The design of technological intervenons to movate behaviour- based reducons in home energy consumpon has recently been idenfied as a priority for the HCI community. Previous intervenons have produced promising results, but have typically focused on do- mesc energy consumpon. By contrast, this work focuses on the workplace context, which presents very different opportunies and challenges. Specifically, monetary consequences, which have proved successful as movaons in the domesc environment, are for the most part not present in the workplace from the employee perspec- ve. We describe the outcome of a sequence of workshops that fo- cussed on understanding employee percepons of energy use in the workplace, with the locus of acvity on energy intervenon design. Using a grounded theory (GT) analysis, we produced a framework of key themes detailing user percepons and energy intervenon design consideraons. Our findings provide a framework of consideraons for the design of successful workplace energy intervenons. Figure 1 - Key categories derived from Grounded Theory Three day-long workshops were run across 3 locaons with a total of 65 parcipants from 5 universies and a number of businesses in the energy industry. The job roles of parcipants covered a diverse range including administraon, managers, markeng, engineering, librari- ans, IT support and instuonal leaders. Workshop parcipants were briefed on the design task requirements and asked to think in terms of deployment in their own organisaon. Specifically, the task was to de- sign a 12 month intervenon, using technologies of their choosing, to reduce energy consumpon in the workplace. For each workshop sig- nificant audio and wrien accounts of the design task were recorded for qualitave analysis using the GT method. Our GT analysis derived six main categories or themes from the de- sign task data, illustrated in figure 1. Each category also embodies fur- ther research direcon to support our principal research objecve, which is to adequately understand employees’ movaons, aspira- ons and workplace constraints in the context of engaging with organ- isaonal energy intervenons, all of which are wrapped up in organi- saonal culture layers. The analysis also provides a rich account of em- ployee and management perspecves of current energy usage pracc- es and how to design effecve intervenons. A prototype interface that embeds the six idenfied themes from the GT analysis is shown in figure 2. Figure 5. Prototype interface with mapped GT themes Although the insights that we describe are largely concerned with or- ganisaonal cultures and polics, understanding these contexts will be crucial in the development of a successful energy intervenon. This paper has argued that the design of intervenons intended to reduce workplace energy consumpon must address issues of corporate re- sponsibility. Throughout the workshops the parcipants returned to issues of personal, departmental and instuonal responsibility: who was to be responsible for seng targets? Were they achievable? What would happen if they were not achieved? Who was to be held ac- countable? Where, in other words did the buck stop? Here or near? The design of energy reducon intervenons must be carried out with parcular sensivity to instuonal cultures of accountability and blame management. The next steps in this research will be to apply these findings using an iterave design process which connues to draw on the insights of employees of our partner organisaons. The final designs will be tested “in the wild” in large scale energy studies across campus and local authority infrastructure. 15th-17th November
Using Grounded Theory to Inform the Design of Energy Interventions for the Workplace
Nov 28, 2014
Poster presentation for Digital Engagement 2011 conference #de2011, part of the Electromagnates project: www.electro-magnates.com investigating energy interventions for the workplace. Research done by the Lincoln Social Computing Research Centre lisc.lincoln.ac.uk
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The design of technological interventions to motivate behaviour-based reductions in home energy consumption has recently been identified as a priority for the HCI community. Previous interventions have produced promising results, but have typically focused on do-mestic energy consumption. By contrast, this work focuses on the workplace context, which presents very different opportunities and challenges. Specifically, monetary consequences, which have proved successful as motivations in the domestic environment, are for the most part not present in the workplace from the employee perspec-tive. We describe the outcome of a sequence of workshops that fo-cussed on understanding employee perceptions of energy use in the workplace, with the locus of activity on energy intervention design. Using a grounded theory (GT) analysis, we produced a framework of key themes detailing user perceptions and energy intervention design considerations. Our findings provide a framework of considerations for the design of successful workplace energy interventions.
Figure 1 - Key categories derived from Grounded Theory
Three day-long workshops were run across 3 locations with a total of 65 participants from 5 universities and a number of businesses in the energy industry. The job roles of participants covered a diverse range including administration, managers, marketing, engineering, librari-ans, IT support and institutional leaders. Workshop participants were briefed on the design task requirements and asked to think in terms of deployment in their own organisation. Specifically, the task was to de-sign a 12 month intervention, using technologies of their choosing, to reduce energy consumption in the workplace. For each workshop sig-nificant audio and written accounts of the design task were recorded for qualitative analysis using the GT method.
Our GT analysis derived six main categories or themes from the de-sign task data, illustrated in figure 1. Each category also embodies fur-ther research direction to support our principal research objective, which is to adequately understand employees’ motivations, aspira-tions and workplace constraints in the context of engaging with organ-isational energy interventions, all of which are wrapped up in organi-sational culture layers. The analysis also provides a rich account of em-ployee and management perspectives of current energy usage practic-es and how to design effective interventions. A prototype interface that embeds the six identified themes from the GT analysis is shown in figure 2.
Figure 5. Prototype interface with mapped GT themes
Although the insights that we describe are largely concerned with or-ganisational cultures and politics, understanding these contexts will be crucial in the development of a successful energy intervention. This paper has argued that the design of interventions intended to reduce workplace energy consumption must address issues of corporate re-sponsibility. Throughout the workshops the participants returned to issues of personal, departmental and institutional responsibility: who was to be responsible for setting targets? Were they achievable? What would happen if they were not achieved? Who was to be held ac-countable? Where, in other words did the buck stop? Here or near? The design of energy reduction interventions must be carried out with particular sensitivity to institutional cultures of accountability and blame management. The next steps in this research will be to apply these findings using an iterative design process which continues to draw on the insights of employees of our partner organisations. The final designs will be tested “in the wild” in large scale energy studies across campus and local authority infrastructure.
15th-17th November
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