The Effects of Live Plants and Window Views of Green Spaces on Employee Perceptions of Job Satisfaction
Date
2006-12
Authors
Dravigne, Andrea C.
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the presence of live interior plants or window views of exterior green spaces on perceptions of employee job satisfaction. The survey was posted on the Aggie Horticulture Web page (http://floriculture,tamu.edu:7998/workplaceenvironment/) for six months. The survey included questions regarding physical work environment, the presence or absence of live interior plants, windows, exterior green spaces, environmental preferences, job satisfaction, life quality and demographic information. Over 600 office workers from primarily Texas and Kansas responded to the on-line survey, and 449 complete responses were included in the sample. Data was analyzed to compare levels of job satisfaction of employees that worked in office spaces that included live interior plants or window views of exterior green spaces and employees that worked in office environments without live plants or windows. Demographic information collected allowed researchers to compare results based on salary, occupational level, educational level, age group, gender and ethnicity. No statistically significant differences were found regarding environmental perception (P=0.330), indicating that all four groups preferred newer, open architecture. Statistically significant differences were found regarding perceptions of overall life quality (P=0.000) and (P=0.001), indicating that the “no plants/no windows” group was different from the other three groups. Statistically significant differences were also found on overall perceptions of job satisfaction (P=0.041), and within the job satisfaction subcategories of “nature of work” (P=0.006), “supervision” (P=0.029), and “coworkers” (P=0.041), indicating that the two groups that had plants in the office space had higher mean scores when compared to the two groups that did not have plants in their office space. Individual job satisfaction statements were also analyzed, and statistically significant differences were found in the subcategories of “physical work environment,” “pay,” “coworkers,” “nature of work.” MANOVA analyses of demographics indicated that there were statistically significant differences between males and females in perceptions of overall job satisfaction and in the subcategory “nature of work.” Multivariate analyses indicated that there were no statistically significant differences among the categories of “age,” “ethnicity,” “salary,” “education levels,” and “position.”
Description
Keywords
house plants in office decoration, job satisfaction, office layout, value added
Citation
Dravigne, A. C. (2006). The effects of live plants and window views of green spaces on employee perceptions of job satisfaction (Unpublished thesis). Texas State University-San Marcos, San Marcos, Texas.