Investigating the indoor environmental quality of different workplaces through web-scraping and text-mining of glassdoor reviews

Chinazzo, G (2021) Investigating the indoor environmental quality of different workplaces through web-scraping and text-mining of glassdoor reviews. Building Research & Information, 49(6), pp. 695-713. ISSN 0961-3218

Abstract

The analysis of occupants' perception can improve building indoor environmental quality (IEQ). Going beyond conventional surveys, this study presents an innovative analysis of occupants' feedback about the IEQ of different workplaces based on web-scraping and text-mining of online job reviews. A total of 1,158,706 job reviews posted on Glassdoor about 257 large organizations (with more than 10,000 employees) are scraped and analyzed. Within these reviews, 10,593 include complaints about at least one IEQ aspect. The analysis of this large number of feedbacks referring to several workplaces is the first of its kind and leads to two main results: (1) IEQ complaints mostly arise in workplaces that are not office buildings, especially regarding poor thermal and indoor air quality conditions in warehouses, stores, kitchens, and trucks; (2) reviews containing IEQ complaints are more negative than reviews without IEQ complaints. The first result highlights the need for IEQ investigations beyond office buildings. The second result strengthens the potential detrimental effect that uncomfortable IEQ conditions can have on job satisfaction. This study demonstrates the potential of User-Generated Content and text-mining techniques to analyze the IEQ of workplaces as an alternative to conventional surveys, for scientific and practical purposes.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: built environment; data mining; indoor environmental quality; occupant perceptions
Index terms: job satisfaction, occupant perception, office building, data mining, mining, built environment, indoor environmental quality, investigation, complaint, survey, indoor air quality
Subjects: management, environmental health, infrastructure and transport systems, geotechnical engineering, conflict resolution, health behaviours and lifestyles, data collection methods, construction type, data science
Topics: Stakeholder Management, Sustainability, Construction Technology, Engineering Principles, Research Practice, Urban Studies, Human Resources
Descriptive scope: 4 PCEA

N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here