A Comparative Field Study of Indoor Environment Quality and Work Productivity between Job Types in a Research Institute in Korea

Indoor environment quality (IEQ) evaluation can help improve building satisfaction and productivity of residents. However, for more efficient analysis, it is necessary to gain a large amount of data on the differences between specific groups, such as building and resident work types. In this study, we conducted an IEQ evaluation for administrators and researchers, which are occupational groups of a research institute. The evaluation was conducted using quantitative and qualitative methods to find the relationships between IEQ satisfaction and work productivity for each job type. Our results showed that light environment and office layout were correlated with the work productivity of administrators, and light environment, office layout, thermal comfort, and sound environment were correlated with the work productivity of researchers. In addition, there was a significant difference in layout and thermal comfort items between administrators and researchers. Therefore, this study revealed significant differences in the effect of IEQ evaluation on work productivity between different occupations in a research institute.