WORKERS HEALTH AND PRODUCTIVITY IN A CHALLENGING WORK ENVIRONMENT

1.1 Introduction

Workplace environment is an important component of work life for employees as employees spend significant part of their time at work, and it affects them in one way or the other (Kamarulzaman et al., 2011). Consequently, workplace environment quality has a significant impact on workers and their motivation, enthusiasm, creativity, and efficiency (Ozturk et al., 2021). Employees are dealing with serious environmental issues at work, particularly in the software business, which makes it difficult to provide necessary amenities to improve their performance level (Kordsmeyer et al., 2022).

According to Scrima et al., (2021), the performance of employees is a popular issue, and this is influenced in a range of ways by the workplace. Behavioral and physical features of a typical working environment are critical. All components which are linked to an employee’s ability to physically engage with the workplace are referred to as the physical setting (Scrima et al., 2021).

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, Limitation of the study and Definition of terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

Employee morale can be impacted in both positive and negative ways by the workplace environment. Workplace environment plays a major role in the performance and productivity of an employee. Most industries have an unsafe workplace environment and most time unhealthy to workers. The environment in which a worker stays to perform duties assigned to him or her can either boost or mar his performance in terms of work productivity. Work environment, for the purpose of this study, is categorized into two viz; the physical and non-physical environment.

The physical work environment includes office building, fixtures and fittings, refuse and sewage disposal facilities, water supply, lighting, canteen, drainage systems, grassland and vegetation, amongst others. The non-physical environment is made up of air, noise and weather. The quality of this environment affects the health of the worker and invariably productivity. They are referred to as the non-physical environment mainly because they constitute part of the natural environment which cannot be seen visibly with the human eyes, yet, they impact heavily on human life (Etuk, 2006).

Air for instance is very essential to life, but continuous exposure to polluted air endangers life. Air pollution produced when fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas are burnt by chlorofluorocarbons, noise produced by vehicles, heavy machinery, aircrafts and humans. Burning of fossil fuels occurs in electrical power plants, factories, mining and metal extraction industries, incinerators, motor vehicles etc. They are dangerous to health when released in the form of gases, smoke, soot, dust and grit.

Noise that goes on continuously for a long time can make humans tired and irritable, cause headache and prevent people from sleeping properly. Over long periods, this kind of strain can cause illness especially mental illness. Noise is also linked to high blood pressure and coronary heart disease. Constant exposure to noise above 85 decibels can cause permanent loss of hearing. Sudden explosive noise over 150 decibels may cause deafness. In quarries, airports and factories where noise levels cannot be completely reduced, the workers are advised to wear ear-muffs as a precaution to prevent loss of hearing or deafness.

The third aspect of the non-physical environment, weather refers to the coldness, dryness or hotness of the living environment in relation to their effect on human life. Excessively cold weather condition can cause pneumonia while exposure to excessively hot weather can lead to meningitis and sudden death. Thus the non-physical environment is as equally important as the physical one. The physical and the non-physical work environment has effects on worker’s wellbeing and productivity (Ekpu, 2006). Thus, this study is an inquiry into workers’ health and productivity in a challenging work environment using security staff in selected tertiary institutions in Imo State, Nigeria.

Key issues to be discussed include conditions necessary for good workers’ health and productivity, factors that hinder good workers’ health and productivity, the challenges in the work environment of security personnel in tertiary institutions, and ways to tackle inherent challenges in the security work environment towards promoting good health and productivity. Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Workers Health and Productivity in a Challenging Work Environment.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that the importance of security services in the survival of any organization cannot be over emphasized. Apart from protecting human lives in the establishment, security operatives expend a greater part of their time and energy in safeguarding the financial and non-financial assets of an organization without which the continuous existence of the system would be jeopardized.

Yet, a survey of some tertiary institutions across Imo State reveals that these essential service providers are operating under a very unfriendly work environment that are inimical to their personal health and work performance. Some of these academic environments harbour stagnant water, dirty gutters, offensive refuse heaps and poor sewage disposal systems, which breed disease – causing micro-organisms that render security work cumbersome and unattractive.

This, according to a source which pleaded anonymity in one of the tertiary institutions visited, accounts for low productivity, high labour turnover among security staff, frequent ill-health and high number of deaths of security workers per annum in the state, Field Survey (2010).

This study is therefore informed by the poor state of work environment in some tertiary institutions in Imo State and their effects on workers’ health and productivity.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to scrutinize the Workers Health and Productivity in a Challenging Work Environment. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To identify the factors that pose challenges to workers’ health and productivity in tertiary institutions in Imo State;
2. To examine the effects of environmental hazards on security workers’ health and productivity in Imo State; and
3. To discuss the ways in which the health of the workers and the work environment could be promoted for general good.

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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 the factors that pose challenges to security workers’ health and productivity in tertiary institutions in Imo State?
• What are the effects of environmental hazards on security workers’ health and productivity in tertiary institutions in Imo State?
• In what way(s) can the health of security worker and their environment be promoted for improved work performance?

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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.

Hypothesis One

• H0: There is no significant relationship between security workers’ health and productivity in tertiary institutions in Imo State.
• H1: There is significant relationship between security workers’ health and productivity in tertiary institutions in Imo State.

Hypothesis Two

• H0: There is no relationship between security work environment and worker’s health/productivity in tertiary institutions in Imo State.
• H1: There is relationship between security work environment and worker’s health/productivity in tertiary institutions in Imo State.

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1.7 Significance of Study

This study was deemed significant in many respects including the following:

This study will assist in identifying key environmental factors that constitute health hazards to workers in selected tertiary institutions in Imo State with a view to guiding management to promote workers’ health in order to enhance their welfare and productivity. It also directed to inform concerned authorities on the negative effects of poor environmental management on workers’ health and productivity.

The study will guide policy makers in tertiary institutions to formulate and implement appropriate policies that would promote a healthy and safe work environment in their respective institutions of learning.

The study will enlighten personnel managers in tertiary institutions to know that a healthy work environment can boost worker’s morale. This understanding will help them in solving motivation problems faced by staff.

Environmental and Management experts/analysts will derive immense support from this work in their quest for secondary material to prepare conference papers, workshop address, seminar text, etc especially in the area of workers health and productivity.

This study will educate occupational health workers in various organizations to take precautionary measures against being victims of numerous hazards in the workplace.

It is hoped that by this study, functional heads and departmental managers would learn the appropriate ways of arranging and handling equipment, chemicals, electronic gadgets and other injurious materials in the work environment while planning office layout to achieve aesthetic value, emphasis would also be placed on workers’ safety and convenience in relation to man-machine relationship, waste disposal and environmental sanitation.

Security workers in tertiary institutions across Imo State will be educated by this study to know how to protect themselves against being victims of avoidable environmental hazards in their environment.

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1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Workers Health and Productivity in a Challenging Work Environment. This study is delimited mainly to the occupational hazards faced by security service providers in tertiary institutions in Imo State.

Basically, the study will focus attention on the inherent hazards in the security work environment as it affects the workers’ health and invariably their productivity, such as physical hazards, chemical hazards biological hazards, mechanical hazards and psycho-social hazards.

In terms of gender composition, the study considers the responses of both the male and female security workers since they operate on a duty-shift basis. Furthermore, this is delimited to the use of questionnaire as the principal instrument for collecting primary data, as well as the use of descriptive statistics and the chi-square technique in data analysis. The result so derived may for some obvious reasons differ from that obtained from more complex statistical tool of data analysis.

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1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. 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.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. 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, questionnaire and interview).

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1.10 Definition of Terms

Employee Performance: employees within an organization can be motivated in different ways in order to get maximum output and productivity; these rewards can be intrinsic or extrinsic (Chandrasekar, 2011).