The work environment and employees output

ABSTRACT

Organizations must step outside their traditional roles and comfort zones to look at new ways of working. They have to create a work environment where people enjoy what they do, feel like they have a purpose, have pride in what they do, and can reach their potential. The study aimed to assess the impact of working environment on employees’ output. For the purpose of this study, descriptive research design was used. Simple random sampling technique was respectively used to select the respondents for the study. Respondents for this study were fifty (50) made up of twenty-five (25) senior staff and twenty-five (25) junior staff. Structured questionnaires were used for data collection.  The study findings indicate that, organization working environment had an impact on members as far as respondents are concerned. The study also revealed that employees’ will improve their output if the problems identified during the research are tackled by the management. The problems are flexibility of working environment, work noise

distraction, supervisor’s interpersonal relationship with subordinates, presence of job aid, the use of performance feedback and improve of work incentives in the organization so that to motivate employees to perform their job. 

In conclusion based on the findings the study recommended that, the organization needs to have periodic meetings with employees to air their grievances to management and serve as a motivating factor to the employees. 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.

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Working environment plays an important role towards the employees output.

Working environment is argued to impact immensely on employees’ performance either towards negative or the positive outcomes. In the world, there are international organizations who debate the rights of employee. Most people spend fifty percent of their lives within indoor environments, which greatly influence their mental status, actions, abilities and output. Better outcomes and increased productivity is assumed to be the result of better workplace environment.

Better physical environment of office will boost the employees and ultimately improve their output. Various literature pertain to the study of multiple offices and office buildings indicated that the factors such as dissatisfaction, cluttered workplaces and the physical environment are playing a major role in the loss of employees’ output (Carnevale 1992,Clements- Croome 1997).

In the 1990’s, the factors of work environment had changed due to the changes in several factors such as the social environment, information technology and the flexible ways of organizing work processes. When employees’ are physically and emotionally fit will have the desire to work and their performance outcomes shall be increased. Moreover, a proper workplace environment helps in reducing the number of absenteeism and thus can increase the employees’ output which leads to increased productivity at the workplace (Boles et al.2004).

As the Economic and Social Council reported in 2007, global economic growth is increasingly failing to create the kinds of new and better jobs that can lead to a reduction in poverty. Despite high and sustained economic growth in many developing countries, unemployment is rising, a large proportion of the labour force is working below poverty level wages, and the majority of non-agricultural employment is situated in the informal economy. It is of little surprise that in recent years there has been a shift of focus from a singular interest in economic growth to an enlarged concern with improving the quality of work. Governments from across Africa have forcefully called for action to overcome these challenges. The African Union Extraordinary Summit on Employment and Poverty Alleviation in Africa (Ouagadougou, September 2004) overwhelmingly endorsed the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda with an emphasis on the creation of quality jobs.

1.2 Statement of the Research Problem

There are many variables affecting employee output in organisations. The workplace environment plays an essential role in workers’ performance and productivity in any organization.

The workplace environment in the majority of organisations is unsafe and unhealthy. These include poorly designed workstations, unsuitable furniture, lack of ventilation, inappropriate lighting, excessive noise, insufficient safety measures in fire emergencies, and lack of personal protective equipment.

People working in such an environment are prone to occupational diseases and it impacts an employee’s output. Providing a healthy workplace climate improves organizational employee output. In addition, psychosocial factors that are the nonphysical aspects of the workplace such as the working conditions, social support from supervisors, role congruity, communication, and reward system also impact negatively on worker’s output. The organisation of work-life is also now a major consideration in the public sector as they attempt to spur exceptionally high output.

To institutionalize the right practices in the work-life balance, the right policies and programs need to be put in place. Inadvertently, an unbalance between workplace environmental factors and employee’s needs, abilities, and expectations are being manifested in different public sectors promoting diverse reactions. It has been noticed that many enterprises both in the public and private sector fix their persuasion to employee productivity enhancement through the acquisition of skills while research has shown that about 86% of the performance problems reside in the workplace environment of the organisation.

This is the same situation being faced by both the public and private sectors of Cameroon. This notwithstanding, many organisations in Cameroon are experiencing high labour turnover, absenteeism, and huge losses caused by employee negligence due to workplace environmental conditions. This indicates that perhaps other work environment factors are responsible and need to be studied to establish how they influence employee output.

There is important evidence that productivity advancement in most organisations has not kept pace with the growths developed in the nongovernmental sector. The difficulty is that encouraging local workers is not an easy task in the midst of a poor working environment and managers cannot do much to resolve the issue because of the organisations civil status laws.

How local managers can inspire their staff is considered to be one of the big challenges of public management. The above situation can adversely affect the output of private institutions and for that reason needs immediate attention. It requires a completely diverse method than what was used some years back to retain and motivate workers. Currently, workers wellbeing and confidence are regularly consistent with respect to efficiency in the work environment.

It therefore important for employers to know how its workplace environment impacts greatly the output level, motivation level, and engagement of the employees both positively and negatively and it may affect largely on both the physical and psychological well-being. Therefore, specifically, this study investigates the effect of the working environment and the output level of employees in the organisation.

1.3 The objective of the Study