ORGANISATIONAL WORK CONDITIONS

Describe:
Health is not merely the absence of disease or infirmity but a positive state of complete physical, social
and mental well-being (WHO 1986) a healthy working environment is one in which there is not only an
absence of harmful conditions but an abundance of health promoting ones. Work environments have
many properties that may affect both physical and psychological well-being. Psychologists are greatly
concerned with how the physic!" psych#!#$ic!" %e&p#r! (or scheduling) and er$#'#&ics conditions
of work can affect worker performance, satisfaction, and health.
Work conditions are divided into physic! c#'(i%i#'s such as illumination, temperature and humidity,
noise, color, music (Ri$$i# 199))* vidence is accumulating that the physical environment in which
people work affects both !ob performance and !ob satisfaction (+ri!!" ,r$-!is" . K#'r" 198/0
C!e&e'%s Cr##&e" 1)))0 D2is" 19830 D#!(e' . Wr("19860 Ne4sh&" 5ei%ch" Chr!es" C!i'%#'"
,r6-r(%" +r(!ey" Sh4" . Re(#'" 1))305ischer" 1989" 1996)*
"evels of illumination were one of the variables that (,y# 1977) and his associates were investigating
when they discovered the Hawthorne effect. #t has been reported that too much lighting can lead to
distraction and eye pr#b!e&s (Ne&ece8 . Gr'(9e'" 19:7). $esearch indicates that fluorescent
lighting provides increased illumination and better distribution than light from bulbs. %he presence of
windows in the workplace and access to daylight have been linked with increased satisfaction with the
work environment (+#yce" H-'%er" . H#4!e%%" 1))70 ;(4r(s . T#rce!!i'i"1))1)*
#n the &', workplaces must maintain a minimum temperature for reasons of
employee comfort and efficiency. ( study by ,eese (1983) demonstrated gender differences in response to
temperature at work. )ales work best at *+
o
, whilst females worked best between +- to +.
o
,. /treme
heat(greater than 0-1) or e/treme cold (lower than *+1) can decrease performance (K#bric8 . <i'e"
1987)*
2oise may be difficult to define, as one person3s noise may be another person3s heaven. However, most
definitions agree that noise is some unwanted, distracting sound that may interfere with work
performance. Wei's%ei' (19:3) investigated the effect of noise on the performance of a cognitive task.
%he psych#!#$ic! c#'(i%i#'s #= %he 4#r8 environment can also affect the work performance. %hese
include the feelings of privacy or crowding i.e. in an open-office design there maybe ease of interaction
but an individual might sense a lack of privacy and control over their space in such settings (S-%%#' .
R=e!i" 198:). S&i%h 198: '( c##per '( &rsh! 19:6) discuss the characteristics that can cause
work stress.
4oredom sometimes called 5mental fatigue6 usually results from the performance of a repetitive,
monotonous and uninteresting activity. 7ob enrichment is a process to avoid boredom and monotonous in
work organi8ations by giving them a range of tasks and challenges of varying difficulty.(Her>ber$
19/))*
,losely related to the factor of space is that of crowding. 9enerally the more people who work around
you the more likely you are to feel stressed. O!(h& '( <rie( (198:) assessed attitudes and behavior of
office workers using interviews and :uestionnaires and measured leaving rates. %hey found that
satisfaction and turnover were related to four interlinked factors;
1. number of workers in an office (a measure of crowding)
2. the measured seating distance between workers (another measure of crowding)
3. the number of enclosures or partitions between each work station
4. the office darkness
( vital part of the overall work environment is the amount of time spent on the !ob. Te&p#r!
c#'(i%i#'s #= 4#r8 refer to the pattern of working hours and days for a particular worker. )ost full-time,
paid work in the &' tends towards and an eight-hour day (or night), during which time statutory breaks
are to be taken
( number of organi8ations use shift work in order to keep operational twenty four hours a day< hospitals
and other emergency services are obvious e/amples. )anufacturing industries which have e/pensive
machinery do not want it lying idle for si/teen hours of the day, so organi8e workers around three eight-
hour shifts. )ost studies show that workers who work at night are less productive and make more errors.
( famous study was carried out by C>eis!er e% ! (1981) on the work patterns and body rhythms of =*-
shift workers at the 9reat >alt "ake ,hemical ,ompany. %he workers liked their new shift patterns< they
adapted to them more easily, and their health improved. %he organi8ation found that productivity
improved dramatically.
%he introduction of fle/ible working hours or fle/itime means that people choose their hours of work,
between set parameters, to fulfill a week3s :uota of hours. $esearch indicates that fle/itime programmes
increase employee satisfaction and morale, and are sometimes, but not always, related to increased
productivity.
>ome !obs have introduced 5compressed6 working week where three, four or five twelve-hour or ten-
hour days are worked in succession, followed by a number of days off work, so that the overall working
week is still maintained at about *? hours. @n the whole, workers e/press a positive attitude to this, but
some studies show that fatigue can be a problem, depending on the type of work.
;r$#'#&ics, also known as human factors, is the scientific discipline that seeks to understand and
improve human interactions with products, e:uipment, environments and systems. rgonomics aims to
develop and apply knowledge and techni:ues to optimi8e system performance, whilst protecting the
health, safety and well-being of individuals involved. %he attention of ergonomics e/tends across work,
leisure and other aspects of our daily lives. %he goal of ergonomics in the workplace is to prevent in!uries
and illnesses (work-related musculoskeletal disorders or W)As) by reducing or eliminating worker
e/posure to occupational ha8ards. #f ergonomic touches every sector where human comfort at work is
involved (e.g. seating in cars), ergonomics pursues as its global aim fitting the workplace to the worker. #t
involves the application of knowledge about human capacities. . $esearch indicates that these
environmental factors have the greatest inBuence on worker satisfaction and performance (+ri!!"
,r$-!is" . K#'r" 198/0 H%ch" 198:0 S-!!i2'" 199)0 5ischer" 1989). >tudies have tended to focus
on the height and and limitations to the design of workplaces, !obs, tasks, tools, e:uipment and the
environment. #n addition, researchers are increasingly Cnding links between employee health and aspects
of the physical environment at work such as indoor air :uality, ergonomic furniture and lighting (Di!'i"
1))30 ,i!%#'" G!e'cr#ss" . W!%ers" 1)))0 5ei%ch . Ne4sh&" 1))))*
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