1.1 Introduction
Office environment is one of the most important components which influence employee performance within an organizational setting. In today’s competitive business environment, monetary benefit a alone are not enough for employees in order achieve higher performance levels. Employees are working in insecure and unhealthy environment pretentious occupational disease due to the negative influences of the environment on their performance, which affects the overall productivity of the organization (Chandrasekar, 2011). However, a combination of monetary and nonmonetary rewards is more effective in achieving higher levels of employee performance, which leads towards achievement of organizational goals. As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Organization is a special activity that must take place within the frame work that society has established. The development and operation of any organization are determine to a large extent measured by the environment in which the organization is, simply the surrounding circumstance and influence within a particular place or working environment. Consequently Knoots et al (2006 – 2008) defined environment as relating only to business whose socially approved mission is the production and distribution of goods and service that people want and can pay for. But, it is also of great importance to other type of organized enterprises, that is those that take resources, usually from tax payers and provide services desired by the public e.g. government agencies, schools etc. there are two types of environment internal and external environment. But the main focus would be on working environment (internal environment).
The word productivity is simply defined as being productive; the power of being productive increased efficiency and the rate at which goods are produced. According to Taylors principle of scientific management, Taylor saw productivity as the as answer to both higher wages and higher profit.
He believed that the application of its method, instead of customs and rule of thumb could yield their productivity, without the expenditure of more human energy or efforts. In regard to these productivity is universal, countries towns, organization individuals etc, in the world desire to know at one time or the other their levels of productivity, federal Polytechnic Nekede showing concern about it level of productivity.
As a result of these secretaries should be motivated by receiving productivity bonus. Productivity, is thus central to the social economic life of every organization growth in productivity provides a significant basis for evaluating the potentials of an organization to expand output and improve the standard of living. The working environment must be conducive for effective performance, not only that, reward for hard work must be geared for greater productivity.
It has being notice that non-provision of good working environment has lead to poor productivity in many organizations. Their productivity level is very low because they are faced with poor working environment. This is because all the necessary logistics and material is to work with are not providing the interest on the job will be there. So, the research work is based on educating our present day employers or managers on how to provide a good working environment to the staff in order to reach or get their objective which is greater productivity in product output and service to the public.
Therefore, in Federal Polytechnic Nekede Owerri where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Environmental Constraint affecting the Job Performance of Secretaries.
1.3 Statement of Problems
The down turn of the national economy, has affected all areas of public and private establishments both in service they rendered to humanity and profit made the organization. Employers demand productivity from secretaries but the necessary materials needed for effective performance is lacking. That is why the output level expected from secretaries drop day in day out.
It is a fact that human beings are one important resources available to the organizational and prove to pressure and influences such as noise, poor lighting and unsuitable work tools as this always creates discomfort in the work place and tend to urge the employees to seek more suitable conditions outside the work station. These conditions which are harmful to their health and moral being results in physical and mental fatigue, in other words it result to inefficiency.
The general working environment of most Nigeria office with particular references to Abeokuta metropolis is subjected to utter neglects.
- The secretaries or employees have a negative attitude towards their jobs which is manifested in gross irresponsibility, high rate of absenteeism and indiscipline.
- The flow of communication between secretaries and management is inadequate.
- Secretaries’ welfare is not taken care of or remuneration is nothing to write home about comparing it with the economic condition of the country.
Looking at these problems, one will quickly notice that secretaries rate of job performance and organizational hazards that might cause injury or death of secretaries are based on environment factors. It is the environment that will greatly motivate the secretaries to increase their job performance.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to scrutinize the Environmental Constraint affecting the Job Performance of Secretaries. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to find out:
- The effect of office environment on the job performance of the secretaries.
- The effect of inadequate office furniture and fittings, modern machine on the job performance of secretaries.
- The effect of good lighting, ventilation on the job performance of secretaries.
- The impact of salary structure on the job performance of secretaries.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- What are physical conditions that make up a good office environment?
- In what ways does a good office environment assist the secretaries on their job performance?
- What impact do lighting and ventilation have on the performance of office secretary?
- What is the impact of salary structure on the job performance of secretaries?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
- H0: There is no significant effect of Office Environment towards Job Performance of Secretaries
- H1: There is a significant effect of Office Environment towards Job Performance of Secretaries
1.7 Significance of Study
The research is to identify the importance of office environment, know the impact of environmental condition on the life of secretaries and also to fulfill the following:
- To serve as criteria or form of references to secretaries in an organization.
- To aid students who may wish to conduct research on project that relate to this topic.
- To help organizations know how to make secretaries easy to handle by providing them with all the necessary materials and good work environment to be able to be commutated to its organization and all same time satisfy their individual needs.
This research will also be of immense value to future researchers conducting similar studies on work environment effects on secretary productivity on other closely related subjects.
1.8 Scope of Study
The study focuses on the Environmental Constraint affecting the Job Performance of Secretaries in Federal Polytechnic Nekede Owerri.
Good work environment effects on secretary's performances is an intensive topic which will require a comprehensive research to enable an individual unearth all details and complexities involved in to for the reason, the scope of these work is limited to Federal Polytechnic Nekede Owerri. Apart from review of related literature where general considerations is give to the topic the actually field of study was based purely on the work environment effect on office technology and management on the productivity in the institution.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).
