A Systematic Review of Office Environment, Ergonomic Design and Secretaries’ Job Satisfaction in Colleges of Education in Northeast Nigeria

Better physical working conditions are widely expected to raise job satisfaction, yet little of the evidence comes from secretaries. This review asks what the published record says about office environment, ergonomic design and job satisfaction, and whether it holds for secretaries in Nigerian colleges of education. Of 43 empirical studies summarised in a doctoral literature review, 19 met the eligibility criteria. Seventeen reported a positive association, two a conditional one, and none a null result. No included study sampled secretaries, only one was set in Northeast Nigeria, and four of the 18 primary studies described probability or census sampling. A companion survey of 338 secretaries in fifteen colleges found no association for office environment (β = .036, p = .511) and a very small one for ergonomic design (β = .111, p = .042). Physical conditions seem to matter less for satisfaction than the literature implies.

Keywords: office environment, ergonomic design, job satisfaction, secretaries, systematic review.