Current Projects

Well-being from a Short-Haul Office (Hyvinvointia lähityöstä) (2011-2012)

This development project is the first phase of a larger research program exploring facilities, well-being and new ways of work. In this first phase a concept of a short-haul office is designed and created. Short-haul office is defined as a way of work which increases personnel’s flexibility and enables employees to utilize multiple work locations, especially offices near their home. The concept is based on the theories of multi-locational and distributed work as well as on practical and environmental motivators, such as reducing commuting and CO2 emissions. Case study will be conducted at a case company TeliaSonera.

Short-haul office concept will be developed by studying the physical, virtual and social prerequisites of multi-locational work as well as by evaluating the current work spaces and ways of working. Data on current work, locations of work as well as on employees’ mobility, use of space and technology is collected by interviews, questionnaires and other methods (e.g. mobile observation). Based on the analysis, there will be a series of workshops together with the personnel, in which the concept of short-haul office is co-designed.

The purpose of this research project is to design, analyze, and evaluate new collaborative working environments (CWE) to develop high quality interactions and collaborations in global product processes, for example, when a company is delivering customer services. CWEs are a combination of infrastructures and environments – including physical, virtual, social and organizational spaces – supporting individual and collaborative work. We aim to determine factors influencing on their design, implementation, adaptation and use by identifying enablers and hindrances in these environments. We will concentrate especially on the functionality and usability of virtual tools and human and organization practices when companies are operating in different countries and continents and their employees collaborate remotely with each other. Based on the needs of work processes and human actors we will explore new technology possibilities to enhance collaboration as our focus.

In its research, vmWork will evaluate the present use of collaborative working environments in partner companies with research partners. The unit will especially concentrate on studying the influence of task contents (e.g. service tasks, design tasks), communication and collaboration processes of actors in product process, and physical, virtual and social spaces on the outcomes of operating units. These task-, process- and context-related factors influence what kinds of technologies are needed and beneficial in collaboration. vmWork will also study the implementation and adaptation of collaborative working environments.

The research is done in collaboration with Strategic Usability Research Group (STRATOS) from Department of Computer Science and Engineering http://cse.aalto.fi/research/groups/stratus/ at Aalto University School of Science, Media Technologies from VTT http://www.vtt.fi/research/area/media_technologies.jsp?lang=en and PBL Lab of Stanford University (USA) http://pbl.stanford.edu. Our industrial partners are: AAC Global, ABB Motors, DNA, Inno-W, Konecranes, Metso Automation and UPM. The research project is funded by Tekes – the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation and partner companies.

Professional Collaboration and Productivity in Virtual Worlds (2009-2012) – ProViWo

This research project studies how virtual worlds can be used in professional, work related collaboration and to enhance productivity in globally distributed teams. Here, virtual worlds refer to 3D environments, where users can flexibly change their avatars. This study explores both the strategical and managerial point of views to virtual worlds at work and studies different kinds of professional collaboration possibilities and productivity potentials of virtual worlds in-depth. First, the strategic uses of virtual worlds at work are studied and the good practices of using virtual worlds for professional collaboration are explored. Simultaneously, a virtual world suitable for collaboration is constructed using an open source platform (RealXtend), and methods for studying collaboration in this virtual world are developed. In subsequent stages the collaboration in this virtual world is studied in different events (organizational training sessions, ad hoc meetings, prototyping sessions etc.) and in close international collaboration. The results will be utilized in developing and using virtual worlds in partner companies. Additionally, research results are reported in two international seminars organized by the project as well as in prestigious international conferences and journals. This research is a collaboration project with Stanford University (USA), Telematica Institute (The Netherlands) and University of St.Gallen (Switzerland).