Impact of perceived work environment characteristics on employee wellbeing, attitudes and turnover

The objective of this thesis is to develop a conceptual model that determines how employee perceptions of their work environments are related to their wellbeing and behaviour. This thesis replicates and extends job demands-control-support (JDCS) theory by integrating variables associated with perceived work environment characteristics (job demands, autonomy, managerial support, and family support), general wellbeing (anxiety), job-related wellbeing (job satisfaction and organization commitment), behaviour (turnover), personal characteristics (male versus female employees), and organizational characteristics (public versus private sectors) into a coherent model. The structural equation modelling technique is used to validate of the measurement model and for examining the inter-relationships among these variables at both the individual and workplace level. For the purpose of analysis, data has been taken from 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (VVERS 2004). At individual level, the findings suggest that employee perceptions of their work environment are associated with their general and job-related wellbeing. The empirical findings show that (1) higher job demands placed on employees and perceived lack of family support influence job attitudes through their effect on anxiety, (2) high job control and managerial support reduces work related anxiety and increases job satisfaction and organization commitment, and (3) male and female employees do not perceive their work environments differently. At workplace level, the findings suggest that employee shared perceptions of their work environment are associated with their wellbeing and behaviour. The empirical findings show that: (1) higher job demands placed on employees increases their work related anxiety and reduces their job satisfaction in private workplaces, (2) high job control and managerial support increases job satisfaction and organization commitment, (3) perceived lack of family support reduces organization commitment in private sector, (4) job satisfaction is the only direct antecedent of turnover, (5) of work environment characteristics, autonomy and managerial support are indirect antecedents of turnover, (6) lack of family support reduces organization commitment in private sector. Overall, the thesis indicates that while JDCS theory is useful in explaining employees psychological and health related wellbeing, extending theory to include family support and using extended theory to predict job-related wellbeing and turnover increases our understanding of the underlying phenomena.