Jeanne Fillonneau: The shift to flex-office. Stakeholders, rationales and effects on project management practices between consultancy firms and client companies

With remote working, employees no longer need to come into the office on a fixed and regular basis; some workstations remain unoccupied, and the future of commercial property can be reimagined. This is what companies are doing by implementing the flex-office model. It involves doing away with designated workstations by providing fewer desks than there are employees, thereby ensuring a rotation in the use of space. It aims to fulfil a dual management objective: on the one hand, to modernise management through more flexible organisational methods, and on the other, to meet the need to reduce property costs.

Its implementation relies on a significant process of decision-making and negotiation involving senior management, who work in tandem with a rapidly growing sector: workplace design consultancy. Together, these factors have a considerable impact on and transform the way work is carried out within the organisation. The hypothesis underpinning the thesis is therefore that flex-office projects are driven by a variety of stakeholders with multiple rationales: on the one hand, corporate negotiators and decision-makers torn between financial and managerial interests; and on the other, the diverse range of consultancy services on offer.

We must therefore ask whether there are different approaches to designing flex-office projects, by examining who the key players are and what power dynamics lie behind management and consultancy teams, and then assessing whether these projects make meaningful provision for the realities of work and their complexity.