" In a Common Work Space, Mess Begets Mess "

Broken window theory

" In a Common Work Space, Mess Begets Mess "

Research Finding :

When people notice that others have violated the social norm - of keeping a common work area neat, they become much more likely to litter that space .

 In their study of professors, postgraduate students, and a departmental common room at a university, the researchers found that 59% of people littered when the room was ALREADY disordered, as compared with only  18% when it was NEAT .

So, what should we do?

The findings suggest that eliminating signs of disorder, IMMEDIATELY may be an effective method of maintaining workplace compliance. If something goes wrong, and if we don't take immediate action, the damage may further aggravate & the effort & expense will be high, to bring normalcy.

Courtesy : Research by João Ramos of PwC Australia and Benno Torgler of Queensland University of Technology.