CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Man from the time of his creation because conclusion of his position as the subject of work. This consciousness has also been re-enforced by the positive views of a number of personalities. Karl Max whose evolution of human work to the level of self actualization received a wider public acceptance.

This has been complemented by the de-emphasis accorded the controversial  theory X and the positive assents placed on human work as supported by theory Y work has thus been generally accepted as a natural activity of man.

If work is accepted as part and parcel of man and no comfier viewed with contempt or consideration inevitably unpleasant and destruction of human life freedom and rest work as human actually has to be made a pleasurable and less cumbersome to the nature of man as possible. By involving in paid work, man is able to attend to time, he contributes positively to the development of the society to which he is a part of if these and more are desirable outcomes of work, it logically follows that the quality of this activity that occupies a greater part of life should as a matter of necessity be assumed.

According to Armstrong (2009) well being at work exist when people are happy with their work, what they do, how they are treated and how they get on with others. The well being of an office staff depends on the working staff depends on the working condition provided by the employers. The feeling of satisfaction and happiness arises from the work, and the work environment.

The number of micro and small enterprises and people working in the informal economy are growing rapidly around the world since 18th century, and account for bulk of new employment and for the majority of the working poor, in assessment of working and employment conditions, including issues of occupational safety and health, materiality protection, working-family issues.

Home work, working time wage and income, work organization, sexual harassment, violence housing, nutrition and environment, the millions of women and men in the micro and small enterprise and the informal economy face perhaps the greatest problems among the working population.

Akinkeye (2007) Opines that condusive work environment ensure the wellbeing of employees which, always was enable themselves to their roles with all force that may translate to higher productivity.

In Africa, many research studies have been conducted regarding the impact of working condition on employee performance productivity.

In case study reported by Ahiazu (1985), it shows that when Nigeria is observed in his traditional practices are adopted, he is seen to be very much committed and to be very industrious or hardworking as to when it comes to the work environment where he appears to be iron challenge or he feel highly uncommitted and is not as hand working as he normally will feel at his traditional workplace.

Lucas and Ortles (2000) conducted a research study on south African nurses and found high bumout on three levels emotional, exhaustion, personalization and low personal accomplishment. They attributed the nursing bumout to a high workload and other organizational factors within the hospital in addition a study conducted in South Africa found the working condition has negative to the performance.

Noble (2003) states that more attention should be paid in identifying and dealing with working conditions because when office secretaries have Negative perception to their work environment they sometime suffer from chronic stress.

This study was guided by the end factor model advanced by Frederick Herzberg (1950s) this theory is divided into two (motivational and maintenance factors) maintenance factor is also known as the (hygiene factor) such as working condition and job security. So working absence of maintenance bring high negative feelings and their presence on neutral state.

Working conditions are created by the interaction of office staffs and include psychological as well as physical working condition.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

In the world today, there are organization when debate on the right of their staff most people spend fifty percent of their lines within indoor environments, which greatly influence their mental status, actions, abilities and performance. Better outcomes and increase performance is assembled to be the result of better workplace environment. Better physical environment of office boost staffs and ultimately improve their performance. Literature pertain to the study of multiple offices and office buildings indicates that the factors such as dissatisfaction; clustered workplace and the physical environment are playing a major role in the loss of office staffs performance, (Carnesville1992). Therefore, the problem that this study addressed is the investigation of the effect of poor working condition on the performance of an office staff.

1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The aim of the study is to identify the level of working condition of a staff in an office, other objectives of the study are as follows:

1. To determine whether the organization has any training programme to improve the working condition of an office staff.
2. To find out how organization improves the working condition of an office staff?

iii. To examine whether the organization has any welfare scheme for staffs?

1. To find out how working condition affect the overall performance of an office staff or secretary in the organization?

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The outcome of this study may provide useful and tangible information for office managers on ways to improve the performance of staffs. Office staff should have consistent communication with office managers to get better performance result.

Employers should provide a workplace that is free from dangers; Barron is one of the goals threats to performances and moaner. For these reasons management should keep workload manageable.

When designing an office, employers should remember that fluorescent is not the only options, every office worker/staff should work in a space with some natural high at a minimum, planners should crate common spaces that have natural light they should also check the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system performance in most cases.

1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following research questions are formulated to guide the researcher:

1. Does your organization has any training programme to improve the working condition of an office staff?
2. In what ways does your organization improve the working condition of an office staff?

iii. Does your organization has any welfare scheme for staffs?

1. How does working condition affect the overall performance of an office staff or secretary in your organization?

1.6 SCOPE AND DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The scope of this research is on the effect of poor working condition on the performance of an office staff. The study limits scope to top, middle and lower level management staffs (secretaries) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Port Harcourt.

1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS

The following terms are defined in component with the meaning it paraphrase in this research work.

MANAGER:   A person responsible for controlling or administering an organization or group of staff.

MANAGEMENT:  The process of dealing with or controlling things or people.

OFFICE: A room, set of rooms, or building used as a place of business for non-manual work.

OFFICE STAFF: Professional or clerical workers in an office.

PERFORMANCE:  The accomplishment of a given task measured against preset known standards of accuracy, completeness, cost, and speed. In a contract, performance is deemed to be the fulfillment of an obligation, in a manner that releases the performer from all liabilities under the contract.

SECRETARY: A person employed to handle correspondence and do routine work in a business office, usually involving taking dictation, typing, filing, and other clerical duties.

WORKING CONDITION: The conditions in which an individual or staff works, but not limited to such things like amenities, physical environment, stress and noise levels, degree of safety or danger.