An overview of the influence of physical office environments towards employees

• Main Authors: Abdul-Ghani, A.A (Author), Hashim, H. (Author), Hashim, S.Z (Author), Kamarulzaman, N. (Author), Saleh, A.A (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Air quality; Environmental factors; Indoor temperature; Literature reviews; Noise conditions; Office environments; Physical environments; Productivity; Satisfaction; Work performance; Workplace design
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher; View in Scopus

 Office employees spend a lot of their time inside a building, where the physical environments influence their well-being and directly influence their work performance and productivity. In the workplace, it is often assumed that employees who are more satisfied with the physical environment are more likely to produce better work outcomes. Temperature, air quality, lighting and noise conditions in the office affect the work concentration and productivity. Numerous studies have consistently demonstrated that characteristics of the physical office environment can have a significant effect on behaviour, perceptions and productivity of employees. Most of the previous researchers in their studies are more focused on a single factor that could give an effect on employee's performance at work. However, no study was done to examine the relationships between the whole factors of physical office environment and employees' performance. Therefore this paper presents a literature review of several environmental factors which directly or indirectly affect employees work performance. Several factors of environments such as the effects of workplace design, indoor temperature, colour, noise and also interior plants towards employees well-being and performance have been discussed. © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.