An Assessment of Workplace Environment Among Employees of Primary Agricultural Cooperative Credit Societies (Paccs) in Cuddalore District, Tamil Nadu

Abstract

The workplace environment plays an important role in shaping employees’ attitudes, satisfaction and effectiveness in an organisation. Primary Agricultural Cooperative Credit Societies (PACCS) provide essential credit and financial services to the farming community, particularly in rural areas, and their effective functioning depends greatly on the employees who deliver these services. The present study assesses the workplace environment among employees of PACCS in Cuddalore District of Tamil Nadu. The study is based on primary data collected from 428 PACCS employees through a structured questionnaire. The workplace environment was assessed using 33 variables covering various aspects of employees’ working conditions. Factor analysis was employed to identify the major dimensions of the workplace environment. The KMO value of 0.980 and the significant Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity confirmed the suitability of the data for factor analysis. The analysis grouped the variables into seven dimensions: Physical Work Environment, Workplace Facilities, Work Conditions, Interpersonal Relationships, Management Support, Communication and Fairness, and Compensation and Resources. The findings reveal that employees had a moderately positive perception of the overall workplace environment, with an overall mean score of 3.33. Interpersonal Relationships recorded the highest mean score of 3.58, followed by Management Support (3.56) and Work Conditions (3.48). In contrast, Compensation and Resources recorded the lowest mean score of 2.78, indicating an area requiring greater attention.