Search results

Air pollution affects labour productivity and these effects arise in both indoor and outdoor environments and at varying levels of worker skill. They also arise at levels of air pollution generally considered to be within existing air quality standards and guidelines. Although the damage per individual is small when compared to more extreme events, such as mortality and hospitalisations, the effects are more widespread and may thus represent a significant cost to society. Labour is an essential element in every nation’s economy serving as one of the primary factors of production and India not an exception. Investing in human capital is viewed as a key source of sustained increase in labour productivity and economic growth. On the other hand, environmental regulations are typically considered to be a struggle on the economy. However, improved environmental quality may actually enhance productivity by creating a healthier workforce. At the same time, air pollution may affect labour productivity and can reduce the productivity of workers in physically demanding occupations. This chapter may be an attempt to provide comprehensive estimates of the major air pollutants in different states of India and also tries to identify the linkage between air pollution and labour productivity in case of Indian manufacturing sector.

Purpose – This study aims to determine the results of productivity index, profitability and improvement of company prices and to understand the relationship between partial input factors and productivity, profitability, and price fixing.

Design/Methodology/Approach – In this work, the productivity at the palm oil factory PT Sayaukath Sejahtera was measured and evaluated by using The American Productivity Center (APC) model approach.

Findings/Results – The results showed that each index that has been analyzed has a 5.143% decrease in the productivity index per year with a profitability equal to 0.286% per year and an increase in the price improvement index of 5.143% per year. Thus, it is concluded that from each index that has been analyzed, there is a decrease in the productivity index and profitability per year and there is an annual increase in the price improvement index.

Research Limitations/Implications (if applicable) –

Practical Implications (if applicable) –

Originality/Value –

As little is known about the productivity levels of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) engaging with universities and the relative changes in productivity of SMEs subsequent to these collaborations, the paper examines the following questions: (1) Does the relative productivity of SMEs engaging in university collaboration differ from those that do not? (2) Are subsequent changes in firm productivity following university collaboration related to their initial levels of productivity?

The paper utilises data on 254 SMEs from the Longitudinal Small Business Survey and uses two statistical techniques: First, bivariate tests of difference were used to inspect the relationships between productivity levels and whether the firm collaborated with a university to introduce its innovation. Second, ordinary least squares regressions were used to test whether the future productivity of SMEs that collaborated with universities was related to their initial productivity levels.

The analysis reveals that SME–university collaboration is unrelated to starting productivity. Furthermore, the analysis suggests a nonlinear relationship exists between the starting productivity of SMEs and their subsequent productivity following a university collaboration. Therefore, higher levels of subsequent productivity are observed among those SMEs where starting productivity was either relatively low or high, suggesting that collaborations have a transformative effect on SMEs with relatively lower initial levels of productivity and a maintenance effect for SMEs with relatively higher levels of initial productivity.

Given the fact that the extant literature also suggests that, overall, university collaboration is beneficial, policymakers should strive to encourage greater levels of collaboration involving SMEs. In light of the evidence that SME–university collaborations can transform less productive firms, it appears unjustified for practitioners and policymakers to only consider stronger-performing firms to be included in such programmes.

The study contributes new theoretical and practical knowledge to the understanding of the role of firm productivity in predicting the proclivity of firms to collaborate with universities. Furthermore, as few studies have examined the impact of these collaborations on the subsequent productivity of firms that collaborate with universities, this paper fills an existing gap in the literature.

This study aims to determine, examine and rank the factors/subfactors that may influence the students’ productivity through different design phases inside the architectural design studio. In addition, it examines the relationships/interrelationships between these factors and students’ educational level.

This research used different research methods: literature review, semi-structured interview and questionnaire (n = 420), and different statistical analysis methods: descriptive, comparative and Pearson r correlation analysis.

This research found that physical and administration factors significantly influence students’ productivity, followed by social and psychological, design and operational, personal and natural environmental factors. Additionally, thermal comfort was the subfactor most affecting the students’ productivity through all design phases. This research found that there were significant strong/very strong positive linear relationships/interrelationships between the student’s education level and all the factors that may increase the students’ productivity (r > 0.647), and between all the factors that may increase the students’ productivity (r ranged between 0.521 and 0.873). The factors affecting students’ productivity in the architectural design studio must be considered as a pool when designing architectural spaces.

The research findings provide the stakeholders, researchers, architects and facilities managers in architectural education with information on improving students’ productivity and enhancing the learning experience that positively affects their confidence and well-being in the design studio. In addition, this research provides information to develop guidelines for evaluating, designing and/or improving design studio environments that facilitate students’ productivity.

This research provides valuable insights into the students’ productivity during design study and how to prepare students for future professional roles, increase their involvement in their design development process and improve the quality of design education. The productivity of the architectural design students during the design studio hours plays a significant role in improving the architectural learning process. Enhancing students’ productivity during design studio hours promotes their design skills and future abilities of a problem-solving approach, which enhances the profession, provides an effective and comfortable student work environment, reduces the students’ stress inside the design studio and meets the students’ physical and emotional needs.

The purpose of this paper was to extend the current knowledge on the impacts of activity-based workplaces (ABWs) on productivity in knowledge work. It offers more background information that is needed to properly evaluate ABWs’ suitability for different organisations. In the results section, ABWs are compared to the cellular and open-plan office types.

This study was conducted using a survey method with 5,841 respondents. The data were collected between 2015 and 2019 from 32 public-sector organisations.

The findings of this paper reveal that ABWs offer clear advantages over the other office types but requires careful design and well-implemented solutions. The superiority between ABWs and cellular offices also depends on workers’ profiles and needs and is not for everyone.

For practitioners, this paper offers valuable information to compare the three office types: ABW, cellular and open-plan. It also highlights the importance of careful planning and good implementation, which are both essential to making the ABW environment productive for employees. Finally, this paper clearly provides evidence that ABWs and open-plan offices differ in their facilities and productivity.

This paper included a unique and large sample with open variables, which are fairly rare in ABW-related papers. It also provides evidence that ABWs, when implemented correctly, seem to be an excellent option for some work profiles.

This research highlights the ongoing concern about organizational productivity and the lack of focus on designing an optimal model. The authors aim to create a comprehensive model for managing organizational productivity, considering its impact on profitability, customer satisfaction, and employee morale. They use qualitative research methods, including Systematic Literature Review and Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM).

In this research using the qualitative research method of Systematic Literature Review, 57 variables affecting productivity were identified. These variables were placed in 16 layers by using the ISM method, which were classified analytically in four sections: INPUTS, OUTPUTS, OUTCOMES and IMPACTS. By determining the relationship between the sections, the research model was designed.

The potential model for organizational productivity management provides a comprehensive framework addressing critical factors like technology adoption, employee empowerment, organizational culture, and more. It identifies Linkage, Dependent, and independent variables. The lower layers consist of INPUTS such as Technological Tools, Organizational Values, and more. In the highest layer, impactful variables like Enhanced competitiveness, Improved decision-making, and Improved organizational culture are labeled as IMPACTS. Middle layer variables are categorized as OUTPUTS and OUTCOMES.

In this study, the concept of productivity management was redefined for the first time, and a multi-layered model for productivity management was creatively explicated using the structural equation modeling method.

This paper aims to review and assess the sustainable design and management considerations affecting workplaces’ productivity in Saudi Arabia.

The study uses a mixed approach, commencing with literature review, development and pilot-testing of a structured questionnaire instrument to assess design and management considerations towards productively sustainable workplaces (PSWs). In total, 31 considerations affecting sustainable workplaces’ productivity were identified and clustered under five main directions. A collective group of stakeholders, including architects/engineers (A/E), workplace users and facilities managers, were approached to correlate and compare their individual assessment of the identified PSWs. The relative importance index (RII) for each of the PSW considerations is correlated and discussed.

A high level of agreement is recognized among the three stakeholder groups for PSWs considerations’ assessed rankings. The provision of sufficient ventilation and illumination levels, availability of occupational health, security and safety, availability of ergonomically oriented technological infrastructure, availability of formal and informal meeting spaces, efficient space utilization and ergonomic workstations are all ranked highest in importance as design considerations towards PSWs.

The study stems from the need to understand how the PSWs’ design and management considerations are perceived by all streams of stakeholders. The findings identify the considerations’ importance for prioritization on PSWs’ investments.

This empirical study aims to explore how actors in specific human resource practices (HRPs) such as line managers (LMs) impact employee productivity measures in the context of financial institutions (FI) banks.

This cross-country study adopted a qualitative methodology. It employed semi-structured interviews to collect data from purposefully selected 12 business facing directors (BFDs) working in the top 10 banks in Nigeria and the UK. The data collected were analysed with the help of the trans-positional cognition approach (TPCA) phenomenological method.

The findings of a TPCA analytical process imply that in the UK and Nigeria’s FIs, the BFDs line managers’ human resources practices (LMHRPs) resulted in a highly regulated workplace, knowledge gap, service operations challenges and subjective quantitatively driven key performance indicators, considered service productivity paradoxical elements. Although the practices in the UK and Nigerian FIs had similar labels, their aggregates were underpinned by different contextual issues.

To support LMs in better understanding and managing FIs BFDs productivity measures and outcomes, we propose the Managerial Employee Productivity Operational Definition framework as part of their toolkit. This study will be helpful for banking sectors, their regulators, policymakers, other FIs’ industry stakeholders and future researchers in the field.

Within the context of the UK and Nigeria’s FIs, this study is the first attempt to understand how LMHRPs impact BFDs productivity in this manner. It confirms that LMHRPs result in service productivity paradoxical elements with perceived or lost productivity implications.

This study aims to examine the impact of financial inclusion and bank stability on agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

The study used 38 countries in the SSA with data spanning between 2004 and 2021. The data were analyzed using the two-step system generalized method of moments (GMM) and the panel-corrected standard error (PCSE) model.

The study found a positive effect of financial inclusion and bank stability on agricultural productivity. The study also discovered that while the access component of financial inclusion has a negative influence on agricultural productivity, the usage dimension has a positive impact.

The study suggests to policymakers that an inclusive and stable financial system improves agricultural productivity. The findings recommend that policymakers should empower farmers to leverage financial inclusion.

This study provides insightful discussion on the impact of financial inclusion and its various dimensions and bank stability on agricultural productivity in SSA.

The agriculture sector is crucial for all economies, especially the developing ones. However, agricultural production is influenced by government intervention, which outshines the significant role of good governance indicators in agricultural productivity. In addition to this, the major climate changes also posed various challenges and led to water shortages and yield losses. Thus affecting agricultural production. In this paper, we address the issue by determining the association between state governance and agricultural productivity in N-11 countries.

Panel data have been collected from 2000 to 2021 through the Governance Indicator, World Development Indicator and World Bank databases. For data analysis, the researcher has utilized the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) estimations.

Through ARDL estimations, it is suggested that corruption (CC), employment in agriculture (EAG), political stability and violence absence (PS), rule of law (RL), regulatory equality (RQ) and water quality (WQ) significantly impact agricultural productivity (AGP) in the long run. In the short run, the impact of RL on AGP has been significant.

This study follows the method of data collection from secondary sources, which hinders the effectiveness of this study as, on the basis of the respective data, the potential of the researcher to get specific answers to research questions has been affected. Also, this study examines the context of N-11 countries from 2000 to 2021, which exerts a geographical limitation. While exploring the association between state governance and agricultural productivity, this study neglects the internal aspects of implementing state policies in firms.

On practical grounds, the significant association demonstrated by this study encourages agricultural firms to keenly consider state policies to gain sustainable agricultural development. Moreover, this study encourages agricultural firms to efficiently follow governance policies for efficient productivity. The outcomes of the study have shown that agricultural employment and governance infrastructure can efficiently enhance agricultural productivity. Besides, as per the results, water quality also positively impacts agricultural productivity; thus, relevant steps can be taken by the agricultural sector to improve the quality of water.