Influence of Physical Office Environments towards Stress
Office employees spend a lot of their time inside a building, where the physical environments influence their well-being and directly influence their work performance and productivity. In the workplace, it is often assumed that employees who are more satisfied with the physical environment are more likely to produce better work outcomes.Temperature, air quality, lighting and noise conditions in the office affect the work concentration and productivity. Numerous studies have consistently demonstrated that characteristics of the physical office environment can have a significant effect on behavior, perceptions and productivity of employees.
Most industries have an unsafe workplace environment and are most time unhealthy too. An unsafe health facility environment such as unsuitable furniture, poorly designed workstations, lack of ventilation, excessive noise, inappropriate lighting, poor supervisor support, poor work space, poor communication, poor fire safety measures for emergencies, and lack of personal protective equipment, can adversely affect the productivity of the employee and also induce stress in employees. Management effort in ensuring an active workforce should be focused on employee personal motivation and the infrastructure of the work environment.
According to Vischer & Jacqueline (1989), the good of physical office arrangement is important to:
- Helps workers perform their tasks more quickly, easily and efficiently.
- The planned layout also allows more space to maximum use and economy.
- Supervision and monitoring of workers becomes easier.
- Communication system becomes easier and faster.
- It provides comfort as well affect the behavior and employees‘ works.
- The smoothness of work among officers and employees.
- Work efficiency among officers and workers as well as conditioning of the work area workers who have the same characteristics must be considered.
- Equipment and forms - should be placed and arranged systematically.
- References files - must be made available easily.
- Light like source of electricity, artificial light etc - must be sufficient.
- Air circulation – has to be adequate.
Reference
Kulik, C. and Vischer, J. (1990). Environmental Quality in Offices. The Academy of Management Review, 15(2), p.339.
Kamarulzaman, N., Saleh, A., Hashim, S., Hashim, H. and Abdul-Ghani, A. (2011). An Overview of the Influence of Physical Office Environments Towards Employee. Procedia Engineering, 20, pp.262-268.
Kamarulzaman, N., Saleh, A., Hashim, S., Hashim, H. and Abdul-Ghani, A. (2011). An Overview of the Influence of Physical Office Environments Towards Employee. Procedia Engineering, 20, pp.262-268.
To add up to this, Michie and Williams (2001) says if the environment does not provide employees a good working place, it could reach out into the homes and social lives of employees. Long, uncertain or unsocial hours, working away from home, taking work home, high levels of responsibility, job insecurity, and job relocation all may adversely affect family responsibilities and leisure activities.
ReplyDeleteYes definitely it will have adverse effects. Also I agree with your comment, even if the working environment is good but if it's away from home it will have a serious impact on the work life balance such as not being able to spend quality time with family and friends back home. This is the case with most of the people who have one of the bread winners are working overseas to support the family.
DeleteBut it can also be seen this way where the employee is also willing to make that sacrifice due to other factors such as financial commitments, opportunities and remuneration back in home town and so on. Sometimes the organization might also not be able to provide everything for everyone. At least both employee and employer should come to a middle ground so both have made adjustments for the greater good. And HR plays a significant role in it.
I quite agree with you that a good working environment will unconsciously affect to employees who work in it. Psychological research has shown that people react differently depending on their environment. For example, when you are in a place where there are safety risks, anxiety and stress can occur and you can't concentrate. When you are in a very disorganized office, you will find it difficult to do delicate and organized work; When you are in a depressed and boring environment, your creativity will be limited. That's why some of the most innovative corporate such as Apple and Google, Their headquarter buildings are all not look like it is built on Earth.
ReplyDeleteExactly Tony. Very true. I agree with your views. Better work environment also shows that the company really cares about it's employees as well. This will positively effect on employee turnover.
DeleteBut too much comfort might be a distraction too. I saying this just to cover both extremes. If there is a tangible improvement in the outcome then company spending on the additional perks would makes sense. If not then it should be debated among the employees and HR.
Coming back to your original point, Definitely a better environment means less employee turnover. But if everything is put to an equation their should be a growth as well.
True.Most of the people spend more number of hours in their office building.Therefore they mental status,ability,performance,relationship with others are greatly influenced by the office environment. Effectiveness of Innovative ideas,Creativity will be impacted on work place environment.
ReplyDeletecorrect... unattractive office environment affected to productivity and performance then these impacts will be ended up with the stress
where the physical environments influence their well-being and directly influence
ReplyDeletetheir work performance and productivity.
This is good topic to talk about.
Physical office/work environment also plays a major role in creating stress on employees. A good and clean environment, with all the facilities and flexibility will help to reduce work stress in one way.
ReplyDeleteGood read. No one will think in that way. Organizations are trying to keep their employees happy by providing financial benefits. So this is something every company should think about and adopt.
ReplyDelete