Improving the Work Environment to Reach Competitive Advantage

Introduction

Work environment is among the major factors that control the organizational growth and affect it as it can work for the welfare of the business organization and help it reach the required competitive advantage or on the contrary, it can reduce the level of success a business organization has and decrease its opportunities in reaching competitive advantage; this depends on the nature and the impact of the work environment.

Many authors discussed the relationship between the work environment of the business organization and its competitive advantage as many of them have found that improving the work environment can help the organization reach competitive advantage. Claretha, (2012) related employees performance to the nature of the work environment and she also referred to the culture and strategy of the organization as factors that affect the work environment and affect its ability to lead to competitive advantage. This can be well investigated according to the critical analysis in this research.  

The current research paper is critically analyzing a very important matter for any business organization which can be summarized in the question:"How can the work environment be improved to help business organizations reach competitive advantage?" This question can be answered through some objectives as analyzing the role of leadership in forming a positive work environment, discussing employees' engagement, identifying the organizational strategy, investigating the factors that form a better work environment and understanding the methodology of using the organization's human resources as tools for bringing in competitive advantage when they are in an improved work environment.

Literature Review

According to Wiskow, Albreht and Pietro, (2010), positive supportive work environment can be gained via positive leaders who are able to improve the work environment till it can be suitable for providing better results that can tell the organization has reached competitive advantage, this point of view can be regarded by  Bill and Flint, (2011) who asserted on the role of the leaders in ensuring an attractive work environment for employees by making strong relationships with them built on trust and understanding as well as communication as this raises their morale and job satisfaction and create a communicative work environment that leads employees to reach high work performance which is a main path for competitive advantage. This view is largely true but needs more explaining for the leaders' role. According to Madu, (2015), leaders can work as motivators within the organization and their motivation should be built upon the organization's culture which he defined as the values, behaviors and sociology of the organization and individuals. This is a good opinion because by following this, the leader can create the suitable climate for competitive advantage as when he understands the organizational culture; he can work hard for improving the work environment with what individuals need as well as what makes them achieve the goals of the organization to reach success and competitive advantage. Some authors reported that leadership role in improving the work environment is represented in the way they manage the business organization and push employees towards working hard and exerting their efforts to achieve competitive advantage such as Barney, (1991) as he sees that human resources are a basic capital for the business and managers should work hard to invest in this capital; he is true in considering the human resources are a capital that should be invested in to achieve competitive advantage but he has to be deeper in his regard to the management role in motivating the employees as they shouldn't be included with other resources of the company, they need to be regarded and dealt with specifically in order to be well allocated for bringing competitive advantage. It is better to invest in human resources via leaders or managers according to what Garmise, (2014) reported as he confirmed that leaders should build the workforce and then to invest in them and this can be achieved through providing them with the work environment that includes all they need of means of comfort, training opportunities, mutual understanding, communication and respect in addition to appraisal and motivation strategies.

According to Young et al, (2011), improving the work environment includes employees' engagement which raises employees' value proposition and helps employees provide high quality work which raises the general effectiveness of the organization; this view is good but it was completed by the views of Lokwood, (2007) as she added that work environments should be improved to be boundaryless in order to achieve competitive advantage and this means that the work environment should be enhanced with a wide variety of abilities and possibilities that can attract, employ and retain talents who can be engaged easily in the organization and work as a part that belongs to it. Kaliannan and Adjovu, (2014) discussed how employees can be engaged to provide the organization with success as they asserted the need for a developed work environment that uses the latest training methods for making employees coping for the latest world technologies and updates of the industry the organization belongs to as when employees are engaged in such a competitive work environment, they can perform better and competitive advantage will be the result of their performance. Many views also added that there is a big role for the organization's strategy in improving the work environment to reach competitive advantage; Reeves and Deimler, (2011) discussed an important relevant point which is improving the work environment according to the latest business trends globally as neglecting these global changes in the work environment is what creates a gap between performance and competitive advantage which may turn to be impossible with a retarded work environment, they added that the organization's strategy should include reaching sustainable competitive advantage and plan for reaching it via the organization's environment and human resources. This view is very strong and provides a clear understanding for using the business's strategy in reaching competitive advantage.

According to Ram, Bhargavi and Prabhakar, (2011) , better work environment can be got by developing the current business environment and improving it to be satisfying and supporting for all employees in addition to its proper usage of the business different resources and the right distribution for workload on individuals which creates an atmosphere of satisfaction and co-operation, a good work environment provides its employees with the chance to improve themselves and their abilities with additional advanced skills such as language usage, information technology using and having strong capabilities related to the industry. This view was asserted by Patrick and Kumar, (2014)who referred to how to manage the diversity of the workplace and turn it to be a factor for bringing competitive advantage and not to cause problems; they explained how to create a positive work environment through managing diversity in the work place, this was a good step towards improving the work environment as according to Green et al, (2012), many work problems usually occur as a result of misunderstanding but diversity management can ensure respect, understanding among employees and high efficient work as diversity management can ensure effective team work, high levels of communication and accepting others' ideas which encourages innovation and creativity that are necessary to reach the competitive advantage.

According to Dobre, (2013) human resources can provide the best they can and more than expected when they work at an improved work environment, this improvement can be via many way such as making the work environment a more collaborative one. Heerwagen et al, (2004) referred to the collaborative work environment that contains knowledge workers who work in interactive group works rather than working individually as this raises the work effectiveness and leads to better results regarding reaching competitive advantage. Other authors such as Ajla, (2012) who added that human resources should have workspace satisfaction which he focused very different from job satisfaction as this means the human resources are satisfied with the work environment and he referred to many factors that should be regarded in the work environment such as giving interest to the physical, psychological and physiological health of the human resources, this view can also be seen in a study by Dieleman and Harnmeijer, (2006)who has a different view that relates high performance that leads to competitive advantage to the health of employees as he mentioned that raising the level of human resources' health care within the work environment can retain them and job satisfaction which are two conditions needed for maintain competitive advantage. Competitive advantage is as Rumelt and Kunin, (2003) referred To, reaching the competitive value of the industry in the market and being unique among competitors in addition to getting high profitability and productivity, this level of excellence can be reached when employees are working for achieving it as a main goal and this can never be done when they are in a poor work environment. Jassim, (2015) stated that reward and recognition can be basics of any work environment that can lead employees to achieve competitive advantage as when the employees are well recognized and rewarded for their effective work, this view was also confirmed by Willingham, (2014) who asserted that to improve the work environment, it is important to keep it healthy by many things such as employees' recognition and reward which are basic motivators but he added that promotion is also a motivator that can ensure a healthy work environment that can lead employees to work for achieving competitive advantage. Forastieri, (1991) referred to another important element that should be focused on when the business organization tends to improve its work environment which is ensuring safety measurements as he focused on the importance of continuous checking for safety measurements in the work environment in order to ensure the physical comfort that can help employees work better and take the organization to better market competitive advantage. This is very important but the psychological safety is also important to be ensured within the work environment because physical safety isn't enough to ensure real high working performance, this can be seen in the views of Chevalier, (2007) who focused in his book on the sustained high working performance and how to attain it via the improved work environment that gives much interest to the individual and his psychological needs such as appraisal, recognition, respect, understanding and promotion, he also referred to the importance of selection for talents when the organization recruits new employees as any organization that seeks competitive advantage and tries to improve its work environment should care for selection because selection can bring the talents that can provide the organization with creative and innovative ideas and that can add efficiency to the work environment.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is important to refer to the importance of having a work environment that can help the organization to reach competitive advantage and that there are many features that should be found in such a work environment. To improve the work environment, it is necessary to focus on the role of positive leaders in ensuring a positive work environment where employees have raised morale and job satisfaction due to a communicative work environment where they can express their needs and suggest their creative ideas. Human resources are a basic capital that needs to be invested in by supporting them with a work environment that is safe and comfortable and that provides them with opportunities for promotion and recognition. Human resources are the basic tools for achieving the competitive advantage to the business organization so they need to be well selected and motivated in addition to retain them in order to have the potential enthusiasm that makes them wok for reaching competitive advantage. Any organization that seeks competitive advantage, is recommended to improve its work environment to urge employees to perform better and reach high working performance, this work environment should be physically and psychologically safe which means to provide them with the physical comfort and the elements of psychological safety such as recognition, promotion and mutual understanding in addition to assure group work and cooperation within the work environment. Improving the work environment should be sustained by the continuous check for the elements that ensure a safe collaborative supportive work environment.