Study: What is the Best Work Environment?

The workplace of today is very different from the workplace of yesterday. With outsourcing, offshoring and compartmentalizing becoming every day words, the nature of the work environment has radically changed and not only in America, but worldwide as well. Stephen E. Humphrey, an assistant professor of management at Florida State University, set out to see just how these differences are affecting the people who actually have to work with them day after day.

The study shows that various efforts that have been designed to increase efficiency by simplifying workers' job responsibilities may not be having the effect that they are intended to and may lead to lower employee job satisfaction and the result of low job satisfaction is low productivity.

Companies are always trying to make things more efficient wherever they can in order to improve the bottom line and make the stockholders happy. One of the most popular ways to accomplish this is to change the nature of jobs to make them more focused on a single task. It has shown to improve productivity in the short term, but in the long term it is showing evidence of doing just the opposite.

For the study, the team used the results of more than 40 years of earlier research. In all there were 259 studies involving close to 220,000 workers. They analyzed the effects of the change of work design on the attitudes and productivity levels of the employees and this is what they found.

When their work tasks were simplified, there was lower worker satisfaction and lower performance ratings.

However, when there was more freedom allowed, there was better performance, a higher level of satisfaction and less exhaustion.

Having a work place that was socially supportive also led to greater job satisfaction, less exhaustion and the employee was less likely to want to leave.

When a worker was allowed to work with others independently, they had the same results so of better performance, lower stress, lower employee turnover and greater satisfaction.

When the worker frequently got feedback on his work there was more satisfaction, less stress, increased performance and the employee was less likely to leave.

Based on these results, they recommend that companies focus on providing more job flexibility, give the employees the chance to have social interaction and give them performance feedback. The workers will be happy, more productive and less likely to leave.

Unfortunately, this is not the direction business are taking. For instance some types of jobs are being outsourced and the employees who used to perform these tasks, now do not have a job or are doing something less stimulating.

While outsourcing jobs to same money, many times sending the work overseas, can save money for the short term, but the effect it has on the work force will catch up with the company in the long run.

Humphrey collaborated on the study with Frederick P. Morgeson, a professor of management at Michigan State University, and Jennifer D. Nahrgang, a doctoral student at Michigan State

Source: Florida State University http://www.newswise.com/