SYNOPSIS

WORKING ENVIRONMENT OBJECTIEVES OF THE STUDY The objective of this study are as follows: 1) 2) 3) 4) To analyze work place physical design in an organization. To determine the impact of work environment on employees productivity. To analyze the impact of the office design if any on gender of employees performance. To assess the effect of employees health on their work performance.

There will be no improvement in working conditions and environment unless at every step in design, planning, organization, distribution and execution of work, consideration is given to the conditions under which man actually carries his tasks. What improvement should be possible if the majority were not sufficiently aware of the problems, if their resources were not mobilized and if they did not know the basic principles needed to achieve widely this improvement? These principles need to be widely understood and disseminated.

SCOPE The term working environment covers occupational safety and health and general working conditions. Although safety and health care concepts are quite clear to all, general working conditions are vague and many different things depending on the countries or persons are in question. They may be defined as the factors determining the situation in which the workers lives, and are commonly seen to include hours of work, work organization, job content and welfare services. Safety, health and general working conditions are interlinked in many ways and it was to emphasis these relationships and the need for a global approach that, in adopting the international program for the improvement of working conditions and environment.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research Design The research design is a basic research and it is a field survey through self administered questionnaires. Primary data is collected through a survey. Descriptive statistics are used to analyze the data. This study examines office workers in different offices in order to collect information required to meet the objectives of the study, secondary data is obtained from books, articles from journals, and websites. The effects of design features are compared to other organizational factors. Questions are structured to discover which organizational factors(i.e., workplace, design features, management support, technology and equipment, and co-worker support ) in relevant workplace workers perceive to hamper or encourage their ability to perform effectively. Workspace types such as enclosed cubicles with partition walls, cellular offices with floor toceiling walls, and desks located in open areas were included. A review of the literature on work environment and performance is conducted. The study includes recommendations for better practices aimed at identification of effective occupational strategies to aid in improved work ability. Study Population The study was conducted through 2 questionnaires, the first one was about the office design and its impact on employees performance, and the second questionnaire was about the work environments and its impact on employee performance. The survey focused on two factors: The relationship between personality, work environment and employees productivity. The relationship between office design and employees productivity.

In the first survey, subjects consisted of employees of seven different departments, representing financial analysts, direct-sales representatives, telemarketers, information systems specialists, customer service personnel, and medical. The subjects were chosen using quota sampling, as every employee in the position analyzed within each organization was included as a subject. A wide range of offices and positions were chosen to provide greater heterogeneity in both job context preferences and personalities in the sample. All of the surveys were administered through internet, allowing the employees to hide their identity which improved the response rate.

Managers were provided a summary of the results of employee perceptions of the work environment to encourage participation in the research. Data Collection and Measures As the survey was in the form of questionnaire forms to study relationship between personality, work environment and performance and study relationship between office design and employees productivity. Conceptual Framework There are five indicators of office design such as furniture, noise, temperature, lighting and spatial arrangement were considered for study in the second survey. The overall response for each factor was analyzed and the mean and standard deviation values. Data was analyzed to identify the factor that the relatively high tendency towards decreasing productivity. Different office design factors such as furniture, noise, lighting, temperature and spatial arrangement were used to determine the extent of the loss in productivity. The prime factor which affects the productivity of employees is lighting in the office. Next to the factor lighting, it is spatial arrangement. Then the importance sequence is noise, furniture and temperature. Both natural and artificial light is very essential in any office environment. It gives a sense of energy and affects the mood of the employees. Hawthorne effect is the best example of benefit of lighting in productivity. Accomplishment of daily tasks in workplaces with less or dim light is difficult for employees working in dim light leads to eye strain and thus causing headaches and irritability. Due to this discomfort, productivity is very much affected causing overall decrease in employees performance. Instrumentation Two surveys were developed as instruments to collect information for the study under consideration. Surveys provide quick, inexpensive, efficient and accurate means of assessing information about the population. Survey questions combined both open ended and fixed alternatives questions.

RESULT AND CONCLUSION The results of this study indicate that the relationship between personality, work environment, and employee outcomes is interrelated and in need of further examination. The significance of employee goal orientation preferences in fully mediating the relationship between personality and workplace outcomes provides further evidence to support the contention that the relationship between personality and performance may not be divaricates, and that intervening variables play a substantial role.