The impact of office environment on the performance of office workers

The impact of office environment on the performance of office workers

CHAPTER ONE

1.0     INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

It has been observed that human beings have natural indication towards living comfortable. Man seems to prefer comfort to discomfort. Every complete human being tends to move away from anything that discomforts them and returns to anything that comforts them. Likewise, they prefer comfortable, convenient and conducive environment to an uncomfortable environment. From various field of endeavour, it is seen that men struggle to have better living condition of life.

            

According to Adeyemi (2011): man wants to feel comfortable in their homes, they want to have comfortable trip in planes, in cars, and also want to feel comfortable in their offices, workplaces, classrooms, in hotels.

In fact, man wants to be comfortable everywhere and continuous improvement are being made in almost every areas to meet these needs.

The importance of office to any setup or endeavour be it business, charitable, religious or whatever, cannot be over emphasized.

According to Geoffrey (2002) for any organization to function effectively there must first of all be an office to decide on what type of business to run, how to run and which environment will be conducive for the workers and the organization at large.

According to Elendu (2000); office can be defined as any place or building where all administrative activities such as receiving information, giving information, storing information and passing information to the appropriate authority for necessary action take place. Office controls all other aspect of the business organization to ensure that there is development. There are the administrative aspects of any business which controls the activities of the organization and see to the managerial, clerical and coordinate activities of the organization. Many large business undertakings today, have administrative offices, branch offices. There are also offices in government establishments, for example, Ministries, Schools, Hospitals and Public co-operations.

Success or failure of any business is dependent on its relationship with the office, thus, the office serves as the administrative centre to the organization.

An office is a place where professional duties and administrative work are carried out in the organization building. The work depends on the type of business, but it will usually include using computers, communicating with others by e-mail, telephone or fax, keeping records and files etc., in hard and soft format. Features of an office such as people, building space, equipment, furniture and the environment, must fit together well for workers to feel healthy and comfortable and to be able to work efficiently perform their expected tax.

According to Ama (2005); Environment can be defined as the aggregate of all the external and internal conditions affecting the existence, growth and welfare of organisms.

According to Fredrick Herzberg’s motivation theory, there are two sets of factors that affect the behaviour of workers in the working environment. These are the dissatisfied (Hygiene or maintenance factor) and the satisfiers Motivations).

The dis-satisfier are the environmental factors (physical) that surrounds the job, which include the company policies, relationship with supervisors, working condition and compensation.

The positive presence of the above factors cannot themselves motivate but serve as boosters to motivational factors e.g. increase in salary may not lead to improved productivity if working tools are not provided.

The satisfiers or motivators on the other hand are those factors that concern the job itself, which include the achievement, recognition, responsibility, and advancement on the job.

1.2     STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS

Employees’ performance is the most important aspect towards maintaining the profit made by an organization which solely depends on the office environment. Therefore, the environmental factors surrounding office in the industry could affect the employees’ health and performance and thus gives a great impact towards the employees’ performance. Employees’ performance is the most important dependent variables in an industrial and organizational psychology.

The job aid, supervisor support and physical office environment are the factors in an organization that could affect the employees’ performance. Furthermore, as part of the work itself, it consists of the relationship between work, tools of work and workplace. The workplace environment also could leads to the unsafe and unhealthy environment in an organization (Chandrasekar, 2011).

Therefore, based on this problem, a study is needed to be done to determine the impact of office environment on the performance of office workers.

1.3     PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The general purpose of this research is the study of the impact of office environment on the performance of office workers.

Specifically, this research work will find out:

v The role of office layout to good office environment.

v The contributions of lighting and ventilation to good office environment.

v The contribution of sitting arrangement to good office environment.

v The impact of good office environment on the workers’ productivity.

This study therefore teaches us the factors to be considered before citing and the ideal human relations required for all workers to make an office a comfortable environment for workers to work and increase productivity.

1.4     RESEARCH QUESTIONS

          The following research questions will guide the study

a.        What are the roles of office layout in an organization?

b.        What are the contribution of lighting and ventilation to office environment?

c.         How good sitting arrangement does contribute to the performance of workers?

d.        What will be the workers performance if their personal relationships with other co-workers are conducive?

1.5     SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This research “A study of the impact office environment on the performance of office workers” will benefit millions of people around the world because of its enormous important. Therefore this research work will benefit the following groups of people:

Workers: Workers will benefit from this research work as it will enlighten them on the impact work environment has on general their general wellbeing and performance.

Organizations: all organization irrespective of their nature and mode of operation will benefit from this research work as it serves as eye opener on how the work environment in an office impact negative or positively on the organizational performance and achievement of corporate goals.

Researcher: Researchers will benefit from this study as it will serve as a guide and foundation for future research and improvement of knowledge.

Policy makers: They shall consider this research work as basis for making economic policies.

Other researchers: The research work is significant because other researchers of related subject matter will make use of it as a resource material.

1.6     SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This research work covers the study of the impact of office environment on the performance of office workers with special regards to Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund Abuja which serve as a case study.

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.0     INTRODUCTION

    Literature will be reviewed under the following sub-headings;-

1.      Significance of office layout

2.     The importance of office layout on the office environment

3.     Types of office layout

4.     Characteristics of good office environment

5.     Factors limitating against good office environment

For a proper layout of the office to be done, the space available is first put into consideration, then the size of the equipment that will be required. In a well planned office, there must be free space for easy movement of workers from one seat to another. In the office where there is no space, there will be difficulty in the movement of workers which may eventually lead to brushing of papers from tables or entering with other peoples works. In laying out an office, spaces are allocated to workers according to the nature of their work and space also be provided for machines and additional equipment. Care should be taken in apportioning spaces to see that fire exist and fire-fighting appliances are readily accessible.

        The layout must have regards to the provisions of services principally powered cable, telephone cables and cables linking terminals of any kind with a computer, where visitors are to be received or meetings held, the layout should provide for these situations. These should also be a compact working area for the occupant. One advantage of this arrangement is that confidential papers on the desk need to be removed when visitor arrived. The layout should provide for networking of an office environment which helps in the efficient flow of communication within and outside the organization.

According to Alexi (2008); office layout simply means how an open floor in the office is managed and utilized for efficient performance of all the activities in the office.

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