Influence analysis of environmental factors on the subjective well-being of office workers in Japan: A structural equation modeling approach

The built environment is believed to have a considerable influence on the well-being of individuals. However, very few studies have been conducted to clarify the influence structure on the well-being of occupants in office spaces. There is a need to assess the influence of environmental factors at work and quality of life on well-being. We conducted an online survey in three metropolitan areas of Japan to investigate the influence structure on the subjective well-being (SWB). The survey items included questions on SWB, employment, office environment, private life, and community, personal attributes, and spatial attributes of the offices where they work. It was hypothesized that the influence structure can be explained using a higher-order factor analysis model, wherein "quality of work," " quality of private life," and " quality of community" serve as the top factors. Consequently, a structural equation model with a high level of goodness of fit was developed (CFI = 0.908 and RMSEA = 0.044). Improving "quality of work" had a significant impact as a key factor in promoting SWB in this model. The importance of "job satisfaction," "fulfillment of office environment," and "work engagement" in the assessment of work quality was further clarified. The multi-group analysis demonstrated the impact of variations in personal and spatial attributes on the influence structure. For example, office environments with basic quality and adjustability were found to be more critical for enhancing SWB of environmentally sensitive workers. Future surveys with diverse sample groups are required to validate the model in this study.