an important role to support and stimulate collaboration and social interactions at work. It is the goal of this research to advance the understanding of the impact of physical workplace on organizational knowledge creation and business competitiveness building; and to identify effective strategies to realize workplace’s potential to achieve those goals. Japan is purposely chosen for this study, due to the concentration of a variety of pressing social and economic challenges that companies and the work force are facing. The understanding to be developed in this study is also of high reference value for workplace planning and management in years to come in the U.S. and other parts of the world.