Optimizing the workplace: The interplay between working environment, corporate outcomes and employee well-being

Mario Daniele Amore, Morten Bennedsen, Birthe Larsen and Zeyu Zhao

No 19298, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: Using large-scale employee surveys and register data from Denmark, we construct firm-level measures of the working environment capturing its physical, psycholog- ical, and social elements. Our analysis reveals that firms with superior working en- vironments perform better in unannounced, third-party job inspections conducted by a government agency. Additionally, these firms demonstrate higher profitability and enhanced innovation quality, as evidenced by patent citations and survey data. Further, leveraging official medical records, we find that employees in firms with better working environments are less likely to experience mental health issues, have fewer workplace accidents, and exhibit lower levels of absenteeism. Collectively, our findings support a synergistic perspective on stakeholder and investor objectives: improving the working environment does not create a trade-off between shareholder value and employee well-being but rather leads to higher gains for both parties.

Keywords: Workplace climate; Working conditions; Surveys (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G30 M14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-07
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP19298 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19298

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP19298

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CEPR ().