Impact of Workplace Ergonomics, Musculoskeletal Disorders, and Productivity among Office Employees

Abstract

Increasingly, workplace ergonomics is considered a factor that decides employee health and organization performance. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of ergonomic workplace conditions on musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), and the productivity of office workers, in a quantitative (quantitative cross-sectional) design. A purposive sampling of 280 office workers of the public and private sector organizations was selected. A structured questionnaire with Ergonomic Assessment Checklist, Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ) and a validated productivity scale were used to collect data. The analysis techniques that were used are descriptive statistics, pearson correlation analysis and the method of structural equation modeling (SEM) using Amos software. Internal reliability of scale (Cronbach's α coefficients: .80–.84) indicated scale sufficiency. The results of the correlation analysis showed that there was a highly significant negative correlation between ergonomic conditions and MSDs (r = −.55, p < .001), while a highly significant positive correlation was found between Ergonomic condition and productivity (r = .52, p < .001). The total direct and indirect effect of ergonomic conditions on productivity through the mediation of MSD was β = .51, and was confirmed by SEM. Model fit was satisfactory (χ²/df = 2.07; CFI = .96; RMSEA = .062). The results of this study clearly show that poor ergonomic environments cause increased workload stress and reduction in worker productivity, thus pointing to the business and health motivations to implement systematic (ERP) ergonomic studies in the office.