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Full Project – INFLUENCE OF WORK ENVIRONMENT ON EMPLOYEES PERFORMANCE IN DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC, APAPA, LAGOS

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

The physical aspects of a workplace environment have a direct impact on the employees’ productivity, performance, health and safety, comfort, concentration, job satisfaction, and morale. An improper and unfavourable workplace environment leads to work stress. It also causes errors being committed by the employees. Working environment plays an important role towards the employees ‘performance. Working environment is argued to impact immensely on employees’ performance either towards negative or the positive outcomes (Armstrong & Murlis, 2007).

Humans are influenced by certain activities around their habitat or working environment. A work environment can be identified as the place that one works, which means the milieus around a person. It is the social and professional environment in which a person is supposed to interact with a number of people. Hay Group (2007) contends that work environment includes a friendly, well-designed, safe physical space, good equipment and effective communication, which will improve performance. Well-designed and organized offices and work areas make significant differences to how people feel about their work. Working environment can give some depressing messages about how much the organization value employees and the standards it expects from them (Armstrong & Murlis, 2007).

A satisfied, happy and hardworking employee is biggest asset of any organisation. Effective work environment encourage the happier employee with their job that ultimately influence the growth of an organisation as well as growth of an economic. Lambert et al. (2001) found that environmental factors are important determinant of job satisfaction. The level of salary, promotion, appraisal system, climate management, and relation with co-workers are the very important factors. Creating better and higher performing workplace requires an awareness of how workplace impacts behaviour and how behaviour itself drives workplace performance (Armstrong & Murlis, 2007). People work individually and interact with others and this requires different workplace solutions (Chandrasekar, 2011).

Management’s new challenge is to form an environment that attracts, retain and motivate its workforce. The responsibility lies with managers and supervisors at all levels of the organization. They have to create a working environment where people enjoy what they do, feel like they have a purpose, have pride in what they do and can reach their potential. The work environment affects employee morale, performance and engagement- both positively and negatively. In an effort to motivate workers, firms have put into practice a number of activities such as performance based pay, employee involvement, recruiting agreements, practices to help balance work and family life as well as various forms of information sharing, (Chandraseker, 2011).

Today’s work environment is different, diverse and constantly changing. The combination of factors has created an environment where the business needs its employees more than the employees need the business. It is the quality of the employee’s work environment that most impacts on the level of employee’s motivation and subsequent performance. In today’s competitive business environment, organizations can no longer afford to waste the potential of their workforce (Hughes, 2007). Therefore, most government organisations are making all possible efforts to make work environment more comfortable, safe and healthy. The workplace environment impacts employee morale, performance and engagement – both positively and negatively. Comfortable office design motivates the employees and increases their performance to a large extent.

According to Abdulla et al. (2010), environmental factors represent the immediate job environment that contains skills required to perform a job, authority, autonomy, relationship with supervisors and co-workers and other working conditions. It is important for the employer to know how its work environment impacts greatly on the employee’s level of motivation and performance. A well designed office signals the values and objectives of the organisation and the use of design in office interior communicates an organisation values and identity. Office design therefore should be one of the factors in affecting employee’s performance. It’s therefore important to find out if employee’s health can directly or indirectly disturb their work performance or performance. So it is necessary to study the impact of the work environment in an organization on the performance of its employees. Brill (1992) estimates that improvements in the physical design of the workplace may result in a 5-10 percent increase in employee performance.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Employees use about 50 percent of their existence within work environments, which extremely affect their status of mind, aptitudes, and actions in addition to their performance (Sundstrom, 1994). Notwithstanding this, the environment in the workplace of most government organisations/ public companies are insecure and harmful to one’s health (Perry & Porter, 1982). These comprises poor air circulation, poor personal protective equipment, inappropriate furniture, inadequate security measures in fire emergencies (absence of fire extinguishers), unnecessary noise, unfitting lighting and poorly designed workplaces. Employees operating in these environments are susceptible to job-related ailment and it influences on worker’s performance negatively. Meanwhile, it is the value of the work environment that influences greatly on the quality of worker’s inspiration and performance (Hughes, 2007). In recent time’s competitive corporate environment have created a situation where companies cannot tolerate to misuse the abilities of their staff (Armstrong & Murlis, 2007). For that reason, public companies cannot afford not to do their possible best to create a comfortable, safe and healthy work environment if performance is a priority.

There is important evidence that performance advancement in government organizations has not kept pace with the growths discovered in the non-governmental sector (Killefer & Mendonca, 2006). The difficulty is that encouraging local workers is not an easy task in the mist of poor working environment. Government employees have a status for sluggishness and indolent due to their poor work environment (Wilson, 1989; Wright, 2001) and managers’ cannot do much to resolve the issue because of the firm civil-service laws. How local managers can inspire their staff is considered to be one of the big challenges of Public Management” (Behn, 1995). The above situation can adversely affect the performance of government organizations and for that matter needs immediate attention.

It requires a completely diverse method than what was used some years back to retain and motivate workers currently. Worker’s wellbeing and confidence are regularly consistent with respect to efficiency in the work environs. There is important evidence that performance advancement in government organizations has not kept pace with the growths discovered in the non-governmental sector (Killefer & Mendonca, 2006). The workplace environment of most government organisations is insecure and harmful to one’s health. These comprises poor air circulation, poor personal protective equipment, inappropriate furniture, inadequate security measures in fire emergencies (presence of fire extinguishers), unnecessary noise, unfitting lighting and poorly designed workplaces (Chandraseker, 2011). Individuals operating in these surroundings are susceptible to job-related ailment and it influences on worker’s performance negatively.The above situation can adversely affect the performance of government organizations and for that matter needs immediate attention.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

Work surroundings include all the features which perform and respond to the mind and physical appearance of a worker. Broadly speaking, this study seeks to assess how can be effectively used to promote employees performance in the Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc. Precisely, the study seeks to attain the following objectives:

To examine the work environment of Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc.
To assess the performance of workers of Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc
To determine the effect of work environment on performance of employees of Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc.

1.4 Research Questions

One cannot fully appreciate improvements made in science, knowledge, or technology without some understanding of the conditions inside which these growths happened (Salkind, 2003). In an effort to evaluate how work surroundings can be successfully used to stimulate workers efficiency in the Dangote Refinery, the study hopes to address the subsequent questions which specify what the researcher wishes to investigate into:

How is the work environment of Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc?
What is the performance of workers of Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc?
What is the effect of work environment on performance of employees of Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc?

1.5 Overview of Methodology

The research design for this thesis was a survey. The study made extensive use of both primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected through administering a survey questionnaire to the employees of Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc. The questionnaires were administered through the Human Resource Department of the Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc. Most of the questions asked in the study were closed ended because it allowed respondents to provide answers within a limited set of options provided to them.

The secondary data was collected from documentary materials from the Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc which included the Organization’s reports, newsletters and other printed materials. Other sources of secondary data used for this study included published articles, books, reports related to the subject area and internet. These data were generally used in the literature review chapter to develop the arguments that serve as the basis for the empirical study. Data was analysed quantitatively. The questionnaires from the organisations was analysed quantitatively using multiple regression and descriptive statistical tools such as bar graph complemented with mean and standard deviations.

1.6 Justification of Study

The study is important in providing better understanding of the relationship between working environment and employee’s performance in government organisation which will serve as a guide to evaluate how the working environment affect the performance of government employees. In addition, the study makes room for employees to voice their level of work affection which helps in formulating training needs (Newstrom and Davis, 1993). In a more perspective view, the outcome of the research would be used to alert the management of Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc of employees’ level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with reference to specific work environment features. Moreover the study would serve as background information for similar research in the future.

1.7 Scope of Study

The study sought to investigate the influence of work environment on employees performance in a Public Liability Company. The population of this research comprised all the employees of Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, Apapa Lagos. One hundred questionnaires were administered to the employees of Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc through the Human Resource Department. Respondents were made up of the management of the Organization, department heads, senior and junior staff including both permanent and contract staff.

1.8 Limitations of the Study

One of the limitations that came across during data collection exercise was that some respondents were unwilling to fill the questionnaires. Also, inadequacy of time was another problem. Besides, the primary data was administered and collected during working hours which conflicted with the work schedule of respondents. Moreover, fear of victimization on part of the respondents was another problem. Some respondents were reluctant in probing into vital issues because they were afraid of being victimized by their superiors.

1.9 Organisation of the Study

The study was organized into five chapters. The first chapter introduced the study with the background, the problem statement, the objectives, research questions, scope, limitations and the organization of the study. The second chapter dealt with the review of related literature. The third chapter described the methodology of the study with the fourth chapter analyzing and presenting of data. The fifth chapter which is the final chapter contained the summary of findings, conclusion and recommendations

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