Constraints and opportunities : the use of space by employees to complete their e-learning programme

Theories of space and the physical reality of organizations have been widely ignored by organizational theory, as Clegg and Kornberger assert in their 2006 edition of Space, Organisations and Management Theory. To understand how employees use space to create favourable conditions to complete their e-learning programmes, this chapter will use the approach introduced by Moles and Rohmer (1998). These researchers have examined the notion of champs de liberté in how people use space for their activities. They explain that spatial configurations offer people the freedom to act in a game of constraints and opportunities, which can be physical, biological, social, moral and statistical. We will try to demonstrate how different working environments (plants, logistic spaces and headquarters) create constraints and opportunities for employees to attend e-learning programmes (from a material and psychological point of view), and how employees use space in order to feel that they are in conditions favourable for e-learning activities (i.e. their strategies). We will also address how the results of this research can be used to develop a framework for future studies.