QMIS

Uarterly
E xecutive

Achieving High Performance in a

Mobile and Green Workplace:
Lessons from Microsoft Netherlands
This article describes how Microsoft NL established new ways of working using
advanced mobile work technologies, with changes in three interrelated areas: people,
place and technology. It has created an anytime/anywhere workplace that has changed
the traditional office culture by stimulating flexibility, improved employee productivity
and work/life balance, and reduced the company’s and individuals’ carbon footprint.
Based on Microsoft NL’s experience, we provide guidelines for integrating new ways of
working to improve performance through mobile work technologies.1,2
Eric van Heck Peter van Baalen
Erasmus University Erasmus University
(The Netherlands) (The Netherlands)

Nick van der Meulen Marcel van Oosterhout

Erasmus University Erasmus University
(The Netherlands) (The Netherlands)

Advantages of Transforming to a
Mobile and Green High Performance Workplace ,
1 2

Flexibility is a key element of the way work is carried out in the 21st century. Increased
competition in fast-moving global markets means that companies need flexible workers who
can quickly adapt. Similarly, societal changes—such as the increasing number of women in the
workforce, dual-career households and work/private life expectations—have led to employees
demanding increased levels of flexibility to better adjust to life outside of work. Mobile work
technologies have the potential to empower employees and provide the much needed flexibility.
These technologies may also provide “green” (or environmental sustainability) benefits as they
have the potential to move companies away from existing energy-intensive work habits and
create a low carbon economy.3
1  Dorothy Leidner, ShanLing Pan and Juliana Sutanto are the accepting senior editors for this article.
2  The authors thank the accepting senior editors and anonymous reviewers for their excellent feedback on drafts of this article, and
the employees of Microsoft Netherlands for their participation in this study.
3  Smart2020: Enabling the Low Carbon Economy in the Information Age, Climate Group, 2008. This report indicates that the ICT
sector’s carbon footprint, measured as billion tons (Gt) of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), is expected to increase in a business-
as-usual scenario from 0.53Gt in 2002 to 1.43Gt in 2020. But specific ICT-enabled opportunities identified in this report can lead
to emission reductions five times the size of the sector’s own footprint, up to 7.8 Gt, or 15% of the sector’s total business-as-usual
emissions by 2020.

December 2012 (11:4) | MIS Quarterly Executive 175

Achieving High Performance in a Mobile and Green Workplace
Some might argue that companies “can’t
have the best of both worlds,” meaning they
will have to choose between productivity and
“going green.” We argue, however, that using
mobile work technologies to design new ways of
working will improve productivity and work/life
balance, while also reducing carbon emissions.
This is important, as a McKinsey survey shows
that companies will have to take a long-term
strategic view on environmental sustainability
and incorporate it into the key value creation
levers that drive return on capital and growth,
as well as the key organizational elements that
support value creation.4 The concept of gaining
business value and environmental sustainability
advantages through using advanced mobile work
technologies to design new ways of working is
often discussed but rarely achieved.
We define these new ways of working as the
“mobile and green high performance workplace”
where employees control the time and place of
their work, with new work practices enabled
by mobile work technologies that contribute
to high performance at the individual and firm
levels.5 The mobile technologies are integrated
for information processing, communication and
collaboration in tools such as online document
management, online meetings, laptops, tablets
and smartphones. Additionally, the mobile and
green high performance workplace provides
green benefits by reducing the carbon footprint of
the firm and its employees, and thus contributing
to environmental sustainability.6
This article describes how Microsoft
Netherlands (NL)—a sales and marketing division
4  The Business of Sustainability, McKinsey Global Survey Results
2011, October 2011.
5  See van Baalen, P. The High Performance Workplace in the New
Ways of Working, RSM Seminar “The State of Art in the New Ways
of Working Research,” Rotterdam, November 7, 2011; and van
Baalen P. Risk Junctions: Reflexive Modernization and the Hybrid
Workspace, 7th Organization Studies Workshop “Organizations as
Spaces of Work,” May 24-26, 2012.
6  In March 1987, the United Nations Brundtland Commission
defined sustainable development as “development that meets the
needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs.” Recent work focuses on how
companies will use sustainability for competitive advantage; see,
for example, Nidumolu, R., Prahalad, C. K. and Rangaswami, M. R.
“Why Sustainability Is Now the Key Driver of Innovation,” Harvard
Business Review, September 2009; and Harmon, R. R. and Demirkan,
H. “The Next Wave of Sustainable IT,” IT Professional, IEEE
Computer Society, January/February 2011, pp. 19-25.
176 MIS Quarterly Executive | December 2012 (11:4)
of the parent7—transformed itself into a mobile
and green high performance workplace, which
was implemented in 2008 when the company
moved into a new building near to Schiphol
Airport, Amsterdam. We studied Microsoft
NL between 2007 and 2012 (details of our
research methodology are set out in Appendix
1). The Microsoft NL case shows how advanced
mobile work technologies enable the new ways
of working, which lead to improved levels of
employee productivity, a better work/life balance
and reduced carbon emissions.
We describe the reasons for introducing
the new ways of working and their outcomes,
and the key challenges that Microsoft NL faced
and the actions it took to deal with them. The
article concludes by providing guidelines for
companies that wish to emulate Microsoft NL’s
transformation to a mobile and green high
performance workplace.
New Ways of Working at
Microsoft NL
The new ways of working at Microsoft NL
have involved many changes for its employees.
The most prominent change was the relocation
to a newly designed head office building that
exemplifies key characteristics of the next-
generation workplace. With an abundance
of natural light, the office symbolizes the
transparency that Microsoft employees want
to extend to their colleagues and visitors.
Employees arrive at the office at all times of the
day. Depending on their work activities, they
choose a functional area of the building in which
to work. Some will meet customers in the meeting
rooms equipped with roundtable technology or
in the trendy café to discuss new products and
services, while others will prepare presentations
in enclosed cubicles. Brainstorming sessions with
colleagues can be held in the open-air terrace
garden, while the auditorium provides space to
present work to larger audiences. No employee—
not even the general manager of Microsoft NL—
has a dedicated office.
7  Microsoft NL is a medium-sized subsidiary of Microsoft
Corporation and part of the Microsoft European, Middle East and
African (EMEA) region. With around 1,000 employees, Microsoft
NL is the sales and marketing office for all Microsoft products in the
Netherlands.
misqe.org | © 2012 University of Minnesota
 Achieving High Performance in a Mobile and Green Workplace: Lessons from Microsoft Netherlands
As well as working at the office, Microsoft
employees work at a customer’s site, while
travelling, at other external locations or work
from home. The head office is mainly used for
employee collaboration and client meetings,
while working from home is for tasks that require
critical thinking, such as intensive reading or
analyzing, and processing information into
document form.
Because employees can work from virtually
any location, collaboration tools are an
important aspect of Microsoft NL’s new ways
of working. These collaboration technologies
include presence software, instant messaging,
conferencing, enterprise voice capabilities, and
document management. All employees use
smartphones, laptops or tablets with headsets
and webcams provided by Microsoft.
In June 2006, Microsoft NL started planning
to realize its vision of the new ways of working
under the codename “to be People Ready” (2bPR),
inspired by Bill Gates’ whitepaper Digital Work
Style: The New World of Work.8 In 2007, the new
ways of working journey was initiated and a
transformation program was designed. In April
2008, the new Microsoft NL building, called the
Outlook, was ready for occupation.
There were three main reasons why Microsoft
NL chose to use advanced mobile workplace
technologies for its 2bPR initiative. First, it
recognized that an increasing number of current
knowledge worker tasks can no longer be
regarded as traditional office work—instead, the
work is about generating new ideas, combining
different perspectives and producing new
knowledge. Increasingly, knowledge workers
are seeking inspiration and flexibility for critical
thinking that produces value and provides
environmentally sustainable results. Second,
Microsoft NL recognized that its operating model
was changing from a traditional software vendor
to a customer service provider. This change
required new forms of collaboration, teamwork
and customer relationship management.
Third, the company recognized that business
growth is directly related to the personal
growth of employees by empowering them
8  Gates, W. Digital Work Style: The New World of Work, Microsoft
Whitepaper, May 2005.
with the technologies that drive business.9 As
a consequence, it was important to consider
workplace requirements that fit a variety of work
styles of existing and future employees.
The technology manager responsible for 2bPR
summarized the need for change in a meeting
held in April 2007:
“We need to start using our own products
and we need to understand that such a
radical change in technology must also be
accompanied by a change in mentality.”
This was an important position to express,
since not everyone at Microsoft is an expert in the
many products offered by the company.
“Maybe it is because I am a technology
freak, but there should be more of them
[technology freaks] here. As I am thinking
about cloud computing, SaaS [software as
a service], CoPs [community of practices]
and networks, some people inside this
company do not even know how to set up
a conference call. How can we then set
strategies and drive innovations in the
technology market? We will not make it this
way.” Knowledge worker
Long-Term Goals for the
Mobile and Green High
Performance Workplace
Based on the new ways of working vision,
Microsoft NL specified four top-level long-
term goals: reduce internal operating costs,
optimize employee performance with enabling
technologies, retain the best people and become
an attractive employer, and build a case for
environmental sustainability.10
Reduce Internal Operating Costs
One important component of operating costs
is office lease costs. Before moving to the new
building, the leased floor area per person was
16.4 square meters (176 square feet); the new
building provides 8.82 square meters (95 square
feet) per person, resulting in annual savings of
9  For more details see the Microsoft Whitepaper People Ready:
Inside Your Company is a Powerful Force, February 2006.
10  Meerbeek, M. et al. A New Way of Working, Microsoft
Whitepaper, 2009.
December 2012 (11:4) | MIS Quarterly Executive 177
Achieving High Performance in a Mobile and Green Workplace
$640,000, a 30% reduction in real estate costs.11
Other operating costs, such as mobile telephony,
were reduced because of the increased usage of
Internet-based communication, though these
were not measured in detail.
Optimize Employee Performance
Although individual performance is crucial
for overall company performance, improving
the performance of individuals is not an easy
task. One dimension of performance is employee
productivity. In the 2bPR transformation, the
perceived productivity of individual employees
was measured by asking about efficacy, efficiency
and quality of the executed work.12 Between
2007 and 2008, the introduction of the new
ways of working resulted in improvements of
perceived productivity of 1.6%,13 and by 0.9%
between 2008 and 2010. The total improvement
in perceived productivity between 2007 and 2010
was 2.5%.
Retain the Best People and Become an
Attractive Employer
Between 2007 and 2012, the number of
Microsoft NL employees grew by 40%, from
around 700 to 1,000. The company was ranked
No. 1 in the Netherlands 2010 Great Place to
Work Survey.14 The survey results showed that the
ability for employees to achieve a desired work/
life balance was one of the key factors that helped
Microsoft NL obtain this award. We measured the
work/life balance of Microsoft NL’s employees
before, during and after the transformation, and
found that the work/life balance scores steadily
increased by 3.4% between 2007 and 2010.15 In
2011, for the fourth consecutive year, Microsoft
11 Ibid.
12  Productivity components were based on: Staples, D. S., Hulland,
J. S. and Higgins, C. A. “A Self-Efficacy Theory Explanation for
the Management of Remote Workers in Virtual Organizations,”
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (3:4), June 1998; and
Ramírez, Y. W. and Nembhard, D. A. “Measuring knowledge worker
productivity: A taxonomy,” Journal of Intellectual Capital (5:4),
2004, pp.602-628. Components were measured on a 1to 5 scale.
13  Results of the 2007 and 2008 surveys were reported in van
Heck E. “The Next Generation Workplace,” MIT CISR Research
Briefing (9:9B), September 2009, and the results of the 2010 survey
were reported in van Heck, E. et al. “Sustainable Work Innovation:
Measuring the Impact of a New Way of Working at Microsoft
Netherlands,” Erasmus@Work Research Briefing, January 1, 2011.
14  2010 Beste werkgevers van Nederland [Best employers of the
Netherlands], Great Place to Work Institute Nederland, http://www.
greatplacetowork.nl/best/list-nd.htm.
15  Work/life balance was measured by asking several questions
about possibilities and difficulties in finding a good work/life balance,
and about the ability to separate oneself from work when preferred.
178 MIS Quarterly Executive | December 2012 (11:4)
NL received the Best Workplace in Europe Award
from the Great Place to Work Institute Europe.
The transition to the new ways of working by
Microsoft NL is seen as the flagship example of
how Microsoft is creating the mobile and green
high performance workplace for its employees.
In the first year, around 30,000 people visited
the new building to learn about the new ways
of working, with a consequent improvement in
Microsoft’s reputation as a supplier of business
solutions and as a potential employer.
Build a Case for Environmental
Sustainability
By the end of 2007, Microsoft NL decided
to focus on environmental sustainability, in
particular on reducing CO2 emissions. It set a
target of reducing the CO2 footprint for each
employee by 30% by the end of 2012. This target
was achieved in April 2012, with the mobile and
green high performance workplace making a
significant contribution. The sustainability officer
at Microsoft NL points out that because 99% of
business processes are now online (such as online
salary and holiday registrations), employees
have reduced their printing requirement to an
average of one page a day. Software is used to
reduce the energy consumption of data centers,
mobiles and laptops (25 tons CO2 reduction per
year). Other actions were to separate waste (10
tons CO2 reduction per year), closing down office
areas during holidays (18 tons CO2 per year) and
reducing light intensity from 500 to 300 lux and
using motion sensors.
Online meetings (instead of flying to
meetings), avoiding traffic jams (by using
different working hours or taking the train) and
using fuel-efficient and electric cars (on average
20 grams/kilometer cleaner cars) also contribute
to reducing carbon emissions.16
More than 50% of Microsoft NL employees
now work at home more than two days a week,
and by using online collaboration tools they have
reduced in the period 2007-2012 their car travel
by 1.5 million kilometers. This reduction of 9%
in total kilometers was achieved even though
the number of cars increased by 5%. The CO2
footprint per employee was reduced from 8.5
tons per person in 2007 to 5.9 tons in 2012. This
reduction is the equivalent of driving a car for one
year. Around 70% of the 1,000 employees now
16  Hess, S. Duurzaamheid [Sustainability], Microsoft NL, 2010.
misqe.org | © 2012 University of Minnesota
 Achieving High Performance in a Mobile and Green Workplace: Lessons from Microsoft Netherlands

Table 1: People, Place and Technology Goals19

New Ways of Working Area New Ways of Working Goals
People Increase individual and team productivity
Improve the work/life balance of employees
Attract and retain the right people
Reduce sick leave and the costs of non-productivity
Place Lower real estate costs
Reduce carbon footprint
Reduce travel and training costs
Technology Reduce IT and administration costs
Reduce communications costs
Reduce travel and training costs

avoid the morning and afternoon rush hours and
travel more than 1 million kilometers by train
each year. The per employee CO2 footprint of air
travel has decreased, but because of the 40%
increase in employees, the air travel footprint of
Microsoft NL has increased by 14%.
Establishing a Steering
general manager] heading the group was
a clear signal to the organization of the
importance of 2bPR.” Steering committee
member
The steering committee decided that the
transparent view of change would comprise three
areas:

Committee and Adopting a ●● People: Focusing on development,

Coaching Leadership Style
To emphasize the importance of the
transformation, a steering committee was
set up with the general manager of Microsoft
NL as chairman. The committee included
representatives from the HR, IT, facilities,
finance, communication and training functions of
Microsoft NL. The fact that the general manager
chaired the committee sent a strong message to
the rest of the organization, and the process really
took off.
“The formation of the Steering Committee
was an important signal that change would
come. I was glad several management
team members participated in the steering
committee. And especially that [the general
manager] agreed to coordinate and
head the group. This way all information
that came to the project leaders from
throughout the organization directly
reached him and several other members of
the management team. This direct link was
seen as very important. In addition, [the
deployment and implementation for
the mental readiness of employees,
empowering people, addressing change
management and communication.
●● Place: Thinking about and implementing
physical solutions for the new office
building and its interior and facilities,
including meeting rooms, audiovisual
systems, parking, reception, catering,
entrance and security.
●● Technology: Developing and implementing
technologies with a focus on the actual
usage of the technology instead of the
execution of the technical implementation.
The four long-term goals described above
were refined into specific goals under these three
interrelated areas of the mobile and green high
performance workplace (see Table 1).
The company’s top management quickly
realized that implementing 2bPR required a new
approach, and the steering committee decided
that the change program would be:

December 2012 (11:4) | MIS Quarterly Executive 179

Achieving High Performance in a Mobile and Green Workplace
●● Managed organically, instead of being
rigorously planned
●● Co-created by the management team,
middle management and front-line
knowledge workers throughout the
organization, instead of being controlled as
a top-down process.
The approach adopted for the change program
was, in effect, the coaching leadership style, one
of the six leadership styles developed by Daniel
Goleman.17 This style focuses on developing
people for the future and was seen as crucial for
the success of 2bPR with its focus on a “Guided
Discovery” rollout. However, adopting it proved
quite a challenge given Microsoft’s traditional top-
down leadership style. After the transformation,
one started to use the servant leadership
concept.18
The 2bPR initiative was officially launched
at the Microsoft NL annual meeting in January
2007. This was the first time the project was
communicated to the whole organization, with
the focus on the change philosophy of “organic
and co-created change” and signaling that input
from employees was expected. From this moment
on, several interventions were developed and
executed to integrate all aspects of the 2bPR
vision into the organization. This included,
among others, a company-wide kick-off day
with dialogue sessions and quizzes about 2bPR,
personal profiling, training and moving to the
new office.
19
Management input was an important factor in
the success of the implementation of 2bPR:
“You immediately see which management
team members are enthusiastic about 2bPR
and able to integrate the concepts. This is
directly linked, on a one-to-one basis, to the
integration [success or failure of 2bPR] in a
business unit.” Top manager
Just as important, however, was the help and
assistance of a group of opinion leaders called
“quartermasters,” who promoted the idea and
17  The coaching leadership style is one of the six leadership styles
developed by Daniel Goleman: see Goleman, D. “Leadership That
Gets Results,” Harvard Business Review, March-April 2000. pp.
78-90.
18  Servant leadership is presented and discussed by Robert
Greenleaf, see Greenleaf, R.K. Servant Leadership: A journey into the
nature of legitimate power and greatness, 1970. New York: Paulist.
19  Meerbeek et al., op. cit., 2009.
180 MIS Quarterly Executive | December 2012 (11:4)
vision of 2bPR among employees. Internally,
quartermasters were defined as “colleagues with
a clear view and with their own following who are
considered opinion leaders and frontrunners in
the organization, and change agents consisting of
peer-recognized as well as critical employees.”
Throughout the whole process of
implementing the 2bPR vision, Microsoft
NL’s general manager took steps to show his
commitment to the new concept. The most
important of these was setting up and heading the
steering committee, but there were other actions
he took.20
1. Communicating the vision and his
personal opinion about 2bPR via a
personal blog, interview sessions, and
a video clip to the employees and to
partners and clients.
2. Communicating personal difficulties he
encountered when trying to adjust to the
new work style.
3. Observable behavioral changes, such as
giving up his office and calling into certain
meetings.
The coaching leadership approach went
beyond the traditional top management support
due to the fact that the transformation was
designed as a journey for the company, its
management and employees.
“[The] GM has really been the driving force
behind this and I feel that has been very
important.” Middle manager
“Without [our GM] we would not have been
here [at the new office] and we would not
have changed our organization and work
style as profoundly and successfully as
we have done now. His leadership was a
crucial element of that change.” Knowledge
worker
20  Dupain, W. Managing Change in the 21st Century: The Journey
toward the New Ways of Working—A Rebalancing Act of Managerial
and Knowledge Worker Power, Roles, and Mental Models at
Microsoft, Thesis, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus
University, June 2009.
misqe.org | © 2012 University of Minnesota
 Achieving High Performance in a Mobile and Green Workplace: Lessons from Microsoft Netherlands
Challenges Faced in
Implementing the Mobile
and Green High Performance
Workplace
Microsoft NL faced five main challenges in
transforming itself into a mobile and green high
performance workplace.
Challenge 1. Developing an Integrated
Work Design
With a mobile and green high performance
workplace, work is no longer performed just
at a physical office location; it is also executed
while in transit or at a customer’s site or at
home. Even so, designing office space for the
new ways of working is an important factor in
the overall productivity of a company. Microsoft
NL’s management team knew that the transition
to the new office would not be easy and that
some employees might struggle with the change.
Instead of hiding the negative aspects of change,
the management team decided to give each
employee the opportunity to express his or her
opinion on the changes. Meetings were organized
where employees could vent their frustration,
and the company set up an internal wiki where
grievances could be aired.
Before the move, several messages were sent
and published to emphasize all the various ways
in which employees would have to change in
order to adapt to the new building. The following
was typical:
“On March 28, 2008, we will move to a
new office … a change of workplace, but
above all a change in mindset; a new way
of thinking and cooperating. When do you
work at the office, when at home? How will
you attend a meeting—online or by being
physically present? And how do you keep a
team together if you do not always see each
other anymore?”
When the move finally happened, employees
were looking for answers and for new guidelines
when making sense of the unknown situation and
new behavior experienced in the new office. It
was therefore important that management set the
right example through their actions and behavior:
“Several people easily found their fixed flex-
desk. In other words, they did not use the
new office according to the 2bPR vision of
activity-based working. But some managers
corrected this immediately or were just
moving themselves and showing their team
what was expected. This was very effective.”
Steering committee member
Challenge 2. Creating Individual
Awareness and Work Solutions
For knowledge workers, the workplace needs
to fit the knowledge-work activity, with different
tasks involving different requirements. Task-
workplace fit is defined as the ability of people
to find place(s) that suit their tasks.21 Based
on projects with thousands of companies and
its annual workplace survey, Gensler, a leading
global architecture and office design company
for business, identified four different work
modes into which all “day-to-day knowledge
workplace activities” could be categorized: focus,
collaborate, learn and socialize.22 These four
modes were central in the activity-based concept
of the new Microsoft NL building.
A key challenge was to create employee
awareness. Microsoft used several techniques
such as personas (how the technology could be
used by typical workers) and scenarios (how
to improve everyday situations) for helping
employees develop the mental and technical
readiness for the new ways of working (Box 1
provides more details).
Working while travelling (on the train, in the
car) and working at home (teleworking)23 are
important elements of the mobile and green
high performance workplace. Our research
suggests that employees indicate that they
really appreciate just having the option to work
anytime, anywhere: it leads to higher levels of
perceived flexibility, which in turn leads to higher
levels of work/life balance which in turn leads
to higher productivity. Furthermore, we have
found that employees who frequently shift their
work location and schedule tend to report higher
work/life balance scores than those who do not.
21  Goodhue, D. L. and Thompson, R. L. “Task-Technology Fit and
Individual Performance,” MIS Quarterly (19:2), 1995, pp. 213-236.
22  The 2008 Gensler Annual Workplace Survey, www.gensler.com.
23  Today’s mobility solutions, such as high-speed broadband
connections in the home and WiFi, make it much easier to implement
telecommuting solutions than in earlier decades, when all that was
needed was a desktop or laptop and a basic telecom link.
December 2012 (11:4) | MIS Quarterly Executive 181
Achieving High Performance in a Mobile and Green Workplace

Box 1: Developing Mental and Technical Readiness for Mobile Work

Microsoft NL used a practical approach, so employees could develop the mental and technical readiness for the new ways
of working. “Personas” and “scenarios” were key techniques.
Seven personas with a specific digital work style were distinguished:

1. Desk-bound employee providing support and administrative assistance to a team

2. Concentrative analyst function
3. Most traditional engineering functions
4. Creative or research function
5. Internally mobile team/project/product lead
6. Highly mobile manager immersed in formal collaboration
7. Externally mobile employee dependent upon virtual communication24
Before the move to the new building, 11% of the employees had deskbound roles (1-3) and 89% mobile roles (4-7). In the
new building, the respective percentages are 6% and 94% (See figure below).
A scenario is a description of a future state of a coherent set of activities performed for a specific reason. Scenarios are
about rationalizing and standardizing common, everyday activities. A typical scenario comprises description and story-
board, rules of engagement, skills, technology and workplace. The top-five implemented scenarios are related to setting up
meetings, running projects, improving communication, knowledge and information sharing, and smarter execution of email
and tasks.
Percentage of Microsoft NL Employees Who Adopted a Specific Digital
Working Style (Persona) Before and AfterMoving into the New Building
35

30

25

20
Percentage

Microsoft 2007
15
Microsoft 2008

10

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Digital working style (1=desk-bound employee; 7=externally mobile employee)

“The new ways of working are about to me a very nice side effect.” Knowledge
dealing with time and place in a clever worker 24

way and using technology to get more out

of your day—at the office and at home. I
never get stuck in traffic jams and therefore
I work more productively, and at home I
am more flexible to take care of my family.
At the same time it has a positive impact
on [environmental] sustainability. It seems
There are, however, limits to working at home
(task-related and family-related constraints)
and knowledge workers decide that some tasks
(collaboration, for example) are better carried
out in the new building.
24  Vermeulen, V. Leveraging the Digital Work Style: Identifying
Uneven Patterns of Adoption among the IT-enabled Workforce,
Thesis, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University,
August 2007.

182 MIS Quarterly Executive | December 2012 (11:4) misqe.org | © 2012 University of Minnesota
 Achieving High Performance in a Mobile and Green Workplace: Lessons from Microsoft Netherlands
Challenge 3. Engaging Employees
Microsoft NL decided that a company-wide
workshop was necessary to introduce the 2bPR
concept. This was quite a challenge, since 700
employees would have to be present at the
workshop. Planning for what became known
as the Room for Growth (RfG) day began in
the spring of 2007. The focus of the steering
committee members and the different project
groups shifted toward organizing this event.
To prepare employees for the RfG day several
communications were sent to create excitement
and increase energy levels. Using the results
of several tests and measurements (such as
a personality survey and work style test),
everyone received a personal 2bPR explanation.
Each employee was also asked to reflect on
specific issues (e.g., “Think about the reason(s)
for you personally and for Microsoft that is
the foundation for this change (possibilities/
resistors)”) before coming to the RfG day. The
workshop was held on September 6, 2007.
In the days following the RfG day, a lot of
reflections, dialogues, rumors and stories
circulated through the office. The effects of this
energizing event and phase had clearly affected
the mental models the employees were now
going to operate in. Sense-giving metaphors
and symbolic language passed into daily use.
Examples included “This coffee is not 2bPR” to
joke about the quality of coffee, and “What an
anti-people-ready machine” for a non-functioning
printer.
“There was this enormous positive
energy throughout the organization.
More understanding of—‘ah, that is
what it’s about. And I still can decide a
lot myself, actually more, a real feeling of
empowerment. And they will invest in me.’
And ‘gee what cool things will we be doing
together.’” Steering committee member
Participants indicated the most valuable
2bPR sessions were those with the management
team and people managers. In these sessions the
vision and concept of 2bPR was shared across
teams and divisions and within existing teams.
Those present had engaged in making sense of
the 2bPR concept and thus increased knowledge
sharing and social networking beyond their usual
colleagues. Directly after the RfG day employees
started to analyze and compare actions and
behaviors with the signals and messages shared
throughout the day to identify aligned or non-
aligned behavior, especially of management:
“What I believe is most important is that
our manager really listened to us [at the
RfG day] and [has] already changed some
things in the way we work.” Knowledge
worker
There were also issues on how norms should
be discussed and formulated about the use
of technology (people calling in on meetings,
mobile telephones in open offices disturbing
colleagues):
“I knew I had to talk with my team at
some point. As technology is available and
becomes more accepted, some people just
expected to call in on meetings. I found
that OK, but other people in my team got
frustrated, they did not feel comfortable.
Before we discussed this I saw it was
becoming an issue.” Middle manager
Several other changes were implemented
to support continuation of sense-making and
sense-giving. The regular newsletter sent out
after the RfG day was restyled to better focus on
the journey of Microsoft NL toward becoming
a people-ready organization. A new dedicated
2bPR online portal was designed, launched
and linked to the main intranet page. Messages
from the general manager, key actors and
quartermasters were published through various
communication channels (magazines, on the
newly designed online portal, email and blogs).
These messages were directed at potential
sense-makers within the organization with the
aim of changing the conversations and informal
knowledge sharing within the organization.
Most messages were designed to appeal to
emotion and self-activation, focusing on growth
of the individual and the organization, on the
opportunities of action and change and on the
difficulties of changing habits and organizational
routines. Often topics were chosen and
communicated in a way that was highly linked to
daily experiences of knowledge workers in the
Netherlands (e.g., traffic jams) and where change
would bring a solution. Topics were typically
December 2012 (11:4) | MIS Quarterly Executive 183
Achieving High Performance in a Mobile and Green Workplace
written in a style that appealed to the marketing
and sales-oriented work force of Microsoft NL.
To support and guide personal and team
growth, HR facilitated teams and their managers
in several training sessions. HR also developed a
cohesive path for people managers to implement
so they could change the mental models within
their teams. The training everyone was expected
to participate in was gaining self-insight based
on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).25
In addition, middle managers and knowledge
workers developed various other training
sessions during the first signaling and re-
visioning phase. These sessions supported self-
activation, self-reflection, skills and scenarios
that would be needed for the new ways of
working.
Challenge 4. Balancing a Top-Down
with a Bottom-Up Approach
Although the management team had
succeeded in creating a structure for the
implementation of the transformation to the new
ways of working, their vision of co-creation was
not recognized by all employees. It was not easy
to change from a traditional, top-down approach
to a bottom-up approach.
Some employees felt that they were left out at
the beginning:
“That the steering committee was formed
was a good first step. However, the way
[the committee] operated, especially in the
beginning, was quite distant and up in the
clouds. It was quite difficult if you were not
close to them to understand what they were
up to. I am not sure about others, but many
of the decisions they took did not really
reach me. This improved later on. But I
believe if you really want input from the
entire organization, more communication
on the process should happen directly from
the beginning. Technology can easily be
used for that …” Knowledge worker
Some employees were puzzled about the goals
and actions that the steering committee was
taking:
25  The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment is a
psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological
preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions.
184 MIS Quarterly Executive | December 2012 (11:4)
“I heard that I could contribute, but really
did not know the topics; they were not
communicated to me. I could have gone to
[one of the steering committee members].
But this was too much of a hurdle.”
Knowledge worker
Some steering committee members reflected
on the way the committee was operating:
“I believe we could have communicated
better about the process. But you are
already so involved in quite a major mental
and behavioral shift for yourself and
figuring out how to communicate what you
are going through to others that the final
communication and implementation then
sometimes suffers.” Steering committee
member
Even the quartermasters, who were supposed
to spearhead the implementation, felt that
change was not as bottom-up as management
had promised. The idea was great, but the
implementation was lacking. The willingness
to empower was there, but behavior on both
sides still followed old top-down mental models.
This resulted in an incomplete transfer of
responsibilities and partial empowerment. There
were also reports that the management team
lacked legitimacy and did not provide sufficient
resources and information, and that middle
managers and knowledge workers did not push
the initiative hard enough. A steering committee
member remarked:
“If I reflect back on what we decided, that
the quartermasters would be the ones
leading the change, because they had been
nominated for their frontrunner position,
I think the approach did not work. Maybe
we should have supported them better;
didn’t we give them enough material to
work with?”
Quartermasters confirmed this assumption:
“We received the opportunity/
responsibility to further develop the vision
of 2bPR and to inspire peers throughout the
organization. We did not get the resources,
however.”
misqe.org | © 2012 University of Minnesota
 Achieving High Performance in a Mobile and Green Workplace: Lessons from Microsoft Netherlands
Even before moving to the new building,
Microsoft NL employees had started to develop a
new mentality toward their work. Top managers
took the lead in this process by giving up their
offices, working instead in functional areas and
at varying times of the day. This gesture, both
highly visible and symbolic, demonstrated to
employees that management meant business
when it came to co-creation and empowerment.
This observable change was important, since
adjusting to the new ways of work did not go
smoothly for everyone:
“Technology enables me to work at the
weekends, and sometimes at night. I do not
do it too often, but I do. And yes, I feel guilty
going to the supermarket or drycleaners
during the week, so I actually don’t do it.
I still have the feeling that between 9 and
5 I need to show that I am working. I know
it’s ridiculous ... I actually even think I am a
little less productive this way.” Knowledge
worker
Challenge 5. Encouraging
Environmentally Sustainable Behavior
The results of Microsoft NL’s transformation
to the mobile and green high performance
workplace indicate that the new ways of
working have the potential to reduce the carbon
footprint of employees. Online meetings are
replacing transatlantic flights, more flexibility
in the timing of work has the potential to avoid
the Netherland’s notorious traffic jams, and
working at different places (at the client’s site, at
train stations, at home) is reducing the number
of journeys to and from work. Moreover, the
introduction of environmentally sustainable
initiatives will lead to lower energy consumption
in data centers, hardware and software.
A challenge is to integrate environmental
sustainability into the behavior of the employees.
Once employees started to incorporate
sustainability into their behavior, they felt good
about it.
“There are several moments that I make
choices that increase my productivity but
also have a positive effect on sustainability.
I feel very good about it. I travel daily
by train mainly to save time. When
travelling by train takes 1.5 times longer
than travelling by car, I opt for the car.”
Knowledge worker
Box 2 explains how employees’ behavior
with regard to environmental sustainability was
analyzed and used.
To help assess the impact of the mobile
and green high performance workplace on
environmental sustainability, it is important
to develop a set of guidelines and metrics to
measure the impact. Microsoft NL developed a
CO2 dashboard that tracks monthly and yearly
data on electricity, gas, air, garbage and car
CO2. All employees are now able to measure
their individual CO2 usage by using a software
application. There is a continuing effort to use
the data to fine-tune behavior and activities
and to improve the sustainability performance
of Microsoft NL employees. The environmental
sustainability actions taken by Microsoft NL
under each of the three areas (people, place
and technology) of the mobile and green high
performance workplace are listed in Appendix 2.
In July 2012 Microsoft Corporation specified
a new commitment: “… to become carbon neutral
by fiscal year 2013: to achieve net zero emissions
for our data centers, software development labs,
offices and employee air travel by increasing
efficiency and purchasing renewable energy.
Through operational governance, we will embed
accountability for this goal across the company
to help drive systemic changes.”
Guidelines for CIOs
We have developed the following five
guidelines for companies that wish to move
toward a mobile and green high performance
workforce. These guidelines are based on the
things that Microsoft NL did well.
1. Adopt a Coaching Leadership Style
Microsoft NL’s top management adopted
the coaching leadership style for the change
management program for implementing the
mobile and green high performance workplace.
This meant the program—instead of being
rigorously planned and implemented as a top-
down-controlled process—was co-created and
managed organically by the top management
team, middle management and front-line
December 2012 (11:4) | MIS Quarterly Executive 185
Achieving High Performance in a Mobile and Green Workplace

Box 2: New Ways of Working and Sustainability Behavior

At the beginning of the journey to the mobile and green high performance workplace, Microsoft NL decided to integrate
environmental sustainability—i.e., the reduction of individual employee CO2 emissions—with the new ways of working. Its
objective was a 30% reduction in emissions within five years. A detailed study was executed concerning the relationship
between employee motivation, ecological behavior, productivity and work/life balance.26 The company wanted to know
the extent of and why employees were doing things to support environmental sustainability in their daily activities. These
activities were grouped into five clusters: commuting, virtual work, energy savings, paper savings and communication
about ecological behavior. Finally, each employee was presented with three scenarios and asked to determine their impact
on productivity and work/life balance.
The first scenario involved mobile work. The second involved working at the office and travelling by train. The third
involved working at the office and travelling by car. In summary, the results indicate:
• Employees with a very high level of sustainability motivation (so-called integrated regulation27) were adopting more
carbon-neutral commuting behavior (for example travelling by train) and were communicating about the environment
with their colleagues more often.
• Employees with a high level of sustainability motivation (so-called identified regulation) were often opting to work
virtually and save paper.
• There is support that, compared with commuting to the office, working virtually (from home or another location of
one’s own choice) results in an improved work/life balance and a higher productivity level. Working while travelling
on the train emerged as having a positive influence on work productivity, but not on work/life balance. Individuals
who tend to behave in an ecologically friendly way because they think it is sensible and reasonable to do so, tend to
use and send documents and files in digital format rather than printing them; in general, they avoid printing as much
as possible. Moreover, they tend to use communication tools to reduce work-related commuting. For example, they
attend video- and teleconferences, and use instant messaging, email or the phone to avoid travelling to meetings.

knowledge workers. By adopting this leadership
style, organizations can develop a coherent
vision and integrated approach of how the new
ways of working will lead to strategic value for
the firm. 2627
2. Create a Steering Committee Led by
the CEO
CEO leadership of the steering committee is
crucial for a successful transition to a mobile
and green high performance workplace. To
ensure the workplace transformation is designed
and implemented in the best possible way, the
committee will need top managers with different
backgrounds, including HR, facilities and IT.
3. Empower and Engage Employees in
the Transformation
Empowering employees by providing
them with mobile work concepts and tools to
create individual solutions will help smooth
the transition to the mobile and green high
performance workplace. A key challenge at
26  Todorova, Y. Finding the Balance: Ecological Behavior,
Work-Life Balance, and Productivity, Thesis, Rotterdam School of
Management, Erasmus University, 2010.
27  Pelletier, L. G., Tuson, K. M., Green-Demers, I., Noels, K. and
Beaton, A. M. “Why are you doing this for the environment? The
motivation toward the environment scale (MTES),” Environment
and Behavior (28), 1998, pp. 437-468.
Microsoft NL was to create awareness among
employees of the opportunities presented by the
new ways of working. To address this challenge,
employees should be allowed to explore the
new ways of working, and be provided with
training and tools to explore the opportunities.
Their readiness for the mobile and green high
performance workplace can be assessed through
the use of personas and scenarios.
Employees can be engaged, energized
and enthused through interaction with their
colleagues. Microsoft NL appointed change
agents (which it called “quartermasters”) to
provide the ability of exploring the new ways of
working. Teams should be encouraged to discuss
the changes required to transform to the mobile
and green high performance workplace.
4. Assess the Impact of the New Ways
of Working
The transformation process should be
positioned as a continuous journey with learning,
feedback, monitoring and open discussions
on the impact of the mobile and green high
performance workplace on performance
dimensions such as productivity, work/life
balance and carbon emissions. Organizations
should set clear output goals and metrics

186 MIS Quarterly Executive | December 2012 (11:4) misqe.org | © 2012 University of Minnesota
 Achieving High Performance in a Mobile and Green Workplace: Lessons from Microsoft Netherlands
both for productivity and environmental
sustainability.
5. Explore Opportunities with Clients
and Partners
The intensive use of social media and
applications on mobile devices makes it easier to
connect with business partners and customers.
Business value is more and more generated
by business partners organized as a business
network than by an individual company.28
Experiences with the new ways of working
should therefore be shared openly with partners
and clients, so that opportunities provided by the
mobile and green high performance workplace
can be jointly explored.
Concluding Comments
This article has presented the case of
Microsoft NL, which implemented new ways of
working with mobile work technologies that met
its high performance goals. We have analyzed
the transformation to the mobile and green high
performance workplace from three perspectives:
people (improved perceived productivity,
work/life balance), place (where work is
performed with a lower carbon footprint)
and the enabling technology. In addition to
describing the change management program
and the challenges that needed to be faced, this
case provides an example of how the new ways
of working can help an organization to address
some of its environmental sustainability goals.
Thus, by embracing mobile work technologies,
businesses can have the best of both worlds:
on the one hand, improvements in employee-
level productivity and work/life balance, and
reduced organizational costs; on the other hand,
reductions in employees’ and the business’s
carbon footprint.
28  Van Heck, E. and Vervest, P. “Smart business networks: How
the network wins,” Communications of the ACM (50:6), 2007, pp.
28-37.
Appendix 1: Research
Methodology
We studied Microsoft NL between 2007 and
2012 using a mix of research methods. First, we
developed an online survey to measure work,
the use of technology and its impact on five
individual performance dimensions: employee
satisfaction, work/life balance, productivity,
job flexibility and innovativeness. We measured
these dimensions three times: in 2007 before
the move to the new Microsoft NL office building
(n=268); just after the move into the building in
2008 (n=293); and in 2010 one and a half years
after the move into the new building (n=366).
The quantitative results of the online surveys
were presented and discussed in detail with the
executive team of Microsoft NL responsible for
the new ways of working transformation. The
team included the general manager, the real
estate and facilities manager, the HR manager,
the technology manager, the financial manager,
the public relations/communications manager,
the training and readiness lead manager and the
business marketing manager.
Second, we used qualitative research methods
(interviews and observations) to understand
specific aspects, such as digital work styles,
change management, virtual team performance
and ecological behavior. In total, around 150
interviews were carried out with members of
Microsoft NL’s executive team and employees of
various business units.
The research was conducted within the
Erasmus@Work research program (www.
newworldsofwork.nl), an interdisciplinary
program at Rotterdam School of Management,
Erasmus University. Erasmus@Work involves
a team of experts and researchers from the
departments of Decision and Information
Sciences, Personnel and Organization, and
Marketing Management. The research program
develops knowledge and insight about new ways
of working and provides answers to corporate
questions, taking into account the pervasive use
and impact of new technologies for collaboration
and cooperation. As well as Microsoft NL, since
2007, the program has measured the work
dimensions and individual performances of
approximately 7,000 knowledge workers in
other firms.
December 2012 (11:4) | MIS Quarterly Executive 187
Achieving High Performance in a Mobile and Green Workplace
Appendix 2: Environmental
Sustainability Actions
Microsoft NL’s Environmental
Sustainability Actions
People Create awareness by employees to identify
motivations for environmentally friendly
behavior.
Create easy-to-use environmental sustain-
ability actions (switch off printer, reduce
heating and use energy efficiently, collect
garbage).
Create CO2 dashboard to track the monthly
and yearly CO2 output of electricity, gas,
travel and garbage data.
Provide positive incentives to become CO2
neutral.
Measure the reputation of the firm with
regard to environmental sustainability.
Place Reduce the size of the office building.
Reduce the energy efficiency and carbon
footprint of both the office and home
buildings.
Recycle garbage.
Reduce carbon output related to commut-
ing by using electric cars, public transport
and bikes.
Stimulate the use of alternative commuting
transport by flexible work arrangements in
time and space.
Technology Introduce green IT.
Provide CO2 dashboard software.
Reduce CO2 output of data centers.
About the Authors
Eric van Heck
Eric van Heck (evanheck@rsm.nl) holds
the Chair of Information Management and
Markets at Rotterdam School of Management,
Erasmus University, and teaches and conducts
research into the strategic and operational use
of information technologies for companies and
markets. He is co-director of the Erasmus@
Work Center. His former roles include that of
Erasmus Research Institute of Management’s
(ERIM’s) Director of Doctoral Education. He has
188 MIS Quarterly Executive | December 2012 (11:4)
been a visiting professor at the Helsinki School
of Economics and the Ludwig-Maximilians
University in Munich, and, most recently, visiting
scholar at MIT Sloan School of Management.
Peter van Baalen
Peter van Baalen (pbaalen@rsm.nl) is associate
professor of Information Management, head
of the Decision and Information Sciences
department, academic director of the Center of
e-Learning and co-director of the Erasmus@
Work Center. He teaches in the areas of
knowledge management, social and knowledge
networks, and new (and social) media. His
research focuses on (online) knowledge sharing,
IT-adoption and -implementation, online
communities, new media, e-learning and new
ways of working. He has published eight books
and more than 100 articles in national and
international journals.
Nick van der Meulen
Nick van der Meulen (dmeulen@rsm.nl) is a
doctoral candidate at the Erasmus Research
Institute of Management (ERIM), Rotterdam
School of Management, Erasmus University. He
holds a BSc in business administration and an
MSc in business information management, both
from Erasmus University. His primary research
interests concern new working practices and
environments, and their effects on knowledge
worker performance.
Marcel van Oosterhout
Marcel van Oosterhout (moosterhout@rsm.
nl) works as a senior researcher and project
manager at Rotterdam School of Management,
Erasmus University. He is responsible for
orchestrating research collaboration with
corporate and public partners. His personal
research interests include the application of IT in
ports and global supply chains, business agility
and the role of IT and the effects of new work
practices on people, profit and planet.
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