Impact of Workplace Factors on Worker Productivity

Question: Discuss about the Impact of Workplace Factors on Worker Productivity. Answer: Introduction The workplace plays a major role in the productivity of any worker working in an organization. One is likely to get predominantly influenced by the kind of workplace he has to go to everyday. This in turn leads to having a direct impact on the outcome or the productivity level of a person. There are numerous factors of the workplace playing in the backdrop that affects workers productivity. It is obvious that when a worker gets favorable conditions in the workplace like the basic proper working conditions or maybe his favorite corner or for that matter some amenities provided by the organization in the workplaces that makes life in office convenient. This has a direct impact on the psychology of a workers as they find their comfort zone which in turn gives them greater workspace satisfaction and productivity. It is not only the physical features but also social relationships that the workers share with one another. Sharing of good and cordial relationships with coworkers at the work space may often give a sense of mental satisfaction to the people hence leading to a greater productivity. Keeping these factors in mind, we can say that a healthy and comfortable workplace as it suits the workers would be directly related to their productivity levels in the organization. We can now go on to examine some articles which would clearly define what impact a workplace can have on the productivity levels of the worker. The article of Journal of Business, Economics and Finance, (Leblebici, 2012), highlights the impact of the work place quality on the employees productivity. The article helps us to identify how the workplace plays a major role for the workers. It seen that the workers have a wide range of alternative jobs to choose from which keeps the organisations on the toes to compete with each other and retain the best of the lot with them. The workplace tends to define a number of factors such as the workers motivation, his engagement in the work, his performance and subsequently his productivity. (Certo, 2015). There are various ways in which the human resource departments of organizations are trying to retain the employees. Then general or the most clichd way of attracting workers is by offering an attractive compensation package. However this might not stand true for all cases in todays world. The kind of workplace one has a strong influence on the workers. It tends to influence their morale, their comfort, their outcome and the like in both ways be it positive or negative. There have been numerous instances where the workplace has played a major role in the workers engagement and participation. It also has had a direct impact on the employee turnover which in turn has affected the productivity levels. Thus the first question that we are likely to analyze is how is employee or worker disengagement related to the workplace of a place? though it seems to hardly have relations between the two it directly affects productivity levels of the worker. There are certain signs that shows that worker lacks interest in the work like being too distracted in the workplace, not showing a keen interest in the projects or tasks undertaken , no interest in the decisions that are taken in the organization , frequent absenteeism etc.( Ashkanasy, Bennet and Martinko,2016). The purpose here is to highlight the symptoms reflecting disengagement rather than the root cause itself. Thus these factors can have both a positive as well as a negative impact. If the conditions are favorable like the workers show keen interest in their work, are focused at their tasks, are not missing office, all this, clearly brings out the fact that the employee is engaged in his work and hence likes his work place. Seeing both the conditions it can thereby be concluded as the environment of the workplace where a person spends his major part of the day plays a major role in either of the two situations being engaged or disengaged with the work in the workplace. (Bryson, 2013). The second question that is to be analyzed is that how does one relate his workplace satisfaction to the job satisfaction? here one can easily argue by saying that how is job satisfaction or the dedication and liking one has towards their work related to conditions of the workplace. Job satisfaction is can be taken as a level of contentment that a person derives from the kind of work he does. Job satisfaction has a direct impact on the performance and hence the productivity. To make the understanding comprehensible , we can refer to Herzbergs two-factor principle theory where job dissatisfaction is influenced by hygiene factors like working condition, relations with co-workers, rules and policies, quality of the supervisor and lastly the wages. On the other hand job satisfaction depends on motivator factors like recognition that the worker gets, the work itself, the responsibilities and achievements in the workplace as well as personal growth. (Riratanaphong, van der Voordt, 2014) .H erzbergs theory suggests that if we improve the motivating factors that result in the increasing of job satisfaction. On the other hand improving the hygiene factors helps in decreasing the job dissatisfaction. In these recent years, how comfortable is the worker in the workplace has been taken as an important yardstick to assess the productivity. (van der Rijt, van den Bossche, van de Wiel, Segers and Gijsalaers, 2015). This stands true with most of the jobs today as they mostly revolve around working and sitting in front of the computers the whole day. Thus the workplace environment is undoubtedly an important factor in such cases. The third question that arises from the article is that why is the concept of ergonomics gaining importance in the recent years? An emerging trend gaining rapid importance is the concept of ergonomics which is the science of designing a particular workplace keeping in mind various factors like the capabilities as well as the limitations of the workers. Since most of the work these days are restricted to sitting at one place and working with the computers, this concept helps in providing the workers with a better place to work in so that it increases and maintains the productivity of the workers. Poor workplace designs lead to the workers becoming frustrated and irritable. (Hawkey, 2014). All this is likely to result in the injury of the workers accompanies with low productivity and poor quality items. Ergonomics helps in making enhancements in the work processes that helps in removing and barriers if any from the workplace. This helps in providing safe work space to the workers so th at they perform well. The designs are made keeping in mind the capabilities and limitations of the workmen. If ergonomics is implemented well, it can be one of the contributing factors in the companys competitiveness in the market area. The final question that crops up what role does communication play in the work place and the productivity level? communication is a very important factor in any organization. It is very essential to interact, communicate with each other to keep the work going at any workplace. Effective communication in the workplace helps in designing policies and programs that suit the needs of the employees leading to a greater level of satisfaction, when the organization takes care of their employees i.e. sees that their needs are looked into, their decisions are heard and suggestions are implemented, it would lead to morale boost of the employees. (Tan and Netessine, 2014). In this way, the employees are psychologically satisfied which helps to perform effectively at their workplace. Furthermore, it also seen that communication helps in building healthy relationships with employees leading to a happier workplace life. This ensures greater success of the employees at their workplace. It is clearly seen that the work place has a direct impact on the productivity of the workers. In Work and Employment in the High Performance Workplace (Anthony, Belanger, Lapointe and Murray ,2013)suggests that the innovative or the experimentation with workplaces has only started coming into the picture after in these recent years and primarily in the industrialized economies of the world. Firms are likely to adopt innovative workplace that would develop a High Performance Work Systems or HPWS. (Appelbaum, 2013). A more of Taylorist approach where the workers are given the autonomy to make their own decision in work related issues and matters. With the High Performance Work Systems, we see the developments of some new systems, the effect that the new workplace has on the workers, and how the workers are influenced by new human resource practices and work organizations. In a case study conducted by International Journal of Independent Research and Studies,(Naharuddin and Sadegi, 2013), it is seen that the environmental factors of a workplace has a deep impact on the lifestyle, work-life balance or health and fitness either in a positive or a negative way. They also mention a concept known as workplace performance where the environment that is provided to the workers by their employees aid in performing them in performing well at the workplace. The workplace design either directly or indirectly affects the productivity of a person in an organization. (Greenaway, Thai, Haslam and Murphy, 2016). In another article by the African Symposium: An online journal of the African Educational Research Network (Ajala, 2012), says that various surveys have shown that nine out of ten workers are of the opinion that workplaces affects the mindset of the workers, influences their attitudes and also their productivity. Another surveys shows the fact the ergonomically designed offices have workers with higher motivation and satisfaction. It is also believed that unsafe or improper working conditions like unhygienic sanitary conditions, poor ventilation, inadequate lighting, and excess noise have a negative impact on the health of the employees which affects their productivity levels. (Band, Shah, Sriram and Appliance, 2016) The various findings can bring us to the conclusion the workplace and productivity levels are intricately related to one another. When the environment in the workplace would be found unsatisfactory it would be for a fact that in all probability the performance and productivity levels are going to get affected. We should always keep in mind that a healthy environment would lead to a creation of a more unique and creatives employees capable of brining a transformation in the market scenarios. Happy employees would lead to the organization having a higher competitive advantage over the others in the market space. References: Ajala, E.M., 2012, June. The influence of workplace environment on workers welfare, performance and productivity. InThe African Symposium(Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 141-149). Anthony, G., Belanger, J., Lapointe, P.A. and Murray, G., 2013.Work and Employment in the High Performance Workplace. Routledge. Appelbaum, E., 2013. The impact of new forms of work organization on workers.Work and Employment in the High Performance Workplace,120. Ashkanasy, N.M., Bennett, R. and Martinko, M.J., 2016. Understanding the high performance workplace: introduction. Band, G., Shah, N.V., Sriram, R. and Appliances, E., 2016. Herzberg Two Factor Theory among the Management Faculty in Nagpur City. InInternational Conference on Management and Information Systems September(Vol. 23, p. 24). Bryson, A., 2013. 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