THE EFFECTS OF WORKING ENVIRONMENT ON EMPLOYEES’ PERFORMANCE Organization business the effects of working environment on employee performance THE EFFECTS OF WORKING ENVIRONMENT ON EMPLOYEES’ PERFORMANCE Human resource is a crucial part of any organization, specially in the modern era with various challenges and difficulties. Then, it is essential that businesses proposed the appropriate strategies to satisfy their employees to reach the best performance and come over those challenges and difficulties. To boost the employees’ productivity and performance, organisations need to provide good working conditions. The better working environment leads happier and harder employees, which affect the company’s development. According to Lambert et al. (2001), working environment is one of the main influences of
THE EFFECTS OF WORKING ENVIRONMENT ON EMPLOYEES’ PERFORMANCE Course Title: The Organisation of Business Module Tutor: Mr Melvin Goh Submitted By: Nguyen Thi Thanh Tam Student ID: 2733448 Word count: 2182 words Due Date: July 2019 Table of Contents Introduction Relevance 3 Literature review 3.1 Working environment 3.2 Employees’ performance 3.3 Related researches Conclusion References 2|Page Introduction Human resource is a crucial part of any organization, specially in the modern era with various challenges and difficulties Then, it is essential that businesses proposed the appropriate strategies to satisfy their employees to reach the best performance and come over those challenges and difficulties To boost the employees’ productivity and performance, organisations need to provide good working conditions The better working environment leads happier and harder employees, which affect the company’s development According to Lambert et al (2001), working environment is one of the main influences of employee’s satisfaction There are numerous of companies which are failing to realise the role of working environment for job satisfaction of employees and facing many difficulties Such companies with weak internal parts are limited develop innovative products compared to their competitors (Aiken, et al., 2002) To make employees meet the performance criteria of organisation, they also need a working environment with good conditions for their working and performance as much as their potential can be The report of Armstrong and Murlis (2007) found that organisations need to aware the way working environment influences behaviour and the way behaviour itself boosts organisation performance in order to create better performing workplace This assignment aims to review the theories about the effects of working environment on job satisfaction and employees’ performance With the diversity and constantly changing working environment, organisations always try not to waste the potential of their employees, as well as improve their quality (Huges, 2007) Most companies attempt to make more comfortable, safer and healthier workplace so as to drive the satisfactions and performance of workforce Then the assignment is able to be a material for employers to adjust and redesign their policies and strategies to satisfy their employees Moreover, the report may help society by motivating individuals to try more in their careers as well as improve their personal development Relevance According to Sundstrom et al (1994), about 50 percent of the employees’ time to use in their workplace that extremely influences their mind set, attitudes, behaviour and productivity The large number of working environments, however, is not safe and comfortable enough for the workforce (Perry & Porter, 1982) The bad conditions may be concern “poor air circulation, poor personal protective equipment, inappropriate furniture, absence of fire extinguishers, unnecessary noise, unfitting lighting and poorly designed workplaces”, as stated in the finding of Perry and Porter 3|Page (1982) These bad values of workplace can influence negatively employee health and performance It is also the same view as the finding of Spector (1997) that most organisations ignore the environmental factors at the workplace including secure of job and employees, relationship between colleagues, recognition for their performance, job motivation, and appreciation for ideas and contribution for the companies, which then results in a negative effect on the employee performance There are also other factors of working environment, according to Lane et al (2010), consists salary, working hours, organisational structure, interaction to managers influence job satisfaction In the research of Arnetz (1999), the large number of employees have the issues with their managers who not respect them appropriately Some problems they can face such as harsh behaviour of supervisors, limitation of their tasks, uncomfortable feeling to contribute innovative ideas can reduce their productivity Killefer and Mendonca (2006) also found that the encouraging the employees is difficulty, specially in the poor working environment Literature review 3.1.Working environment According to Amir (2010), working environment is identified as a place arranged by the company, in that employees interact together and achieve the goals This place is described to suit the nature of work or tasks need to be performed Ajala (2012) argued that it is atmosphere surrounding of a person which be controlled for the existence or use The true type of working environment is able to influence employees feeling and productivity, including “a friendly, well-designed, safe physical space, good equipment and effective communication” (Hay Group, 2007) In the article of Armstrong and Mulis (2007), working environment may give the ideas about the way the workforce is valued, and standards organisations expect Working environment includes two components, which are physical and behavioural components (Oswald, 2012) Physical environment contains components concerned to the things connect users with their office environment and be divided into office layout and office comfort (Haynes, 2008) Behavioural environment refers components concerned to the connection between users at work, and the effect of working environment on the behaviour of the individual as well Haynes (2008) defined behavioural environment into two elements namely interaction and distraction 4|Page 3.2.Employees’ performance According to Armstrong (2007), performance is described as the what and how people achieve the organisation’s objectives It is the consequence of doing work at a specific time reflects how well employees reach the qualification of a job towards the achievement of organisational goals This achievement of goals is predetermined or identified the standards of accuracy, completeness, expense and the length of time Sultana et al (2012) Individual has high performance which is extremely important in the organisation and it is a step towards to achieve the organisational objectives (Frese & Sonnentag, 2000) Employee performance includes their effort, ability and perception of jobs (Sonnentag, 2002) Armstrong (2007) found that the elements influence the level of job performance is the combination of motivation, ability and chance to contribute The report of Armstrong (2007) further identified performance as a function of ability and motivation There are many influences of employees’ motivation such as working environment, equipment, operating process, job expectation, feedback on performance or reward policy (Stup, 2003), which also impact on their performance To make sure workers task done on track is a way to getting a standard performance and reach the organisational objectives (Stup, 2003) In that environmental factors and its effects have researched in numerous studies due to its intervention or limitation on the employees’ behaviour, hence, it also impacts the job performance 3.3.Related researches There are a large number of studies about the relationship between working environment and employee’s performance In the research of Temessek (2009) studied the perception of employees about the working environment in fulfilling their intrinsic, extrinsic, and other needs in organisation, he found that with the environmental support, the satisfaction and performance of employees would increase Another study of Roelofsen (2002) showed that improvement of workplace environment can decrease complains and absence of the workforce, and also increase performance The impact of working environment on employees’ performance, consist of physical and behavioural components, is examined in past two decades The physical environment impacts on work performance, job satisfaction and employees’ health It is known that the design of office is a physical factor only influence the organisational performance, however, in reality, it is also a factor of employee performance As consequence, managers and leaders need to focus on the physical design and environment conditions at 5|Page workplace According to Stallworth and Kleiner (1996), when the needs of workers are met about the office design, they can perform more efficiently The finding of Brill (1990) reported that it can rise to 10 percent of employees’ productivity by improving the physical design of office environment The survey of Hameed and Amjad (2009) in 31 banks indicated that comfortable and ergonomic office design could motivate the workforce and increase the productivity Another finding of Scott et al (2000) suggested that there is the relevant of environmental conditions and job satisfaction Similarly, Strong et al (1999) argued that physical factors are considered as drivers of tasks and actions affect employees’ performance The report also inidicated that a safe and healthy working environment plays a crucial role in worker’s productivity Therefore, managers should provide appropriate environmental conditions to ensure their workers can meet the required standards (Franco, et al., 2000) According to Anantharaman and Subha (1980), job motivation, job satisfaction, and job performance are affected by behaviour environment of workplace Change in behavioural environment refers to the climate and culture of working environment (Li et al., 2013) The report found that the results of negative change in behavioural environment are depressive symptoms, which can be decreased by reward or benefits polices Moreover, downsizing of an organisation also causes depressions or stress Amabile and Conti (1999) stated that downsizing may be a positive method for companies which reduce the workforce and expand the competitive position in the market It helps organisations by decreasing costs and improve productivity and operate more efficiently However, it also causes diminishing of trust and communication, then create negative influences due to the uncertainty of employees Conclusion In conclusion, employee performance is affected by working environment The assignment presented both positive and negative effects of working environment job performance Then any organisation desires to improve productivity need to consider environmental factors of workplace to ensure exploit the potential of their workforce as much as can be Managing an effective environment require attraction, creativity, comfort, and satisfaction features, as well as it can motivate employees to work Solutions can be suggested such as noise control, creating friendly environment, encouraging by benefits and reward system, making favourable workplace conditions Chandraseker (2011) stated that policies to drive employees’ motivation including paying wages based on performance, valuing employee contribution, recruiting agreement, and 6|Page information sharing When the workers satisfy, they are happier and more productivity, and it enhances the retention in the organisation Forming a positive working environment further can attracts the new workforce, which completely benefits for the companies Therefore, the responsibility belongs to top-level position like managers and supervisors who need aware to create an optimal working environment 7|Page References Aiken, L., Clarke, S & Sloane, D., 2002 Hospital staffing, organizational support and quality of care: cross-national findings International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 50(5), pp 8794 Ajala, E M., 2012 The Influence of Workplace Environment on Workers’ Welfare, Performance and Productivity The African Symposium: An Online Journal of the African Educational Research Network, 12(1), pp 141-149 Anantharaman, R N & Subha, V., 1980 Need satisfaction and Organizational climate Indian Journal of Applied Psychology, Volume 17, pp 56-59 Armstrong, M & Murlis, H., 2007 Reward Management: A Handbook of Remuneration Strategy and Practice Kogan Page Arnetz, B., 1999 Staff perception of the impact of health care transformation on quality of care International Joural for Quality in Health Care, 11(4), pp 345-351 Brill, M., 1990 Workspace design and productivity Journal of Healthcare Forum, 35(5), pp 5153 Chandrasekar, K., 2011 Workplace environment and its impact on organizational performance in Public Sector Organizations, Karaikudi: Alagappa University Franco, L M., Bennett, S., Kanfe, R & Stubblebine, P., 2000 Health Worker Motivation in Jordan and Georgia: A Synthesis of the Results Major Applied Research, 5(3) Frese, M & Sonnentag, S., 2000 High performance: An action theory approach, s.l.: University of Giessen and University of Konstanz Hameed, A & Amjad, S., 2009 Impact of office design on employees’ Productivity: A case study of Banking Organizations of Abbotttabad, Pakistan Journal Of Public Affairs, Administration and Management, 3(1) Haynes, B P., 2008 An evaluation of the impact of the office environment on productivity Facilities, 26(5/6), pp 178-195 Huges, J., 2007 Office design is pivotal to employee productivity, Sandiego Killefer, N & Mendonca, L., 2006 Unproductive Uncle Sam Business Week, p 86 8|Page Lambert, E G., Hogan, N L & Barton, S M., 2001 The Impact of Job Satisfaction On Turnover Intent: A Test of Structural Measurement Model Using a National Sample Of Workers Social Science Journal, Volume 38, pp 233-251 Oswald, A., 2012 The Effect of Working Environment on Workers Performance: The Case of Reproductive and Child Health Care Providers in Tarime District Unpublished, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences Perry, J L & Porter, L W., 1982 Factors Affecting the Context for Motivation in Public Organizations Academy of Management Review, 7(1) Roeloelofsen, P., 2002 The impact of office environments on employee Performance: The Design of the Workplace as a Strategy for Productivity Enhancement Journal of Facilities Management, 1(3), pp 247-264 Scott, K D., Jusanne, M & Steven, M E., 2000 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Human resource is a crucial part of any organization, specially in the modern era with various challenges and difficulties Then, it is essential that businesses proposed the appropriate strategies... 35(5), pp 5153 Chandrasekar, K., 2011 Workplace environment and its impact on organizational performance in Public Sector Organizations, Karaikudi: Alagappa University Franco, L M., Bennett, S., Kanfe,... Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, 4(6), pp 646-661 Sundstrom, E et al., 1994 Office Noise, Satisfaction, and Performance Buffalo Organization for Social and Technological Innovation,