The Effect of Working Environment on Employees Performance
No of Pages: 61
Project Code: MGT8
References: Yes
Cost: 5,000XAF Cameroonian
: $15 for International students
ABSTRACT
The
effect of working environment on employees performance, the study had the
following specific objectives, To access
the effect of external working environmental factors on employees
performance, To examine the effect of
internal working environmental factors on employees performance and finally
Proving Recommendations.
The
research designed used was the survey research design. Target population
consists of 50MTN Employees, while the sample size is 30 Employees. The sample
size was randomly drawn from three communities the sampling techniques used was
the purposive sampling and simple random sampling, the research instrument used
was questionnaire and the method of data analysis used is the descriptive and
inferential statistics.
The
study recommended that employers should organize more of external working conditions
to improve productivity. The limitation identified was that some employers
limits the working conditions of their employees.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Every
organization is required to monitor its internal and external environment for
the attainment of specific goals. Organization is the structured entity
established to attain specific objectives
by blending of
different types of
resources (Ahmad, 2010). Internal
environment of the corporate entities is important for the successful survival.
The economic
conditions and competitive
environment have compelled organizations to
concentrate on improving
employee performance. Work environment is
the combination of
factors (social support,
physical working conditions, job
characteristics, training and
development and communication process) that influence work.
The
social support means the help that an indivi-dual receives from
his/her co-workers, supervisor
and colleagues to
perform his/her work effectively.
It reveals the structure
of relationships (Greenhaus
and Parasuraman, 1994).
It
can be divided into two categories such as the work related social support and
the personal social support. Giga and Hoel (2003) believe that the mergers
and acquisitions lead
to economic interdependence due to
technological changes, globalization and organizational work environment.
Employee
performance is multidimensional and essential for organizational success (Campbell, 1990; Dyne
et al., 2002). Job performance is the result of three factors: skill, effort and the
nature of work
conditions.
The
skills include knowledge, abilities and
competencies the employee brings to the job; effort is the degree of motivation
the employee puts forth toward getting the job done and the nature of work conditions is the degree
of accommodation of these conditions in facilitating the
employee’s productivity (Kazmi
et al., 2008).
The current
study contributes to the
existing body of
knowledge by exploring employees’ performance in different
cultural setting. It aims to investigate the effect of work environment on
performance of employees
working in the
telecommunication sector of Pakistan.
It is
reported that organizational
commitment mediates the
relationship between age and work
performance (Iun and Huang, 2007). The organizational performance could be the
outcome of employees’ positive behavioral change that may be linked with incentive
programs (Feldman and
Landsman, 2007).
It may
create greater feelings of
belongingness, esteem, satisfaction
and commitment (Green
and Heywood, 2007). Conducive work environment including friendly human
resource policies may enhance
employee productivity, organizational commitment
and overall performance (Chiang and Birtch 2010).
The success
of any organization
is closely tied
to the job
performance of its employees. The quality of the employees’
workplace environment impacts on their motivation level and hence performance
(Heath, 2006). When employees have the desire,
physically and emotionally
to work, then
their performance shall
be increased (Boles et
al., 2004).
They also
stated that having
a proper workplace environment helps
in reducing the
number of absenteeism
and as a
result can increase the
performance in today’s competitive and dynamic business world.
The
working environment that
are set in
place impacts employees’
morale; productivity;
engagement both positively
and negatively (Chandrasekhar, 2011). She adds that factors of workplace
environment play an important role towards the employees’ performance. The
factors of workplace environment give an immense impact to the employees’
performance either towards the negative outcomes or the positive outcomes.
The
study is focused on the Two Factor Theory (Herzberg, 1986). Herzberg came to a
conclusion that the aspects of the work environment tha t satisfy employees are
different from the
aspects that dissatisfy
them. The theory
points out that improving the environment in which the
job is performed motivates employees to perform
better.
The other
theory is Weiss
and Cropanzano’s Affective
Events Theory (AET) which
explains the link
between internal influences
and their reactions to
incidents that occur
in their work
environment that affect
employee performance, organizational commitment and job satisfaction
(Phua, 2012).
MTN which
is a Telecommunication company
found itself in
Cameroon in the year
2000 and this
organization has branches
in many parts
of Africa and
the world. MTN has
grown over the
years and it’s
the leading mobile telecommunication company in Cameroon.
There are other mobile communication companies like Orange, Nexttel, and
CAMTEL.
Some
renowned products of MTN are: mobile telephone
calls, Mobile Money, and internet services.
It employs almost 250,000 people in Cameroon. On the other hand
employees are faced with issues
concerning their work
environment especially their
working hours due to
shifts and lack of mobility in the workplace in terms of promotions.
This
is also coupled with other work environment related challenges that might cause
them to underperform. According to Tripathi
(2014) the work
environment can be
defined as the environment in which people work that
include physical setting, job profile, culture and market condition.
Each
aspect is inter linked and impacts on employees overall performance and
productivity. It is
the quality of
the employees’ workplace environment that
most impacts on
their level of
motivation subsequently
performance.
Work
environment can be thought of simply as the environment in which people
work (Briner, 2000)
as such; it
is a very
broad category that encompasses the physical setting (e.g.
heat, equipment), characteristics of the job itself (e.g. workload, task
complexity).
He
adds that it also encompasses broader organizational features
(e.g. culture, history)
and even aspects
of the external organizational setting (e.g. local
labor market conditions, industry sector, work life balance)
Employees will
always be contended
when they feel
that their immediate environment
states are in LINE with their obligations (Farh, 2012). Chandrasekar (2011)
asserts that the type of workplace environment in which employees operate determines
whether or not organizations will
prosper.
The
workplace environment consists of physical factors, which include the office
layout and design among other factors. Other aspects of the workplace
environment are the policies which include employment conditions. A
better physical workplace
environment boosts employees’
performance.
Employees
in many organizations are encountering with working problems related to workplace environmental and physical factors.
It has been argued by Pech and Slade (2006)
that employee disengagement
is increasing and
it has beco me important to
make workplaces that
positively influence workforce.
Employees’ comfort on
the job, determined
by workplace conditions
and environment, has been recognized as an important factor
for measuring their productivity
(Leblebici, 2012). In today’s
dynamic and competitive
business world, a
healthy workplace
environment makes good
business sense.
Managers should
not just focus
on the employees’ pay packet with
the assumption that it is proportionate to performance (Heath, 2006).
Organizations deemed as
a positive place
to work will
have a competitive edge over the
others. Armstrong (2006) defines
performance as the
development of quantified objectives.
Performance
is not only a matter of what people achieves but how they achieve. Performance
defined by Sultana
et al. (2012)
as the achievement
of specified tasks against
predetermined or identified
standards of accuracy, completeness, cost and speed.
High performance is a step towards the achievement of organizational goals and tasks. Frese and Sonnentag (2001) opined that an individual performance is highly important for an organization a s a whole and the individuals working in it.
Organizations
need highly performing
employees in order to
meet their goals
and to deliver
the products and
services they are specialized in and finally to achieve a
competitive advantage.
Platt
and Sobotka (2010) assert that employee performance is the combined result of
effort, ability and
perception of tasks.
The factors that
affect the level
of individual performance are
motivation, ability and
opportunity to participate (Armstrong, 2009).
He perceives performance as a function of ability and motivation.
There
are a number of factors that affect employee performance, the workplace environment
impacts most their
level of motivation
hence their performance. Stup (2003) describes several factors towards
the success of employees’ performance.
These
factors include physical environment, equipment, meaningful work, performance
expectation, feedback on performance, bad system among others. He adds that, to
have a standard performance, employers have to get the employees task done on
track to achieve the organizational goals.
1.2. Problem Statement
There
are many factors that affect the performance of employees in organizations.
Workplace environment plays an essential role towards workers’ performance and
productivity in any
organization (El-Zeiny, 2013).
Providing a good
workplace environment
increases employee performance in
organizations (Shikdar & Shawaqed, 2003).
When people are
working in situations that
suit their physical and
mental abilities, the
correct fit between
the person and
work task is accomplished. Employees are
then in the
highest situation for
learning, working and achieving
.The business environment
is becoming very
competitive and complex.
For
that reason the Management of MTN should therefore find ways to ensure that
workplace environment is
conducive enough to
enable employee’s performance in
order to remain
competitive.
Talking about
making the working environment suitable in MTN, this
research in MTN has proven that a significant number of
workers most of
MTN are not very satisfied
with their working conditions. Reasons being that, there
is always delay in payment of salaries which pushes them to borrow hence cannot
do proper planning, there is little or no bonus, there is
little or no
promotion.
With
regards to all the complaints
gathered from individual Employees working
condition really calls
for attention and
it will be
very important for the
management of MTN
to pay more
attention on the
working conditions of its workers (working environment).
That
is the reason this research is focused
on the working environment of MTN in order
to provide necessary
solutions which if
ignored will likely
affect the performance of
employees negatively.
1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
- The main objective of this study is to examine the effects of working condition on employee performance in MTN Buea.
Specifically,
it is about;
- To assess the effect of external working environmental factors on employee performance in MTN Buea.
- To examine the effect of internal working environmental factors on employee performance in MTN Buea.
- Providing recommendations.
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