eprintid: 394
rev_number: 16
eprint_status: archive
userid: 64
dir: disk0/00/00/03/94
datestamp: 2021-04-26 13:15:45
lastmod: 2021-05-28 12:06:05
status_changed: 2021-04-26 13:15:45
type: thesis
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Doga Zeynep, Germen
corp_creators: Vlasios Sarantinos
title: Creating an Optimal Structure of Working Times and Workplace Environment to Maximize the Performance Level of Software Developers in Turkey.
ispublished: submitted
subjects: H1
subjects: HM
subjects: T1
divisions: MscIBM
full_text_status: public
keywords: Workplace Environment, Performance Level, Software Developers,  Turkey.
abstract: In this dissertation, the main aim was creating an optimal physical office environment and working time patterns to maximize the performance levels of the software developers in Turkey. The main elements of the physical office environment were identified and handled 
as office structure, ergonomics of the computer workstation and dominant color of the office. 
The working hour patterns were identified and handles as flexibility of the working hours, duration of working hours and working at weekend and nighttime. This research had the Post-positivistic paradigm as philosophical background. To reach a conclusion and overall 
understanding of the mentioned concepts, a detailed literature research was made and critically analyzed and research survey was conducted with the software developers in Turkey. The survey conducted had both qualitative and quantitative features. As a result of 
the survey, regarding optimal physical office structure to maximize the performance level of the software developers in Turkey, it was found that an office with open office area, private personal rooms and private team rooms is the performance maximizing office structure. 
Additionally, a conclusion drawn as a computer workstation with ergonomic chair, desk, tools for keyboard and mouse usage and multiple monitors or a monitor with large screen and high resolution maximizes the performance level of the participants. It was found that dominant color of the office environment has not a significant effect on the participants, however, for the participants who are affected by the dominant color, the office should be white or nude colors to maximize the performance of the software developers in Turkey. 
With respect to performance maximizing working time patterns of the software developers in Turkey, it is found that flexibility of working hours with weekly duration of 30-40 hours is the most performance maximizing pattern. Additionally, it is concluded that working at weekend to complete the flexible working hours is a performance decreasing factor. However, this research concluded that opportunity of using nighttime to complete flexible working hours is performance maximizing element for the software developers in Turkey.
date: 2020-08-27
date_type: submitted
institution: Griffith College
department: Graduate Business School: MSc in International Business Management
thesis_type: masters
referencetext: REFERENCES:


• AFONSO, P., FONSECA, M., & PIRES, J.F., 2017. Impact of working hours on 
sleep and mental health. Occupational Medicine. 67(5), pp. 377–382.

• ALTINDAĞ, E. & SILLER, F., 2014. Effects of Flexible Working Method on 
Employee Performance: An Empirical Study in Turkey. Business and Economics 
Journal. 5.

• ALTINDAG, E.A. & SILLER, F., 2014. Effects of Flexible Working Method on 
Employee Performance: An Empirical Study in Turkey. Business and Economics 
Journal. 5(3).

• AUGUSTIN, S., 2015. The Surprising Effect of Color on Your Mind and Mood. . 
Psychology Today. (Accessed: 25 June 2020) Available at: 
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/people-places-and-things/201504/the�surprising-effect-color-your-mind-and-mood.

• AUGUSTIN, S., 2020. Pick a Green, Almost Any Green. Psychology Today. 
(Accessed: 8 August 2020) Available at: 
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/people-places-and-things/202005/pick�green-almost-any-green.

• BACEVICE, P., BUROW, L., & TRIEBNER, M., 2016. 7 Factors of Great Office 
Design. Harvard Business Review.

• BAHAMMAM, A.S., ALMESTEHI, W., ALBATLI, A., & ALSHAYA, S., 2011. 
Distribution of chronotypes in a large sample of young adult Saudis. Annals of Saudi 
Medicine. 31(2), pp. 183–186.

• BARCHARD, K.A. & WILLIAMS, J., 2008. Practical advice for conducting ethical 
online experiments and questionnaires for United States psychologists. Behavior 
Research Methods. 40(4), pp. 1111–1128.

• BATH, 2020. Flexi-time and how to use it. . University of Bath. (Accessed: 7 August 
2020) Available at: https://www.bath.ac.uk/guides/flexi-time-and-how-to-use-it/.

• BAUER, S. & MAYLANDER, A., 1919. The Road to the Eight-Hour Day. Monthly 
Labor Review. 9(2), pp. 41–65.56

• BEECHAM, S., A, N.B., A, T.H., B, H.R., & B, H.S., 2007. Motivation in Software 
Engineering: A systematic literature review.

• Benefits of a Shorter Work Week. , 2018. Ohio University. (Accessed: 15 July 2020) 
Available at: https://onlinemasters.ohio.edu/blog/benefits-of-a-shorter-work-week/.

• BERNSTEIN, E.S. & TURBAN, S., 2018. The impact of the ‘open’ workspace on 
human collaboration. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological 
Sciences. 373(1753), p. 20170239.

• BLOOMER, E., n.d. The impact of physical environments on employee wellbeing, p. 23.

• BOEHM, B.W., PENEDO, M.H., STUCKLE, E.D., WILLIAMS, R.D., PYSTER, 
A.B., and SOUND, D., 1984. A Software Development Environment for Improving 
Productivity. Computer), pp. 30–44.

• BOLINO, M.C., KELEMEN, T.K., and MATTHEWS, S.H., 2020. Rethinking Work 
Schedules? Consider These 4 Questions. Harvard Business Review.

• BRONWYN, B., PATRICK, D., and DEVINE KAREN, 1994. Writing@CSU. . 
Available at: https://writing.colostate.edu.

• BRYSON, A. & FORTH, J., 2007. Productivity and Days of the Week. Royal Society 
for the encouragement of Arts, p. 32.

• BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, 2015. Percent of population who worked on 
weekdays and weekend days.

• CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, 2020. PPA 696 RESEARCH METHODS. . 
California State University Web Page. Available at: 
https://web.csulb.edu/~msaintg/ppa696/696codes.htm.

• CANDIDO, C., CHAKRABORTY, P., & TJONDRONEGORO, D., 2019. The Rise 
of Office Design in High-Performance, Open-Plan Environments. Buildings. 9(4), p. 100.

• CARMICHAEL, S.G., 2013. Research: Cubicles Are the Absolute Worst. Harvard 
Business Review.

• CHATTU, V.K., MANZAR, MD.D., KUMARY, S., BURMAN, D., SPENCE, 
D.W., & PANDI-PERUMAL, S.R., 2018. The Global Problem of Insufficient Sleep 
and Its Serious Public Health Implications. Healthcare, 7(1).57

• CHELLAPPA, S.L., MORRIS, C.J., & SCHEER, F.A.J.L., 2019. Effects of circadian 
misalignment on cognition in chronic shift workers. Scientific Reports. 9(1), p. 699.

• CIPD, 2019. Flexible Working in the UK. London.

• CLAES, M., MÄNTYLÄ, M., KUUTILA, M., & ADAMS, B., 2018. Do 
Programmers Work at Night or During the Weekend? Proceedings of the 40th 
International Conference on Software Engineering), pp. 705–715.

• CLAYTON, S.D., 2012. The Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Conservation 
Psychology. OUP USA.

• CONE, E. & GREGORY, A., 2006. When the walls come down How smart 
companies are rewriting the rules of the open workplace. New York.

• DEGW, THE CENTRE FOR BUILDING, PERFORMANCE AND DIAGNOSTICS 
AT CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY AND, and DEGW DEGW, 2005. The 
impact of office design on business performance. Commission for Architecture & the 
Built Environment and the British Council for Offices, p. 81.

• DOLTON, P., 2017. Working hours: Past, present, and future. University of Sussex 
and NIESR, UK, and IZA, Germany.

• DZULKIFLI, M.A. & MUSTAFAR, M.F., 2013. The Influence of Colour on 
Memory Performance: A Review. The Malaysian Journal of Medical Sciences: 
MJMS. 20(2), pp. 3–9.

• EDITORS, H. COM, 2009. Ford factory workers get 40-hour week. . HISTORY. 
(Accessed: 7 August 2020) Available at: https://www.history.com/this-day-in�history/ford-factory-workers-get-40-hour-week.

• ELLIOT, A.J., MAIER, M.A., MOLLER, A.C., FRIEDMAN, R., & MEINHARDT, 
J., 2007. Color and psychological functioning: The effect of red on performance 
attainment. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 136(1), pp. 154–168.

• EMSLIE, C. & HUNT, K., 2009. ‘Live to Work’ or ‘Work to Live’? A Qualitative 
Study of Gender and Work–life Balance among Men and Women in Mid-life. 
Gender, Work & Organization. 16(1), pp. 151–172.

• Ergonomic guide to computer based workstations, 2012, p. 19.

• FACER-CHILDS, E.R., CAMPOS, B.M., MIDDLETON, B., SKENE, D.J., & 
BAGSHAW, A.P., 2019. Circadian phenotype impacts the brain’s resting-state 58
functional connectivity, attentional performance, and sleepiness. Sleep. 42(5), p. 
zsz033.

• FAGERHOLM, F., IKONEN, M., KETTUNEN, P., MÜNCH, J., ROTO, V., & 
ABRAHAMSSON, P., 2015. Performance Alignment Work: How software 
developers experience the continuous adaptation of team performance in Lean and 
Agile environments. Information and Software Technology. 64, pp. 132–147.

• Figure 2. Economic costs of insufficient sleep across five OECD..., n.d.

• FINCHAM, J.E., 2008. Response Rates and Responsiveness for Surveys, Standards, 
and the Journal. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education. 72(2).

• GABRIEL, J. & ASAWO, S., 2017. Physical workplace environment and employee 
engagement: A theoretical exploration by Madu, N. G., Asawo, S. P. and Gabriel, 
J.M.O. International Journal of Arts and Humanity. 1, pp. 867–884.

• GINO, F. & STAATS, B., 2015. It’s the Weekend! Why Are You Working? Harvard 
Business Review.

• GLAVESKI, S., 2018. The Case for the 6-Hour Workday. Harvard Business Review.

• GOLDEN, L., 2012. The Effects of Working Time on Productivity and Firm 
Performance, Research Synthesis Paper by Lonnie Golden: SSRN. Pennsylvania 
State University - Abington College; Economic Policy Institute; Project for Middle 
Class Renewa, p. 43.

• GOLDEN, L., LAMBERT, S., HENLY, J., & WIENS-TUERS, B., 2010. Working 
Time in the Employment Relationship: Perceived Control and Work-Life Balance. 
Research Handbook on the Future of Work and Employment Relations.

• GOSWAMI, R., 2012. Shift work and its effects on social and personal life of shift 
workers. International Journal of Research in Management, Economics and 
Commerce. 2.

• GOUDSWAARD, A., DHONDT, S., VERGEER, R., OEIJ, P., DE LEEDE, J., VAN 
ADRICHEM, K., CSIZMADIA, P., MAKO, C., ILLESY, M., & TOTH, A., 2012. 
Organisation of working time: Implications for productivity and working conditions 
- Overview Report. European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and 
Working Condiditons, p. 72.59

• HAAR, J., 2018. Final Perpetual Guardian report_Professor Jarrod Haar_July 2018, 
p. 12.

• HANSIKA, W.A.M. & AMARATHUNGA, P.A.B.H., 2016. Impact of Office 
Design on Employees’ Productivity; A Case Study of Banking Organizations of 
North Western Province in Sri Lanka. SSRN Electronic Journal.

• HARRINGTON, J.M., 2001. Health effects of shift work and extended hours of work. 
Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 58(1), pp. 68–72.

• HAYES, R., KYER, B., & WEBER, E., 2015. The Case Study Cookbook.

• HAYNES, B., SUCKLEY, L., & NUNNINGTON, N., 2017. Workplace productivity 
and office type: An evaluation of office occupier differences based on age and gender. 
Journal of Corporate Real Estate. 19(2), pp. 111–138.

• HOSKINS, D., 2014. Employees Perform Better When They Can Control Their 
Space. Harvard Business Review.

• ILO, 2019. Guide to developing balanced working time arrangements. Geneva, 
Switzerland: International Labour Organization.

• IOFRIDA, N., DE LUCA, A.I., STRANO, A., & GULISANO, G., 2014. Social Life 
Cycle Assessment in a constructivist realism perspective: a methodological proposal. 
ResearchGate. Presented at Macombe C. and Loeillet D. (eds). Social LCA in 
progress. Pre-Proceedings of the 4th International Seminar in Social LCA, 
Montpellier, France.

• İŞ KANUNUNA İLİŞKİN ÇALIŞMA SÜRELERİ YÖNETMELİĞİ, 2004, 2004-6-4.

• JENSEN, R.W., DUPAIX, L., & WOOLSEY, M., 2008. Software Development Cost 
Estimating Handbook. Naval Center for Cost Analysis Air Force Cost Analysis Agency. 1.

• JOHNSON, B., ZIMMERMANN, T., & BIRD, C., 2019. The Effect of Work 
Environments on Productivity and Satisfaction of Software Engineers. IEEE 
Transactions on Software Engineering), pp. 1–1.

• KAMARULZAMAN, N., SALEH, A.A., HASHIM, S.Z., HASHIM, H., & ABDUL�GHANI, A.A., 2011. An Overview of the Influence of Physical Office Environments 
Towards Employee. Procedia Engineering, 20), pp. 262–268.60

• KAZEMI, R., HAIDARIMOGHADAM, R., MOTAMEDZADEH, M., 
GOLMOHAMADI, R., SOLTANIAN, A., & ZOGHIPAYDAR, M.R., 2006. Effects 
of Shift Work on Cognitive Performance, Sleep Quality, and Sleepiness among 
Petrochemical Control Room Operators. Journal of Circadian Rhythms. 14.

• KAZEMI, R., MOTAMEDZADE, M., GOLMOHAMMADI, R., MOKARAMI, H., 
HEMMATJO, R., & HEIDARIMOGHADAM, R., 2018. Field Study of Effects of 
Night Shifts on Cognitive Performance, Salivary Melatonin, and Sleep. Safety and 
Health at Work. 9(2), pp. 203–209.

• KELLEY, K., CLARK, B., BROWN, V., & SITZIA, J., 2003. Good practice in the 
conduct and reporting of survey research. International Journal for Quality in Health 
Care. 15(3), pp. 261–266.

• KEOGAN, J., 2020. Research Philosophy & Purpose.

• KHAN, R., SURTI, A., REHMAN, R., and ALI, U., 2012. Knowledge and practices 
of ergonomics in computer users. J Pak Med Assoc. 62(3), p. 5.

• KIM, J. & DE DEAR, R., 2013. Workspace satisfaction: The privacy-communication 
trade-off in open-plan offices. Journal of Environmental Psychology. 36, pp. 18–26.

• KINGSLEY, A., 2012. THE IMPACT OF OFFICE ERGONOMICS ON 
EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE; A CASE STUDY OF THE GHANA NATIONAL 
PETROLEUM CORPORATION (GNPC), p. 76.

• KWALLEK, N., LEWIS, C.M., & ROBBINS, A.S., 1988. Effects of Office Interior 
Color on Workers’ Mood and Productivity. Perceptual and Motor Skills. 6(1), pp. 123–128.

• LEBLEBICI, D., 2012. IMPACT OF WORKPLACE QUALITY ON EMPLOYEE’S 
PRODUCTIVITY: CASE STUDY OF A BANK IN TURKEY. Journal of Business, p. 12.

• LORING MOSS, R. & CURTIS, T.D., 1985. The economics of flextime. Journal of 
Behavioral Economics. 14(2), pp. 95–114.

• LYONS, M., LAVELLE, K., & SMITH, D., 2017a. U.S. EDITION GEN Z RISING.

• LYONS, M., LAVELLE, K., & SMITH, D., 2017b. FRANCE EDITION GEN Z RISING.

• LYONS, M., LAVELLE, K., & SMITH, D., 2017c. 2017 EDITION GEN Z RISING.61

• MARBERRY, S.O. & ZAGON, L., 1995. The Power of Color: Creating Healthy 
Interior Spaces. John Wiley & Sons.

• MARUTHAPPAPANDIAN, J., CHELLAIYAN, V., ALI, F.L., & AVINASH, D., 
2019. Healthy workplace with ergonomics among software engineers: a review. 
International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health. 6, p. 4605.

• MEDNICK, S.C., NAKAYAMA, K., CANTERO, J.L., ATIENZA, M., LEVIN, 
A.A., PATHAK, N., & STICKGOLD, R., 2002. The restorative effect of naps on 
perceptual deterioration. Nature Neuroscience. 5(7), pp. 677–681.

• MEYER, A., BARR, E.T., BIRD, C., & ZIMMERMANN, T., 2019. Today was a 
Good Day: The Daily Life of Software Developers. IEEE Transactions on Software 
Engineering), pp. 1–1.

• MICHAELIDOU, N. & DIBB, S., 2006. Using email questionnaires for research: 
Good practice in tackling non-response. Journal of Targeting, Measurement and 
Analysis for Marketing. 14, pp. 289–296.

• MILLS, P.R., TOMKINS, S.C., & SCHLANGEN, L.J., 2007. The effect of high 
correlated colour temperature office lighting on employee wellbeing and work 
performance. Journal of Circadian Rhythms. 5, p. 2.

• MURPHY, G.C., KERSTEN, M., ELVES, R., & BRYAN, N., 2019. Enabling 
Productive Software Development by Improving Information Flow. In: C. Sadowski 
and T. Zimmermann, eds. Rethinking Productivity in Software Engineering), pp. 281–292.

• MURPHY-HILL, E., JASPAN, C., SADOWSKI, C., SHEPHERD, D.C., PHILLIPS, 
M., WINTER, C., DOLAN, A.K., SMITH, E.K., & JORDE, M.A., 2019. What 
Predicts Software Developers’ Productivity? Transactions on Software Engineering.

• NZWRI, 2018. It’s official: Four-day week becomes permanent at Kiwi company 
Perpetual Guardian - New Zealand Work Research Institute. (Accessed: 7 August 
2020) Available at: https://workresearch.aut.ac.nz/media-and-events/media�mentions/its-official-four-day-week-becomes-permanent-at-kiwi-company�perpetual-guardian.

• OKSAY, Y., 2018. Yazılım Sektörü 50 Milyar $’a Koşuyor – TBD Türkiye Bilişim 
Derneği. . Türkiye Bilişim Derneği/Turkish Informatics Association. (Accessed: 15 62
July 2020) Available at: https://www.tbd.org.tr/yazilim-sektoru-50-milyar-a�kosuyor/.

• OWEN, J.D., 1977. Flexitime: Some Problems and Solutions. Industrial and Labor 
Relations Review. 30(2), pp. 152–160.

• ÖZTÜRK, E., 2010. THE EFFECTS OF COLOR SCHEME ON THE APPRAISAL 
OF AN OFFICE ENVIRONMENT AND TASK PERFORMANCE, p. 145.

• PENCAVEL, J., 2015. The Productivity of Working Hours. The Economic Journal. 
125(589), pp. 2052–2076.

• PRICE, M., 2011. The risks of night work. American Psychological Association. 
42(1), p. 38.

• RAVINDRAN, D., 2019. Ergonomic Impact on Employees’ Work Performance. 6, 
pp. 237–242.

• ROELOFSEN, C., 2002. The impact of office environments on employee 
performance: The design of the workplace as a strategy for productivity enhancement. 
Journal of Facilities Management. 1, pp. 247–264.

• ROSENBERG, J., MAXIMOV, I.I., RESKE, M., GRINBERG, F., & SHAH, N.J., 
2014. “Early to bed, early to rise”: Diffusion tensor imaging identifies chronotype�specificity. NeuroImage. 84, pp. 428–434.

• SARODE, D.A.P. & SHIRSATH, M., 2012. The Factors Affecting Employee Work 
Environment & It’s Relation with Employee Productivity. 3(11), p. 3.

• SATO, K., KURODA, S., & OWAN, H., 2020. Mental health effects of long work 
hours, night and weekend work, and short rest periods. Social Science & 
Medicine.246, p. 112774.

• SEDDIGH, A., STENFORS, C., BERNTSSON, E., BÅÅTH, R., SIKSTRÖM, S., & 
WESTERLUND, H., 2015. The association between office design and performance 
on demanding cognitive tasks. Journal of Environmental Psychology. 42, pp. 172–181.

• SEPPÄNEN, O., FISK, W., & LEI-GOMEZ, Q., 2006. Effect of temperature on task 
performance in office environment. Presented at 5th International Conference on 
Cold Climate Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning, 3Lawrence Berkeley 
National Laboratory, USA.63

• SETIA, M.S., 2016. Methodology Series Module 3: Cross-sectional Studies. Indian 
Journal of Dermatology. 61(3), pp. 261–264.

• SHEEHAN, K.B., 2001. E-mail Survey Response Rates: a Review. Journal of 
Computer-Mediated Communication.6(2).

• SHIELDS, M., 2002. Shift work and health. Health Statistics Division at Statistics 
Canada,.13(4), pp. 11–33.

• SHIKDAR, A. & AL KINDI, M., 2007. Office Ergonomics: Deficiencies in 
Computer Workstation Design. International journal of occupational safety and 
ergonomics: JOSE. 13, pp. 215–23.

• STOREY, M.-A., ZIMMERMANN, T., BIRD, C., CZERWONKA, J., MURPHY, 
B., & KALLIAMVAKOU, E., 2019. Towards a Theory of Software Developer Job 
Satisfaction and Perceived Productivity. IEEE Transactions on Software 
Engineering), pp. 1–1.

• SUNDSTROM, E., BURT, R.E., & KAMP, D., 1980. Privacy at Work: Architectural 
Correlates of Job Satisfaction and Job Performance. Academy of Management 
Journal. 23(1), pp. 101–117.

• The Costs of Insufficient Sleep, 2016. RAND Corporation.

• UNC, 2020. Office Ergonomics. . The University of North Carolina. (Accessed: 7 
August 2020) Available at: https://ehs.unc.edu/workplace-safety/ergonomics/office/.

• WAGNER, S. & RUHE, M., 2018. A Systematic Review of Productivity Factors in 
Software Development. arXiv:1801.06475 (cs).

• WIRTZ, A., NACHREINER, F., & ROLFES, K., 2011. Working on Sundays–Effects 
on Safety, Health, and Work-life Balance. Chronobiology International. 28(4), pp. 
361–370.

• WYON, D. & WARGOCKI, P., 2006. Room temperature effects on office work. 
Creating the Productive Workplace, pp. 181–192.

• YAZIS, M. & ALI BASAH, M.Y., 2020. CORPORATE SOCIAL 
RESPONSIBILITY AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENTAL RISK 
MANAGEMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF THE BANKING SECTOR OF 
MALAYSIA
citation:   Doga Zeynep, Germen  (2020) Creating an Optimal Structure of Working Times and Workplace Environment to Maximize the Performance Level of Software Developers in Turkey.  Masters thesis, Griffith College.   
document_url: http://go.griffith.ie/394/1/Doga%20Zeynep%20Germen.pdf
document_url: http://go.griffith.ie/394/2/Doga%20Zeynep%20Germen.txt