The Impact of Office Environment on the Job Performance of Office Workers
Chapter One
Aims and Objectives
The general objective of this study is to assess the impact of the working environment on employees’ performance.
This research will be guided by the following study objectives
- To determine whether the physical work environment influences employees’
- To examine if good communication among employees contributes towards Job performance
- To assess the impact of incentives and salary structures on the job performance of workers.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
This literature review attempts to discuss the various literature related to working environment which has impact on employee performance. The discussion also identifies gaps left by other researchers of similar studies. However, this study attempts to fill those gaps so that the write-up can contribute to a new body of knowledge in the academic world. Through this review, literature is re-packaged and analyzed as a way of bringing new insights into the problem studied.
Conceptual Definitions
This subsection provides definitions of key concepts such as working environment and employee performance from various sources.
Working environment
Kohun (1992), defines working environment as an entirely which comprises the totality of forces, actions and other influential factors that are currently and, or potentially contending with the employee’s activities and performance. Working environment is the sum of the interrelationship that exists within the employees and the environment in which the employees work.
Brenner (2004) was of the opinion that “the ability to share knowledge throughout organizations depends on how the work environment is designed to enable organizations to utilize work environment as if it were an asset. This helps organizations to improve effectiveness and allow employees to benefit from collective knowledge”. In addition, he argued that working environment designed to suit employee’s satisfaction and free flow of exchange of ideas is a better medium of motivating employees towards higher productivity.
Opperman (2002) defines working environment is a composite of three major sub- environments: the technical environment, the human environment and the organizational environment. Technical environment refers to tools, equipment, technological infrastructure and other physical or technical elements. The technical environment creates elements that enable employees perform their respective responsibilities and activities. The human environment refers to peers, others with whom employees relates, team and work groups, interactional issues, the leadership and management. This environment is designed in such a way that encourages informal interaction in the work place so that the opportunity to share knowledge and exchange ideas could be enhanced. This is a basis to attain maximum productivity. Organizational environment include systems, procedures, practices, values and philosophies. Management has control over organizational environment. Measurement system where people are rewarded on quantity, hence workers will have little interest in helping those workers who are trying to improve quality. Thus, issues of organizational environment influence employee’s productivity.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This chapter describes the methods that were used in gathering the data relevant to the study. It contains the research design, population, sample size and sampling technique, sampling procedure and explains the method and procedures for data collection, analysis and interpretation of the research findings.
Research Design
Research design refers to a plan which shows the strategy of an inquiry thought appropriate to the research (Kothari, 2004). For the purpose of this study, descriptive research design was used. The descriptive design describes phenomena as they exist. It issued to identify and obtain information on the characteristics of a particular problem or issue. Descriptive research design was selected because it has the advantage of producing good amount of responses from a wide range of people. Also, this design provides a meaningful and accurate picture of events and seeks to explain people’s perception and behavior on the basis of the data collected. The advantage with this design is that it helps to find views as they are in their natural setting.
Population of the Study
A population is any group of individuals that has one or more characteristics in common and that are of interest to the researcher (Creswell, 2005).Therefore, the target population of this study included human resources officers, head of departments, directors who manage human resources and staff members. The total population size at the selected Local Governments is 320 employees.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Introduction
This chapter covers the analysis and interpretation of the various data collected through the use of questionnaires and interview as per objectives of the study. The overall number of respondents from the selected Local Government Areas is three hundred and twenty (320). The sample of 50 employees was taken and fifty (50) questionnaires were printed and distributed to respondents/employees for the purpose of collecting data.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
This section contains the major findings that came out of the study and the conclusion drawn. It covers conclusion and recommendations.
Summary
The study investigated the impact of office environment on the job performance of office workers in selected Local Governments. It sought to find out whether working environment can influence employee’s performance at the institute. Descriptive sample survey was used to carry out the study. This was because the study was intended to measure the respondents’ views about the issue. Sampling technique was respectively used to select the respondents for the study. In all, Fifty 50 respondents comprising Twenty Five (25) Junior staff and Twenty Five (25) Senior staff were involved in the study. The research instrument that was used in the data gathering was a questionnaire.
The study revealed that the organization working environment had an impact on members as far as respondents are concerned. The study found that, the organization needs to improve its physical working environment so that to influence employees to stay in the office, work comfortable and perform their job.
Conclusion
Working environment plays a vital role in motivating employees to perform their assigned job. Since money is not a sufficient motivator in encouraging the workplace performance required in today’s competitive business environment. The ability to attract, keep and motivate high-performance is becoming increasingly important in today’s competitive organizational environments. The study also revealed that employee’s will improve their performance if the problems identified during the research are tackled by the management. At the end of the research, it was realized that the employee’s working environment find themselves in affect their productivity greatly. Therefore it is the responsibilities of the organization to provide friendly working environment which will influence employees to work comfortable and perform their job.
Recommendations
Based on the results of findings, the following are recommendations for future implementation.
- Periodic meetings with employees to air their grievances to management to serve as a motivating factor to the employees. Managers should also be counseled on their relationships with their subordinates.
- The organization should have a good program in place for their employees work life balance as this can be a great factor to motivate and retain them.
- Management should try as much as possible to build a work environment that attracts, retain and motivate its employees so that to help them work comfortable and increase organization productivity.
- Employers should have in place a good working condition for their employees in order to boost their morale and made them more efficient. An example is making their benefit programs to suit
- Management should find ways and means of communicating their goals and strategies to their employees in order to achieve what the organization is in business for, its mission and vision.
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