Effect of Workplace Environment on Employees’ Performance
CHAPTER ONE
objective.
Objective of the Study
The main objective of this study is to investigate and identify the effect of work environment on employees’ performance in Nestle Nigerial Plc. The specific objectives are as follows;
- To ascertain whether inadequacy of the various conditional factors can affect productivity of employee.
- To ascertain whether the unconducive nature of work environment lead to low productivity, absenteeism and lateness among employees.
- To investigate the level of productivity of workers under healthy environment in Nestle Nigeria Plc.
- To examine the extent at which good working environment increases employees morale in Nestle Nigeria Plc.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
This chapter gives an opportunity to examine the contributions of experts in the field of management who contributed immensely to the concept of worki g environment and employees productivity. The review of related literature is based under these sub-sections; conceptual framework, theoretical framework and empirical review.
Conceptual Framework
Concept of the Workplace Environment
Work environment is not just where individual perform related tasks, (Laure, 2005). It also includes job, fellow employees, the local, state and federal regulation that apply to the industry, the relationship with competitors, the relationship with the public, the managerial philosophy, the leadership styles and the organizational structure. Any one of the above maybe considered the most important element by different people.
According to Billings and Moos (2002), work environment preferences can be measured using three dimensions of work environment settings; systematic maintenance, goal orientation, and relationship dimension. System maintenance refers to how orderly and organized the work setting is, how clear it is in its expectations and how much control it maintains, goal orientation assesses the degree to which an environment encourages or stifles growth through providing for participation in decision making and autonomy, maintaining a task and providing job challenge and expectations for success and accomplishment. The relationship dimension measures the degrees of interpersonal interaction in a work environment, such as the social communication exchanges and cohesion among workers, and management. The workplace environment is a concept, which has been operationalized by analyzing the exent to which employees perceive the immediate surroundings as fulfilling their intrinsic, extrinsic and social needs and their reason of staying with the organization (Haynes, 2008). He further adds that environment is a key determinant of the quality of their work and their level of performance, thus making high profits.
Examination of work environment preferences can help to identify organizational factors that may be problematic, and can guide interventions aimed at reducing employee stress in a variety of work settings. To understand the critical importance of workplace environment in the organization is to recognize that the human factor and the organization are synonymous (McGuire, 2009). Changing environments provide organization with opportunities as well as a myriad of challenges. One aspect of the competitive challenges faced by organizations lies in the management and integration of physical and psychological environments (Altman, 2000). Most organizations are beginning to reconsider how their work environment is designed and what facilities they offer to staff has far reaching effects on their general performance. An enabling workplace environment must thus be the key feature to improving performance and subsequently sustained returns (Abdullahi, 2010). Improving working environment results in decrease in the number of error rates, complaints, absenteeism and hence increases performance. Govindarajulu (2004) also highlighted that in twenty-first century, businesses are moving towards more strategic approach of environmental management to enhance their performance through improving and managing performance level of employees. The modern physical environment is distinguished by technology, computers, machines, general furniture and furnishings which continually affects the brain and health of employees, (Stoessel, 2001). Organizations must ensure that the physical layout is covering all the needs of employees such as communication and privacy, formality and informality, functionality and cross-disciplinarily (white, 2001).
REFERENCES
- Buchner, T. W (2007) „Performance management theory: A look from the performer‟s perspective with implications for HRD‟,Human Resource Development International,vol.10,59-73.
- Bue W.L. & Byars L.L. (2005, 11th edn) Management:Skills and Application: McGraw-Hill/ Irwin Inc.
- Callahan, J.S., A.L. Brownlee, M.D. Brtek and H.L. Tosi,(2003). Examining the unique effects of multiple motivational sources on task performance. J. Appl.Soc. Psychol., 33: 2515-2535.
- Campbell (1993). Theory of performance. In N.schmitt, WC borman & associates (Eds).
- Campbell, JP (1990). Modeling the performance prediction problem in industrial and organizational psychology. In M.D. Dunnette & L. M. Hough (Eds.), Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (687-732). Palo
- Cardy, L. & Dobbins, H. (1994). Performance appraisal: alternative perspectives, human resource management series.
- Carroll, S J. & Schneier, C. E. (2012). Performance Appraisal and Review Systems: The Identification, Measurement and Development of Performance in Organizations. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman.
Determinant of Work Environment
Working environment could be described as conducive or hostile depending on any or a combination of the following factors; leadership style, motivation, cash flow position and government policy. Each of these factors will be briefly described in the subsequent paragraphs under appropriate headings;
Leadership/Management Style
Leadership is said to be a function of the leader, the followers and the situation. This means that a leadership that works for ‘A’ may not necessarily work for ‘B’ because of differences in situation. Usually, there are three main types of leaders and the effects of each style have a direct relationship with staff confidence in carrying out responsibilities and output. Let us briefly examine the three types;
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
The essence of the this chapter is majorly to explain how the data for this study was gathered, methods and tools that were used in the process of data collection and analysis. The subsections under this chapter includes; restatement of research questions and hypotheses, research design, characteristics of the study, population of the study, method of data collection, sample and sampling techniques, research instrument, administration of data collection instrument and method of data analysis.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
Introduction
This chapter covers the analysis of the questionnaire. It attempts to analyze the responses from the need to answer the research questions and to test the hypotheses developed in the chapter one of this study. The data collected from the respondents through the questionnaire were analyzed using simple percentage and frequency table and the chi-square methods. 125 respondents were given questionnaire but only 110 (88%) were duly filled and returned.
