Lina Deka

183734

Research Topic: Effects of Workplace Environment on Job

Satisfaction.

CHAPTER-1

1. INTRODUCTION

This study has been conducted on Britannia Industries Limited, Rampur Assam. It is a new
branch of Britannia Industries Limited (BIL) in the North-Eastern part of India established in
the year 2018. Britannia Industries Limited is a food manufacturing company mainly producing
biscuits, cakes and also deals in dairy products. Britannia Industries Limited is one of India’s
oldest food manufacturing company with a 100 years old legacy.

In order for an organization to achieve its Mission and Vision and most importantly to achieve
success in today’s competitive market it is necessary for them to understand the value and
importance of two section of people; one its Customers and the other section includes the
employees working for the organization. Among both these sections of people it is the
customers of any organization that are being given importance where as on the other hand the
employees working for an organization are not being addressed with the amount of importance
required.an employee in an organization is as equally important as a customer. It is necessary
for an employer or the management of any organization to understand how important an
employee is to the organization. Employees are important resources of an association and the
way to the Success of the organization. Managers need to comprehend that a content and
motivated employee has a higher likelihood of making commitments to the organization.
Many organizations usually fail to understand the importance of workplace environment for
employee’s job satisfaction and therefore faces difficulty in achieving its aims and objectives.
As an employee plays an important role in achieving an organizations vision and mission it is
necessary for an employee to be aware that the employee is being provided with proper work
environment so that he/she is able to achieve the performance criteria to ensure good quality
of work. (Maulabakhsh, 2015) (literature review on workplace environment, 2018).

1.1 Workplace Environment

The term ‘Workplace’ may be defined as a place where an individual works or carries out
work related tasks whereas on the other hand ‘environment’ can be understood as the
immediate surrounding or condition of a living or non-living thing. Therefore ‘workplace
environment’ can be described as the surrounding or condition in which an employee works
or operates tasks. A welcoming and supportive workplace environment is critical to job
satisfaction. As According to (Leshabari M, 2008) it has been mentioned that supportive
work environment helps an employee work more efficiently and productively. For better
understanding We can simply divide the workplace environment into three categories i.e.
Physical, Psychological and Social Environment

1.1.1 Physical Work Environment

The physical environment at a workplace consists of components of the tangible
environment that incorporate employee’s working conditions consisting of smooth
indoor air, safe consuming water, ergonomic laptop designs, violence and aggression-
unfastened work environment, to be had technologies, incapacity management
practices, place of work guidelines, design and construction of the workplace. In
simple works the physical environment in a workplace environment comprises the
immediate working space of the employee which he/she works on every day. Aspects
of physical work such as heat, noise, and lighting have been shown to affect a number of
psychological processes in both direct and indirect ways. Noise, for example, may impair the
cognitive performance of certain kinds of tasks (Banbury S. and Berry, 1996)

1.1.2 Psychological work environment

Psychological environment at a workplace in simple words defines the mental
wellbeing of an employee. By behaviour, the three related types of psychological
phenomena are considered: affect (e.g. emotions, mood, psychological symptoms,
 affective disorders); cognitions (e.g. attitudes, perception, decision-making); and
behaviours (e.g. effectiveness, absence, motivation). The psychological work
environment is therefore the set of those characteristics of work environment that
affect how the worker feels. (science publishing group, 2017). A healthy
psychological work environment is imperative to ensure job satisfaction and well-
being in the workplace. A healthy psychological work environment means that there
is a balance between the demands made on the employee and the resources and skills
he or she possesses to meet what is required. The psychological work environment
provides an idea of the various mental functioning an employee goes through during
their day to day working hours or at post.

1.1.3 Social work environment

The social work environment looks into the social surroundings at the workplace. It
deals with the different relationships an employee develops in his/her work settings.
The social work environment includes proper communication at workplace,
relationship between superiors and subordinates, rapport amongst co-workers, etc. To
achieve a progressive work environment, personal respect for personnel at every
levels of an establishment is vital in operations. There should be mutual respect
amongst the co-workers as well as between the management and the employees.

Here, workplace environment places a vital role in an employee job satisfaction level.
All the different categories of workplace environment be it Physical environment,
social environment or psychological environment all these three categories have equal
role to play in an employee job satisfaction. But here, in this study more importance is
given on the psychological work environment and social work environment of an
employee in his/her workplace.

1.2 Job Satisfaction

Many studies and authors defines job satisfaction in different ways here is one amongst
all the different definitions; Job Satisfaction according to (Kreitner, 2004) means “an
affective and emotional response to various facets of one’s job”. In simplest form job
satisfaction is the satisfactory level of an employee towards his/her job or work. It refers
to how well a job provides fulfilment of a need or want, or how well it serves as a source
 or means of enjoyment. The employee’s mind-set in the direction of the activity and
organization as well will become positive once they recognize that their job enables them
in achieving their desires and values, without delay (with the aid of performing it) or
circuitously (by using the package deal they get).

1.3 Relevance of the study:

In today’s complex and competitive era where an individual’s dynamics with its
environment is facing constant changes it is important to keep a check on one’s
environment. In any organization an employee plays a very important role. An employee
tries to balances both their personal and professional life, he/she invests his time, energy
and tries to work towards accomplishing the aims and objectives of the organization. An
employee needs to have a proper workplace environment in order to be able to focused
and productive at work. Since an employee spends and invests the maximum of their time
in their workplace setting it is important for the management of any organization to make
sure and try and provide them proper workplace environment.
Where as on the other hand job satisfaction is an important aspect for both the employee
of an organization and the management of an organization. For an employee because if
he/she is not satisfied only with their job then there is a tendency for them to keep on
changing their job or organization again and again which in turn is also not a favourable
situation for any organization too. The environment of Workplace plays an important role
for any employee as it plays a major role at being satisfied with their job. Therefore, the
study of workplace environment and its impact on an employee’s job satisfaction is a
relevant study.