At the same time, a number of factors associated with every work process affect the degree to
which its environment supports productivity. They are the functionality and comfort of the
workplace, the organisation as a whole and the input of ideas about the work environment.
Haynes (2008) shows that certain factors (interaction and distraction) play a part in
productivity regardless of the process concerned, whilst the role of others is dependent upon
the type of process.
One striking finding in our study is that satisfaction with opportunities for communication has
no bearing on the extent to which any of the activity groups perceive the work environment as
supporting overall productivity. Only in some of the clusters do such opportunities have any
impact, and then only in respect of team and organisational productivity. This outcome is at
odds with the results of other studies, such as those by Brill and Weideman (2001) and
Haynes (2007), both of which recognise – as we do – the importance of being able to work
undistracted but also highlight how vital interaction is. Moreover, workplace temperature has
been found to be significant to productivity in some other studies (Lan et al., 2010; Niemela et
al., 2002), whereas in ours the indoor climate factor (which includes temperature) seems to
have only a minor effect upon how the work environment supports productivity.
This discrepancy can be explained by examining the context of the research. Whilst both
Niemela and Lan specifically investigated how relatively extreme temperatures (17ºC and
25ºC or more) affect actual productivity, our study queried employee satisfaction with the
indoor climate as it related to perceived productivity in normal office conditions. It is unlikely
that our respondents were working in ambient temperatures lower than 17°C or higher than
25°C. Apparently, then, the indoor climate has an adverse effect upon actual productivity
when the workplace is too hot or too cold, but at average office temperatures there are other
factors which have a greater impact upon perceived productivity.