The purpose of this paper is to provide a literature review of the research into the psychology of collaboration spaces highlighting the impact of psychological factors on collaboration and the implications for workspace layout, design and furniture. Particular attention had been made to the effect of personality factors and the profiles of collaborative team members.
Research into the psychology of collaboration uses the same language as the workplace design and strategy community: “group effectiveness is a function of environmental factors, design factors, group processes and psychosocial traits”. However the “environmental factors” actually refer to the external economic market and the “design factors” refer to the features of the group that can be manipulated by managers to create the conditions for effective team performance. It appears that the impact of psychological factors on the design of collaboration space has not been previously explored in any detail. The lack of studies into the psychology of collaboration space justifies the need for this introductory paper and further research, but it also means that, for now, inferences must be drawn from obliquely related research studies.