The factors influencing production have been discovered after several experiments. Some of these factors help production and increase it, while others hinder and retard it. Basically, these factors can be divided into the personal and environmental categories.
2 Factors Influencing Productivity In Industries And Other Work Environments
- Personal Factors
- Environmenal Factors
Personal Factors Influencing Productivity In Industries And Other Work Environments
These are the factors, which are inherent in the worker himself. Every kind of work is the outcome of the worker’s application of mental and physical energy. For this reason, the personal factors influencing production are psychological and physiological.
The psychological factors include all those conditions, which are part and parcel of the worker’s Psychology and which have some influence upon his efficiency and work produced by him. The following are the main psychological factors:
1. Motivation: Motivation is the most important factor in production because it increases when motivation increases and falls when motivation is reduced.
Motivation is the method of giving expression to an individual’s abilities and efforts. These are two aspects of motivation: Subjetive and Objective aspects. The objective aspect is the incentive or the material goal due to which the individual works. Although motivation alone does not increase production, the fact remains that it has great influence on the productivity of the worker.
Subjective aspects of motivation are those intrinsic attachment the worker has for the job such as prestige, cleanliness, psychological satisfaction and other non-material fulfillments the job gives to the worker, which make him put in his best in the job.
2. Interest: It is an established fact that production becomes higher when the worker has interest in the work he is doing. Interest helps to delay and reduce both boredom and fatigue, both of which reduce production. Thus, the interest of the worker in the job he does matters a lot in population.
3. Rapport Among Workers: In a situation where many workers are involved simultaneously in production, there must be a rapport among them to enhance production, both quantitatively and qualitatively. As such there must be cordial relations among the workers.
Other psychological factors that influence production include the state of mind of the workers, their job security, relationship between them and their employers, etc.
The physiological factors influencing production are those, which depend on the bodily conditions of the worker. They include the following:
1. Health And Capacity Of The Worker: Different bodily system, work in harmony to do a particular task, such organs as the hands, feet, eyes, ears, etc., have their specific and special roles to play during work. If some parts of all of these organs are defective or weak, production is bound to be affected adversely.
2. Sleep: Lack of sleep or inadequacy of it results to fatigue and even accident in work places. These two conditions affect production adversely. Sufficient sleep on the part of the worker removes such conditions, and enables the worker to increase his productivity both in quantity and quality.
3. Drug Addiction: Almost all experiments carried out by psychologists have proved that drug addicted workers do not produce as much as their counterparts who do not take drugs. It leads to faultu perception and mistakes in productive process.
4. Rest Pause: It has been found that adequately timed rest of proper duration has positive influene on production. Vernon and Bedford (1975) conducted an experiment on 17 girls in which the girls were given a rest of ten minutes after every hour of work. A twenty per cent increase in production was recorded. Prof. Graff (1980) also performed an experiment in which he concluded that production increased following five minutes of rest after eighty minutes of mental work. To achieve positive effect, rest pause should be timed and introduced after the period of maximum production and setting in of boredom and fatigue.
Environmental Factors Influencing Productivity In Industries And Other Work Environments
The environmental factors influencing production include all those conditions within the environment, which directly or indirectly afftect production in any way. The important ones include the following:
1. Light: In every kind of industry, some degrees of light are necessary. The intensity of light has to be kept within normal level to avoid strain on the eyes of the worker and to prevent fatigue, which will adversely affect production.
2. Ventilation: Various experiments carried out by industrial psychologists have indicated that proper ventilation has positive effects on production, while the absence of or inadequacy of it leads to the ill-health of the workers and subsequent fall in production.
3. Temperature: It is always necessary to maintain proper temperature for good production. Excessive heat or extreme cold has adverse effect on the output of the workers in any working situation.
4. Noise: Several experiments carried out have confirmed the effect of noise on production. When there is a high pitch of noise intruding from outside, it has a destructive effect on the workers and negative effect on production. No wonder then modern laboratories are made sound proof to external noise so that workers within are not disturbed.