Abstract— Background: the present study explores the role of light on work, taking into account the type of work too. Lighting is an important feature of the work environment. The development of technology in term of type of light and also in term of type of work, i.e. manual work (machine building) vs virtual work (video terminal work) are important variables to investigate concerning the relation between light and performance. In this research, we compare two different contexts: on one side an engineering company, featured by a manual work (sew machine building); in the other side we have a software company, where the work is mainly made at video terminal, with a personal computer. We hypothesized that we can find a significant difference between this two contest in term of perception of light, in term of satisfaction with light and subjective performance on work; in particular, we hypothesized that in the second group the outcome variables (satisfaction and performance) could be more independent from the general illumination, because the focus of work is based on computer screen that it self illuminated and it can be calibrating in subjective way. Method: the participants were 30 workers of an engineering company and 27 for the software company, both located in the North Italy. Every subject answered to a questionnaire valuing their subjective perceptions of environment in different way: some objective features of environment, as lighting, temperature and air quality; some subjective perceptions of this environment as Restorativeness, job satisfaction; finally, the participants answered about their perceived performance. The construct of performance per se was conceptualized in term of individual performance; this construct is composed by three different dimensions: individual proficiency, individual adaptability and individual proactivity. Findings: in the preliminary analysis, we didn’t find results supporting our hypothesis: light seemed to not be related with performance in all dimensions: proficiency, adaptability and proactivity, for both group; however we found differentstatistically significant correlations by work environments between light and restorativeness and between restorativeness and performance. For instance we found positive relations between visual comfort and some dimensions of restorativeness (coherence and fascination) and between some dimensions of performance (proactivity and proficiency) and some dimensions of restorativeness (fascination and being away). Conclusions: The present study is a first pilot step of a wide research. Our first findings did not support our hypotheses. However the study of the moderating effects of other variables (i.e. restorativeness) related to the work environment or task performance could help to deeply understand the possible influence of light on work performance Applicative Implications: the present pilot study tries to highlight the relevant role of lighting relating with the concept of performance; the results failed to demonstrate a straight and simple relationship between ‘good light’ and ‘good work performance’; we can posit it’s necessary to study these kind of relations more deeply.
Light and performance in the workplace: a pilot study
SCARPANTI, DIEGO
;Brondino M.;Pasini M
2018-01-01
Abstract
Abstract— Background: the present study explores the role of light on work, taking into account the type of work too. Lighting is an important feature of the work environment. The development of technology in term of type of light and also in term of type of work, i.e. manual work (machine building) vs virtual work (video terminal work) are important variables to investigate concerning the relation between light and performance. In this research, we compare two different contexts: on one side an engineering company, featured by a manual work (sew machine building); in the other side we have a software company, where the work is mainly made at video terminal, with a personal computer. We hypothesized that we can find a significant difference between this two contest in term of perception of light, in term of satisfaction with light and subjective performance on work; in particular, we hypothesized that in the second group the outcome variables (satisfaction and performance) could be more independent from the general illumination, because the focus of work is based on computer screen that it self illuminated and it can be calibrating in subjective way. Method: the participants were 30 workers of an engineering company and 27 for the software company, both located in the North Italy. Every subject answered to a questionnaire valuing their subjective perceptions of environment in different way: some objective features of environment, as lighting, temperature and air quality; some subjective perceptions of this environment as Restorativeness, job satisfaction; finally, the participants answered about their perceived performance. The construct of performance per se was conceptualized in term of individual performance; this construct is composed by three different dimensions: individual proficiency, individual adaptability and individual proactivity. Findings: in the preliminary analysis, we didn’t find results supporting our hypothesis: light seemed to not be related with performance in all dimensions: proficiency, adaptability and proactivity, for both group; however we found differentstatistically significant correlations by work environments between light and restorativeness and between restorativeness and performance. For instance we found positive relations between visual comfort and some dimensions of restorativeness (coherence and fascination) and between some dimensions of performance (proactivity and proficiency) and some dimensions of restorativeness (fascination and being away). Conclusions: The present study is a first pilot step of a wide research. Our first findings did not support our hypotheses. However the study of the moderating effects of other variables (i.e. restorativeness) related to the work environment or task performance could help to deeply understand the possible influence of light on work performance Applicative Implications: the present pilot study tries to highlight the relevant role of lighting relating with the concept of performance; the results failed to demonstrate a straight and simple relationship between ‘good light’ and ‘good work performance’; we can posit it’s necessary to study these kind of relations more deeply.
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