• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.609-622
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• 2015

Objective: This study aims to investigate the correlation between office and work environment satisfaction levels and workers' musculoskeletal symptoms by conducting surveys asking office workers to state their musculoskeletal symptoms and office and work environment satisfaction levels. Background: The increased number of office workers and their indoor work hours using computers have led to new understandings of the importance of office environment including its temperature, humidity, noise levels, lighting and quality of air, and work environment including monitor arrangement, space arrangement and the functions of desks and chairs. Method: Specific details on office work, office environment satisfaction levels, work environment satisfaction levels, musculoskeletal symptoms, absence from work and treatment due to musculoskeletal related symptoms were analyzed based on the survey answers given by 397 office workers who were the subjects of this research. Results: Office workers showed different characteristics of musculoskeletal symptoms depending on their gender, age, work experience, office hours, break time and time spent on computers. Also, differences in symptoms were found for workers'with different satisfaction levels for office environment (temperature, humidity, noise levels, quality of air, lighting) and work environment (location of monitors, area and display of office space, chairs and desks). ANOVA shows the differences between groups of subjects classified by the experience of work-absences and treatments or pain complaints. Conclusion and Application: Relationship between workers' satisfaction levels with the office and work environment and their musculoskeletal symptoms is expected to be served as essential data for systematic management of the workplace.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.223-234
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• 2015

Objective:This study aims to investigate the correlation between office environment satisfaction levels and workers' subjective symptoms by conducting surveys asking office workers to state their subjective symptoms and office satisfaction levels. Background: The increased number of office workers and their work hours have led to new understandings of the importance of office environments including its temperature, humidity, noise levels, lighting, space arrangements, and quality of air. Method: Specific details on office work, office environment, office space satisfaction levels, workplace related symptoms, absence from work, due to workplace-related symptoms, were analyzed based on the survey answers given by 451 office workers who were the subjects of this research. Results: Office workers showed different characteristics of subjective symptoms depending on their gender, age, work experience, and time spent resting and on computers. Also, differences in symptoms were found for workers with different satisfaction levels for office environment (temperature, humidity, noise levels, quality of air, lighting) and office space arrangements (location of monitors, area and display of office space, chairs and desks). Conclusion and Application: Relationship between workers' satisfaction levels with the office environment and their subjective symptoms is expected to be serve as essential data for systematic management of the workplace.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• no.29
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• pp.163-172
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• 2001

An office is understood as a system consisted of three subsystem : office work, technology and organization. In the age of information, an office is a complicated device in an organization to create, process, modify and deliver various information for organizational goals. The purpose of this study is to provide design guidelines on office workstations based on the analysis of employees' preference and work-style responding to current changes of an organization and work process. Through a literature survey, the study briefly reviewed characteristics of interior design to find changing factors and directions of office interior. Work characteristics in an office are analyzed based on information, activity and communication characteristics while office environment is analyzed based on physical and technological factors. Finally, questionnaire items are derived from a critical comparison between work characteristics and workstation organization(furniture etc) factor. workplace strategies by preference are suggested to increase office productivity, employee satisfaction and to reduce space costs.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.43-51
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• 2013

Human being does work to live out and they have their private life because human has sociality. Both work and life are important to live out but they are on the trade-off relationship. Because keeping the balance between work and life is too hard, it has been interested by academic and practical areas. Definition of Work-life balance here is that balance or imbalance arising between work and life has no negative impact on their daily life. Above all, Work-life balance is important because it is strongly related to identity. Recently, the introduction of the mobile office system has emerged as a way to solve the problem of work-life balance. It is based on the teleworking which was formerly generated. Teleworking is to perform the work in the employee's home or office space set aside without going into the workplace. Concept of the mobile office system here is not only using portable devices during work for convenience but also the system which is designed for the performance. Thanks to the diffusion of smart devices(smart phone, tablet pc), mobile office system has been spread. Although the importance of mobile office systems is emerging, there are few researches about it. Even they mostly focus on the standpoint of performance of mobile office system. However, Quality of life is as important as the performance. As a part of Quality of Life field, Work-life balance is the closest to employee's quality of life. So this study aims to examine the effect of the use of mobile office systems on work-life balance. To do so, we try to find factors effecting Work-life balance from existing studies and then set a research model. We set the use of mobile office systems as independent variables which are divided by use of function, use by location and use by situation. There are four dependent variables - sense of self command, sense of balance, solving work problem, solving life problem. We collected data from employees who are using mobile office systems on their job. 215 people were participated in the survey and we used multiple regression analysis to verify our research model. Results show that every independent variable has no impact on solving work problem while they have slight impact on the other dependent variables. Especially use on the business trip has significant effect on dependent variables. It means that there is a possibility use of mobile office system could control the employee's quality of life and system should be evolved until it covers even critical tasks. Also, support for mobile office system -education, encouragement-should be provided. By mobile office system is maturing, future research would be done.

• Journal of the Korea Furniture Society
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.305-313
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• 2017

Recently, as changes in the office environment, office furniture are changing at a rapid pace. With the development of various smart devices specialized in work type, the concepts of office environment and office furniture are diversified. New furniture design is presented with the new concept of work format and changes to the space, an example of a compact single-person storage space is required.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.469-474
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• 2013

Objective: The purpose of this study was to analyze the risk factors of MSDs for the types of office work. Background: Physical risk factors of VDT(Video Display Terminal) associated with shoulder and neck musculoskeletal disorders(MSDs) include static work postures and workstation status. Method: In this study, office work was divided into data search, data entry and design work(drawings, etc.), and then we were surveyed 7 major work places which was included these works. We recorded working postures and obtained still images, depending on the types of office work. Then, RULA(Rapid Upper Limb Assessment) and ROSA(Rapid Office Strain Assessment) were used to analysis the risk factors. Results: The results of RULA showed that design work was under risk levels and required change, but ROSA showed that data entry and design work were high risk. The RULA is to evaluate the level of risk factors based on the working posture; on the other hand, the ROSA is to consider the use of peripheral, same as chair, keyboard/mouse, monitor and computer workstations. Conclusion: Conclusions of this study, the office work is necessary to identify the risk factors caused by the use of peripheral, as well as working posture.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.155-176
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• 2011

The use of mobile office systems has been expanded due to the smartphones' rapid diffusion in Korea, and it has brought a new work environment that is different from traditional working patterns. In this study, the unique attributes of mobile office systems, such as ubiquity, usefulness, complexity, and insecurity, are examined along with the impact of these attributes on work overload and job stress. Based on transaction-based model of job stress, organizational support was applied as a stress inhibitor and also the moderator between work overload and job stress. The findings of this study show that ubiquity increases usefulness of mobile office systems; complexity increases both work overload and job stress; and insecurity increases job stress. Surprisingly, usefulness increases job stress, which means employees who perceive the efficiency of mobile office systems higher may feel more job stress. Organizational support for mobile office systems significantly shows the moderating effect, but no direct mitigating effect on job stress. The theoretical and practical implications in order to mitigate the side effects of mobile office systems based on the research findings are thoroughly discussed.

• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.109-120
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• 1998

The purpose of this research is to provide basic data for future home office design by surveying office workers' opinions about home-based working. The study is based on a survey done with 215 office workers in Seoul. The major findings are as follows. Home-based working is viewed as affirmative among office workers. Office workers thing that 3 days a week is desirable for working at home. The first reason why they want to work at home is 'having more free time for other interests,' the second one is 'being more creative or concentrating on work.'and the third one is 'reducing the stresses from the loaded tasks and relationships between colleagues'. While the first reason why they don't work at home is 'the notion that home is one thing and work is another.' the second one is 'lack of relationships between people.' and the third one is 'unable to concentrate on work because of many house chores.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.135-143
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• 2015

Objective: The purposes of this study are to investigate ergonomic problems and to propose their improving measures in office environment of big general hospitals. Background: Office tasks have varying risk factors of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). The first symptom resulted from the office work was recognized as an occupational disease in Korea in 1986. Although the symptoms have increased since its first recognition, there has been few study on the effect of office work environment settings. Method: First, the author took pictures of working scenes performed in three big university hospitals. Next, the pictures were analyzed in view point of ergonomics. Based on the analysis, their improving measures were proposed for reducing work stress. Results: The results showed that most physical office environment settings such as dimensions of tables/desks and chairs, leg room, thigh, knee and foot clearances, and chairs used did not satisfy the ergonomically recommended design guidelines. In addition, some clerks placed personal belongings under their desks, put monitors in high position and did not lean against the backrest of chairs in seated tasks, which resulted in poor working postures of leg, back, neck etc. It is recommended that the hospital management should provide their clerks with ergonomically designed office furniture and continuously perform ergonomics training program for raising clerks' recognition for office ergonomics. Conclusion: Most office environment settings investigated in this study were not in good condition in view point of ergonomic design for the settings. Application: It would be useful as basic data for establishing ergonomically good office environment in hospitals.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• no.7
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• pp.3-11
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• 1996

This study intents to provide useful information of effective office works by evaluating existing office work environment. It focuses on evaluating the quality of personal and common work spaces, comparing responses for user groups to their work environment, and identifying factors which affect the satisfaction of work environment . The study is based on the survey which has been answered by 193 respondents from 24 companies (mainly from large corporate companies) in Seoul. This study finds out that noise is the most serious problem in common work space and that environmental comfort and the size of common space are not satisfactory in their effective work. It identifies that open space work environment, which has been expansively provided for a long time, causes noise problem and deprives office workers of privacy and personalization opportunities. The respondents reply that meeting spaces are not enough in number and size and lack of privacy and its adequate quality . They respond that privacy , chair comfortness and storage spaces are important factors for personal work spaces. In order to improve the quality and efficiency of work, this study proposes that companies should provide convenient office facilities which considering human ergonomic and should educate professional facility managers.