The effect of employee health, worker limitation, and health culture on job productivity among North Carolina state government employees

The North Carolina state government workforce has been documented as having decreased productivity in comparison to other private-sector employees. Poor health has affected productivity among North Carolina state government employees. Researchers have not measured the relations among employees' health conditions, health culture, and job productivity in North Carolina state government employees. This quantitative correlational research design measured the relations among employees' health conditions, health culture, and job productivity at multiple state employee sites in North Carolina. Overall, a significant relation between work limitation and productivity loss among the North Carolina state employees studied was indicated. As worker limitations increased, productivity loss increased. After controlling for worker limitations, organizational culture did not significantly predict productivity loss (p = .122). Further, worker limitations and organizational culture were only marginally correlated (r = .090), suggesting that the two variables were unique constructs. Organizational culture explained an additional 0.5% of the variance in productivity loss, after controlling for work limitation: R2 change = .005, F change (1, 487) = 2.320, p = .128. Further research is needed to examine why the responses indicated that a healthy culture did not directly influence productivity. A significant relation (p < .001) was found between departmental wellness support and organizational health culture: As departmental wellness support increased, organizational health culture increased (r = .634, R2 = .402, F (1, 500) = 335.469, p < .001). This study provides initial insight into the relation between health conditions and productivity and offers a foundation for both practice and further study to increase employee productivity.