FLEXIBLE WORKING CONDITION AND ITS IMPACT ON PERFORMANCE AND JOB SATISFACTION
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
The environment is man’s
immediate surrounding
which he manipulates for
his existence. Wrongful
manipulation introduces
hazards that make the
environments unsafe and impede the productivity rate of the worker. Therefore, the workplace entails an environment
in which the worker performs his work (Chapins, 1995) while an effective workplace is an environment where results
can be achieved as expected by management (Mike, 2010; Shikdar, 2002). Flexible working condition affects how
employees in an organization interact, perform tasks, and are led. Flexible working condition as an aspect of the work
environment have directly affected the human sense and subtly changed interpersonal interactions and thus
productivity. This is so because the characteristics of a room or a place of meeting for a group have consequences
regarding productivity and performance level. The physical workplace environment is the most critical factor in
keeping an employee satisfied in today’s business world. Today’s workplace is different, diverse, and constantly
changing. The typical employer/employee relationship of old has been turned upside down. Workers are living in a
growing economy and have almost limitless job opportunities. This combination of factors has created an
environment where the business needs its employees more than the employees need the business (Smith, 2011).
A large number of flexible working condition studies have shown that workers/users are satisfied with reference to
specific workspace features. These features preference by users are highly significant to their productivity and
workspace performance, they are lighting, ventilation rates, access to natural light and acoustic environment
(Humphries, 2005; Veitch, Charles, Newsham, Marquardt & Geerts, 2004; Karasek & Theorell, 1990). Lighting and
other factors like ergomic furniture has been found to have positive influence on employees health (Dilani, 2004;
Milton, Glencross & Walters, 2000; Veitch & Newsham, 2000) and consequently on productivity. This is so because
light has a profound impact on worker’s/people’s physical, physiological and psychological health, and on their overall
performance at the workplace. Ambient features in office environments, such as lighting, temperature, existence of
windows, free air movement etc, suggest that these elements of thephysical environment influence employee’s
attitudes, behaviours, satisfaction, performance and productivity (Larsen, Adams, Deal, Kweon & Tyler, 1998).
Job satisfaction is defined as the effective orientation that an employee has towards his or her
work(Saari,&Judge.2004).It describes the feelings or preference of individuals regarding work. Job satisfaction is a
very important component to employees in any organization (Frank & Vecera, 2008) Many researchers and
administrators have noticed the importance of job satisfaction on a variety of organizational variables (Kreisman,
2002). Dissatisfied employees are likely to leave their jobs, thus understanding of employee job satisfaction and its
contributing variable are important for any organization to exist and prosper (Majidi,2010). Similarly Oplatka & Mimon,
(2008) noted that the principal reason as to why job satisfaction is to extensively researched is that it relates to
significant association with life satisfaction (Buitendach & Dewitte, 2005), organizational commitment (Cullinah, 2005)
and job performance (Buitendanch & Dewitte, 2005)
1.2 Problem statement
Companies that have implemented the flexible working conditions programs recognize that employee welfare affects
the bottom line of the business. In today’s competitive world, organizations are spending lot of time and money on
employee satisfaction in an effort to improve productivity, and also to help the organization needs (Bhatnagar, 2002).
The existing literature demonstrates number of studies that have addressed the importance of flexible working
condition, job productivity and organizational commitment for the organization as well as for the individuals in private
organization. However limited study exist that examined the impact of flexible working condition on job productivity
and organizational commitment among employees of educational sector specifically tertiary institutions
FLEXIBLE WORKING CONDITION AND ITS IMPACT ON PERFORMANCE AND JOB SATISFACTION