Towards a Psychology of the Work Environment: Comfort, Satisfaction and Performance

Each of these two broad categories of productivity can be measured in similar but different ways. Both ITP and CTW productivity can be assessed according to positive and negative criteria. Positive measures of productivity include faster, more accurate output, faster and more effective employee recruitment and retention, better quality products/services to clients, faster and better quality decision-making. The argument states that a supportive environment increases the rate or the magnitude of these outcomes to a measurable extent. Negative measures of productivity include rate of absenteeism and illness, employee turnover, product and services returns, and error and complaint rates. According to this argument, an effective work environment counters these effects, reducing their incidence and prevalence, often comparing favorably to some previously calculated error rate or quality indicator. In many studies, some mixture of both positive and negative outcome measures is used, as summarized in Figure 3.1.