Employee satisfaction from indoor work environments in Doha, Qatar

Several studies have been conducted by environmental psychologists on worker satisfaction from office spaces with the attempt to relate it to human productivity and profit. Most of such studies have been conducted in the western context, those in the cultural context of the Gulf Region being very limited. This research reports on office worker satisfaction from the indoor environment in selected office buildings set in the socio-cultural-religious context of Qatar and the Gulf region. The study used self administered questionnaires as the predominant method for the research. Personal interviews were also conducted with willing participants. Results revealed that around half of the respondents were satisfied with the indoor environment of their offices. Presence of a window and access to daylighting are seen to contribute highly towards satisfaction. Most dissatisfaction expressed was less on account of actual physical conditions and related more to the poor ability of users to control the environmental conditions like temperature, lighting, ventilation and humidity. It is important that building designers provide some means of control over indoor environmental parameters to occupants of workspaces to improve perceived satisfaction and increase worker productivity.