if you actually read the papers they mention (and others) you will notice that people that defend it are often: 1) mislead by the initial sense of acomplishmen

if you actually read the papers they mention (and others) you will notice that people that defend it are often: 1) mislead by the initial sense of acomplishment and better communication. it is like working in a war room. you get tons of stuff done, but it is crazy, stressful and you have lots of people working on a little thing that demands attention. your return for all those people is actually less, but you need a war room in some situations. open office work the same way. you get a initial difficult thing done. but at the usual high cost of having lots of people working on it and ignoring/half-assing others. 2) people like micro-management. there is no denying. open office plans and war rooms are perfect for the micro manager boss.