BUSINESS VALUE OF “ENGINEERED MINGLING” –“The purpose of all this engineered mi

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/psychology_of_management/2014/05/open_plan_offices_the_new_trend_in_workplace_design.single.html#ixzz30vYjgxzHTHE BUSINESS VALUE OF “ENGINEERED MINGLING”

–“The purpose of all this engineered mingling? It encourages something that a Bloomberg spokesperson terms “institutional eavesdropping.” Employees get a sense of what’s going on in every part of the company—almost through osmosis. As Michael Bloomberg puts it in his book, workers “absorb information peripherally while focusing elsewhere.” And this fuller understanding of corporate doings seems to quell office paranoia. “Openness also constantly puts [employees] in front of their peers,” Bloomberg writes, “preventing childish fantasies that coworkers are out to get them.”–