Work environment & impact on the job performance of the employees in Saudi Arabia

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.0 Background

The working environment is a professional and social environment where an individual interacts with several people. It has a very significant impact on performance and the level of productivity. Employee performance is the result attained after undertaking a particular task against predetermined standards, speed, and cost (Meyerson & Dewettinck, 2012) . By having a good understanding that certain activities around the working environment influence humans, various actions can be taken to ensure that the initiatives undertaken motivate them (Breevaart et al. 2015). Every business organization across industries is required to effectively monitor its external and internal environment to attain the set goals and objectives. According to Raziq & Maulabakhsh (2015), an organisational environment can give a clear message about how the formed values impact employees, and what they expect from them.

A happy, hardworking, and satisfied employee is the biggest asset for any business organization. A productive working environment encourages employees as they undertake their roles and responsibilities, which ultimately influence the growth and development of the company. Raziq & Maulabakhsh (2015) argue that environmental factors determine the satisfaction of the employees, thus improving performance in the company. A proper working environment reduces the level of absenteeism and therefore enhances performance (Ahmad et al. 2015). This is a competitive edge against rival companies, especially with the dynamic changes in the business environment today.

1.1 Problem of the statement;

The working environment plays a very vital role in the performance and productivity of employees. A working environment means that all the structures, processes, styles, and tools in an organization result in either favourable or unfavourable performance at an individual level (Breevaart et al. 2015). Organization employees spend about 50 % of their life within a working environment, which affects their actions, aptitude, and performance (Meyerson & Dewettinck, 2012). Therefore, the provision of a good working environment will eventually increase their performance. When people are operating in an environment that suits their mental and physical abilities, their fit with the work is accomplished (Goetz et al. 2019). Today, the business environment is complex and dynamic due to the increased competition and thus increasing the need for management to identify ways that will improve the working environment and ensure it is conducive to enable the workforce to remain competitive and attain great performance (Breevaart et al. 2015).

In the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, business organizations are facing cutthroat competition making it difficult for the management to attract, retain, and motivate the workforce. With this, the organization's workforce is facing myriad problems in the workplace. This is in terms of mobility within the organization, compensation, working hours, etc. To achieve peak performance, Saudi Arabian business organizations should be able to create a working environment where the entire workforce is motivated to attain the goals. According to Rosen et al. (2017), when an employee has an emotional and physical desire to undertake their duties, their performance will increase.

1.2.1 Research objectives

The main objective of the study is to evaluate the work environment and its impact on the job performance of employees in Saudi Arabia.

1.2.2 Specific objectives

1.????? To identify how training and development impacts the performance of employees in Saudi Arabia

2.????? To examine how social support affects the performance of employees in Saudi Arabia

3.????? To evaluate how the physical working condition impacts the performance of employees in Saudi Arabia

4.????? To examine how communication practices in a business organization impact the performance of employees in Saudi Arabia

1.3 Significant of the study

The study is vital in providing a clear understanding of the existing relationship between the working environment and employees' performance in different business organizations operating in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This will guide organization management in evaluating how the working environment in Saudi Arabian organizations impacts their performance. Additionally, this study will create room for organization employees to voice out their work affection by raising effective working environment needs. The study will also act as a background for future research studies.

1.4. Limitations

It is expected that some respondents will be unwilling to cooperate due to the sensitive nature of the work environment but we will however assure them of confidentiality and that the data will only be used for academic purposes. Time might also be a limiting factor given that the researcher wants to engage with as many respondents as possible.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction

This chapter will examine the available literature on the work environment and its impact on the job performance of employees.

2.1. Working environment

2.1.1 Training and development

Training and development activities are usually designed to help organizations' employees cope with any challenge by increasing their skills and knowledge for better performance. It is an unfolding process that enables employees to progress to a state of higher knowledge, skills and competencies from the present state (Hafeez & Akbar 2015). The training and development process takes the form of learning to prepare one for increased responsibilities. The main aim of the organization's management to train employees is to ensure that they change their behaviours. Additionally, the employees will acquire new technical knowledge and skills on the job aiding in achieving the set goals. Employee training helps reconcile any gap between what is happening and what should happen in the company (Ahmad et al. 2015). Employee training and development is one of the main strategies used by organization management to overcome any deficiencies in the company.??

2.1.2 Social support

Social support is the help that employees receive from management, supervisors, and colleagues to perform effectively. According to Breevaart et al. (2015), social support is a structure of relationships within an organization. Employee performance is a multidimensional factor and is very essential, especially for organization performance. Perceived social support from the collogues reduces the level of state and increases performance. Besides, supportive management within an organization improves the level of performance in comparison to those that don’t have any social support (Mathews & Khann, (2016). Social support provides a sense of identity and allows the employees to have a good relationship with their co-workers. Trust among co-workers increases transparency, which allows them to share the available resources freely.?

2.1.3 Physical working conditions

According to Goetz et al. (2019), working conditions are the existing circumstances within a working environment that affect the workforce and include legal rights and responsibilities, working hours, physical aspects of the firm, culture, etc. An organization's working condition is created by the interaction of the workforce with the firm’s climate. The organization's productivity usually depends on the context in which it is employed (Bryson et al. 2017). Business organizations that derive their performance advantage from specific knowledge within the organization wish to offer excellent working conditions to reduce employee turnover and attain a competitive edge against their rivals ?(Ahmad et al. 2015). The working condition factors that can result in negative or positive employee performance include employees’ aspect, humidity, and airflow, contaminants and hazards, and lighting within the working environment.

2.1.4 Communication

Effective communication within a workplace is one of the elements that cultivate professionalism and success. Organizations that communicate effectively have very high chances of eliminating problems and generating a positive attitude towards the work being undertaken (Rosen et al. (2017). Effective communication means fewer complaints and more productivity, which enhances performance. According to Mone & London, (2018), effective communication makes the working place enjoyable by reducing anxiety among the employees and management and thus creating a positive attitude towards work.

Organizational communication is functional for work and should take place very often within the workplace. It should not only be downward but also upward, where the management can listen to the employees, and employees can listen to the management and amongst themselves. The communication can be formal or informal, face-to-face, oral or written, or group communication (Mone, & London, (2018). According to Rosen et al. (2017), informal communication is valued, especially for collaboration, as it plays a key role in bringing people together.?

2.2 Workplace factors affecting Employee’s performance

There are a lot of factors that affect performance and productivity in the workplace. They may either affect the performance of employees at an individual level or collectively (Bryson et al. 2017). On the other hand, they can have either a negative or positive impact on performance. Some of these factors include organizational culture, organisational commitment, motivation, etc.

Organizational culture is a shared belief that can enhance the employees' performance if it is well understood and sustained. It acquits employees with an organization's history and the current styles in the company, which guides the employees on any expected or accepted future behaviours (Rosen et al. (2017).

On the other hand, organization commitment is where employees are aligned with a specific organization and are willing to maintain membership. There is a positive relationship between the employees' commitment and the productivity of business organizations. It usually corresponds with other factors such as improvement of the workplace, job satisfaction, professional levels, etc. According to Rosen et al. (2017), high levels of commitment result in a high level of motivation and performance of the employees.

Mathews & Khann (2016) define motivation as a personal desire to engage in a similar activity repetitively. It may either be extrinsic or intrinsic. In most cases, it is the key ingredient to employee performance and productivity. Organization employees may have clear objectives, the necessary skills and objectives, but will fail to get the work done due to less motivation factor. Motivated employees will be willing to work extra hard towards achieving a certain goal.

2.3 Research gap

?Available have presented an insight into the work environment and its impact on the performance of employees. It is the quality of the employees' workplace that impacts their motivation level and subsequent productivity and performance. How effectively they engage in the business organization, especially the immediate environment, the level of collaboration, low level of absenteeism and innovation, influences the extent of the employee's error rate. The gap identified from the available literature is that management should take active roles that will not just define the physical environment in business organizations but also alter the management styles to ensure that they suit all employees. Also, the principle of management is that they decide how to maximize productivity in terms of employee motivation and organisational infrastructure at the workplace. Therefore, the study will determine the working environment and its impact on the employee's performance in Saudi Arabia.

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

This section will outline the research procedure, which will be adopted by the researcher. The procedure will include the research design, area of study, population, sampling techniques, data collection, data analysis, and ethical considerations.?

3.2 Research design

According to Kothari (2017), a research design is a plan, which indicates the strategy of inquiry that is appropriate for the research study. In this study, the researcher will adopt a descriptive research design focusing on explaining the work environment and its impact on employee performance in Saudi Arabia. A descriptive research design usually describes conditions as they exist. Therefore, in this study, it will be used due to its ability to produce accurate explanations of behaviours and perceptions.?

3.3 Population of the study

A population is a group of individuals that have common characteristics, which may be of interest to the researcher (Sutton & Austin, 2015) . Therefore, the target population of this study will include employees from various business organizations in the market of Saudi Arabia.?

3.4 Sample size and sampling designs

Kothari (2017) defines a sample as a relatively small group of audiences drawn from the entire population where the researcher will get the information from that will help make conclusions. The researcher will select respondents who are employees from various business organizations in Saudi Arabia. In this study, 50 respondents from different business organizations will be selected. The random sampling technique will be used to select the respondents from the actual population of the study. ?

3.5 Data collection

Semi-structured questionnaires will be used to collect primary data. Primary data is the original data that is collected for the first time (Sutton & Austin, 2015). The researcher will distribute the questionnaire to the respondent through emails.

3.6 Data analysis

The collected data from the questionnaire will be analyzed through descriptive statistics. Raw data is deemed useless if it is not transformed into information that can be used for decision-making (Blair, 2015).

3.7 Ethical issues

During the research study, a lot of ethical issues need to be taken into account before and after the research study. Therefore, before data collection, the researcher will ensure that all the ethical requirements are considered, especially assuring the respondents that the collected data is only for academic research, and thus it will remain confidential.

Reference

Ahmad, T., Farrukh, F., & Nazir, S. (2015). Capacity building boost employee's performance. Industrial and Commercial Training, 47(2), 61-66?

Blair, E. (2015). A reflexive exploration of two qualitative data coding techniques. Journal of Methods and Measurement in the Social Sciences, 6(1), 14-29.

Breevaart, K., Bakker, A. B., Demerouti, E., & van den Heuvel, M. (2015). Leader-member exchange, work engagement, and job performance. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 30(7), 754-770.

Bryson, A., Forth, J., & Stokes, L. (2017). Does employees’ subjective well-being affect workplace performance?. Human Relations, 70(8), 1017-1037.

Goetz, K., Schuldei, R., & Steinh?user, J. (2019). Working conditions, job satisfaction and challenging encounters in dentistry: a cross‐sectional study. International dental journal, 69(1), 44-49.

Hafeez, U., & Akbar, W. (2015). Impact of training on employees performance (Evidence from pharmaceutical companies in Karachi, Pakistan). Business Management and Strategy, 6(1), 49-64.

Mathews, C., & Khann, I. K. (2016). Impact of Work Environment on Performance of Employees in Manufacturing Sector in India: Literature Review. International journal of science and research (IJSR), 5(4), 852-855.

Meyerson, G., & Dewettinck, B. (2012). Effect of empowerment on employees performance. Advanced Research in Economic and Management Sciences, 2(1), 40-46.

Mone, E. M., & London, M. (2018). Employee engagement through effective performance management: A practical guide for managers. Routledge.

?Raziq, A., & Maulabakhsh, R. (2015). Impact of working environment on job satisfaction. Procedia Economics and Finance, 23, 717-725.

Rosen, C. C., Kacmar, K. M., Harris, K. J., Gavin, M. B., & Hochwarter, W. A. (2017). Workplace politics and performance appraisal: A two-study, multilevel field investigation. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 24(1), 20-38.?

Sutton, J., & Austin, Z. (2015). Qualitative research: Data collection, analysis, and management. The Canadian journal of hospital pharmacy, 68(3), 226.

?Kothari, C. R. (2017). Research Methodology methods and techniques second edition.