{"id":3992,"date":"2025-05-07T19:39:15","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T19:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=3992"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:40:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:40:39","slug":"why-your-cubicle-decorations-are-so-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/why-your-cubicle-decorations-are-so-important\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Your Cubicle Decorations Are So Important"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s OK to let your personality shine through in the workplace. In fact, decorating your office or cubicle with meaningful objects can help you bond with your boss, coworkers, and customers or clients.<\/p>\n

Academy of Management Scholar Kris Byron<\/a> of Georgia State University said that the things people use to personalize their workspaces\u2014or the absence of such objects\u2014symbolize who they are and who they want to be. Through their symbolic representations, they find common ground through:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Shared experiences or affinities
\n\u2022 A common understanding of work roles
\n\u2022 Personal information<\/p>\n

All these things can help develop relationships among people at work. Byron and research colleague Gregory Laurence<\/a> of the University of Michigan-Flint cowrote an Academy of Management Journal<\/em> article<\/a> on this topic.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big thing we found is that there were other things that were really important for work relationships,\u201d Byron said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, there are items that people have that they thought offer a common ground\u2014when you come into my office, you might see that I went to Emory University, and so you say, \u2018I went to Emory too,\u2019 or you\u2019re from Atlanta, and I\u2019m from Atlanta, or there\u2019s a photo of your pet: \u2018You have a dog, and I have a dog,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something that we can find that we have in common and that can form a basis for the beginning of our relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Byron and Laurence also found that a lot of decorations were about a unique niche that the person filled or a role that he or she played at work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember this one study participant who said, \u2018My special role at work is that I\u2019m the office historian,\u2019 and that wasn\u2019t part of her actual job description, her formal work role, but everyone knew that if they had questions about how things were done in the past, that they would always come to her,\u201d Byron said. \u201cShe ended up with personalization in her office that reflected that special role that she played or niche that she filled at work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think about sibling groups, there\u2019s always a sibling who\u2019s the clown, and this person\u2019s the serious one, and this sibling is the rebel, or whatever,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s a good metaphor for what we found: People presented themselves as unique.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if they might have the same work role as other people, they have some personalization in their office or cubicle to convey their uniqueness within a common role.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher It\u2019s OK to let your personality shine through in the workplace. In fact, decorating your office or cubicle with meaningful objects can help you bond with your boss, coworkers, and customers or clients. Academy of Management Scholar Kris Byron of Georgia State University said that the things people use to personalize their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,71,79,46],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-3992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-behavior","category-communicating","category-teams","category-well-being"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Your Cubicle Decorations Are So Important - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/why-your-cubicle-decorations-are-so-important\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Butcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-your-cubicle-decorations-are-so-important\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-your-cubicle-decorations-are-so-important\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"headline\":\"Why Your Cubicle Decorations Are So Important\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-07T19:39:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-09T15:40:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-your-cubicle-decorations-are-so-important\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":431,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-your-cubicle-decorations-are-so-important\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/coworker-brings-coffee.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"BEHAVIOR\",\"COMMUNICATING\",\"TEAMS\",\"WELL-BEING\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-your-cubicle-decorations-are-so-important\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-your-cubicle-decorations-are-so-important\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-your-cubicle-decorations-are-so-important\\\/\",\"name\":\"Why Your Cubicle Decorations Are So Important - 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