Abstract
Employees’ performance at workplaces is affected by numerous factors. Different forms of jobs have varying factors which influence performance of workers. Different results are also obtained depending on individuals. Poor physical health is known to have adverse effects on productivity of employees at a workplace.
Various researchers have come up with studies to prove whether physical exercise is necessary at workplace. Different working environments, people and type of work give varying results which either support or dismiss the need for exercise in places of work. This variation in factors and results complicates the real value of allowing employees to exercise during working time.
Some managers believe that exercise during work time is a total waste of valuable time. Others understand the contribution of exercise to refreshing employee’s mind, abilities and performance. However, even if exercise is allowed at workplace, the other question is, should workers exercise during or after working hours?
In this paper, sufficient reasons will be provided to support or dismiss the hypothesis. This paper uses coded words to identify reasons that justify if exercise should be allowed during working time by employers.
Hypothesis
The hypothesis is that exercise should be allowed in places of work during working hours by employers. Many people work in offices and other places which do not require physical strength to perform their duties. These people do not get enough time to exercise and keep their bodies fit.
Furthermore, some jobs are repetitive and do not allow workers to refresh their minds. This in turn makes workers less effective while performing their duties. At the end employees develop health problems due to poor physical exercise.
Research method
The research method used in this paper is coding. This method is used to organize and analyze key words and phrases which are considered to be important for the research. Results of the coding have been provided. They were obtained from various articles on the internet, journals and reports.
Results of the research are presented on the pages that follow. At the end of the research, a conclusion shall be drawn to explain if the hypothesis was supported or not. Results of each source and cumulative frequencies are tabulated independently. Ten sources are used in this research.
Flexible Work Arrangements: Selected Case Studies (Georgetown University Law Center. 2010).
People who exercise on work days are happier, suffer less stress and are more productive (Daily Mail Reporter, 2008).
Taking Time Off of Work to Exercise Improves Employee Health. (Reynolds, 2011)
Evidence module: Workplace physical activity and nutrition interventions (Physical Activity Nutrition and Obesity Research Group, 2009).
The Economic Benefits of Exercise (Haywards Heath, 2001)
Physical Activity in the Workplace (Soetemans. 2004).
Effectiveness of workplace physical exercise intervention on functioning, work ability, and subjective well-being of office Workers (Harri, Pekka, & Marja 2006)
The Association between Work Performance and Physical Activity, Cardiorespiratory Fitness, and Obesity (Pronk, Martinson, Kessler, Beck, Simon, & Wang, 2004)
Health benefits of a pedometer-based physical activity intervention in sedentary workers (Catherine, Chan, Ryan, & Catrine, 2004)
Diet, Physical Activity and Health at the workplace (Brad, 2007)
Discussion
The results of the coding research indicate that the hypothesis is supported by most authors of the articles used. Some main words and phrases have a high cumulative frequency which indicates that the information supports exercise at places of work.
The first four words and phrases with the highest number of hits in descending order are as follows; Work 493, Exercise 181, Workplace 181 and Physical activity 170. This is a clear indication that employers should not only allow their workers to exercise at their places of work, but also during working time. Information from most of the sources used in the research is in support of physical exercise at workplaces.
A research conducted by Pronk and others (2004) found that employees who are allowed by their employers to engage in physical activities performed better than their colleagues who were not allowed or choose not to engage in physical activities. Employees who are less active develop health problems which eventually influence negatively their performance at work.
According to Soetemans (2004), physical activities not only improve mental and physical well being, but also improve work performance. All the information found by researchers and various authors agree that exercise at place of work should be allowed during working hours to improve employees’ well being. This is supported by the data obtained by the coding research.
People with various health problems such as obesity, heart disease and stroke are associated with poor physical activities and office jobs. Soetemans further showed that such people are frequently absent from work because they visit health facilities more often than their healthy colleagues.
Conclusion
From the results we can see that the highest frequency was portrayed by Work, Exercise, Workplace and Physical activity. The lowest hits were in Anxiety. My conclusion is that the high number of hits in physical activity, exercise, workplace and work supports the need for employers to provide their workers with facilities for exercising at workplace.
Fewer hits were recorded for sport than for physical activity. This shows that the form of exercise should not be limited to popular sporting activities. Therefore, the hypothesis I drew at the beginning of the research has been supported by facts from the research.
References
Brad, J. (2007). Proceedings from Conference Centre Albert Borschette Rue 3rd July 2007: Conference on Diet, Physical Activity and Health at the workplace. Brussels: Froissart.
Catherine, B., Chan, D., Ryan, A. J., & Catrine T. L. (2004). Health benefits of a pedometer-based physical activity intervention in sedentary workers. Preventive Medicine, 39, 1215–1222.
Daily Mail Reporter. (2008). People who exercise on work days are happier, suffer less stress and are more productive. Web.
Georgetown University Law Center. (2010). Flexible Work Arrangements: Selected Case Studies. Web.
Harri, S., Pekka, O. and Marja, L. T. (2006). Effectiveness of Workplace Physical Exercise Intervention on Functioning, Work Ability, and Subjective Well-Being of Office Workers. Web.
Haywards Heath (2001). The Economic Benefits of Exercise. Web.
Physical Activity Nutrition and Obesity Research Group (2009). Evidence module: Workplace physical activity and nutrition interventions. Sydney: University of Sydney.
Reynolds, D. (2011). Taking Time Off of Work to Exercise Improves Employee Health. Web.
Pronk, N., P., Martinson, B., Kessler, R., C., Beck, L. Simon, G. E. and Wang, P. (2004). The Association between Work Performance and Physical Activity Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Obesity, JOEM, 46, 19-25.
Soetemans. A. (2004). Physical Activity in the Workplace. Web.