Module: Consumer Ergonomics

Name of Facilitator: Jayadeva De Silva

Psychology in Ergonomics

Supplementary Reading material

Content

1. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................. 2

2. COGNITIVE FACTORS AND ITS IMPLICATION AT WORKPLACE.............................3

3. BUILDING A SAFER, EFFICIENT AND PRODUCTIVE ENVIRONMENT......................5

4. CONCLUSIONS.................................................................................................................... 6

REFERENCES.............................................................................................................................. 8

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1. Introduction

‘Ergonomics (or human factors) is the scientific discipline concerned with

understanding of the interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and

the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design, in order to

optimize human well-being and overall system performance.’ (Dul and Weerdmeester

2003). It is visible everywhere that human factors are applied in the physical

designing of many things such as motor vehicles, machinery, tools, kitchen

appliances, or even at our workplace. It is humans who interact with these elements,

thus human factors must be considered when designing anything that will be used by

a human being, so as to make the maximum use of it. At the same time lack of

application of Ergonomics in day-to-day activities or in workplace environment, seem

to have caused diastral results in the work place. According to Health and Safety

Executive Annual Statistic Report for Great Britain (2012/2013), ‘175, 000 reportable

injuries (defined as over-7-day absence) occurred, 2291 people died from

mesothelioma in 2011 and, thousands more died from other occupational cancers and

diseases such as COPD..... Britain has lost 22.7 million working days due to work-

related ill health and 4.3 million working days due to workplace injury. A more recent

estimate for injuries indicates that 5.2 million days were lost in 2012/13. ....Workplace

injuries and ill health (excluding cancer) cost society an estimated £13.8 billion in

2010/11 (based on 2011 prices). Such statistics are adequate for us to understand the

importance of better application of ergonomics in the workplace.

Ergonomics is multidisciplinary. It involves, Physical Ergonomics, Neuro-

ergonomics, Social or Organizational Ergonomics and Cognitive Ergonomics. (Cañas,

Velichkovsky and Velichkovsky). Physical Ergonomics is concerned with anatomical,

anthropometric, physiological and biomechanical parameters in static and dynamic

physical work. Neuroergonomics is about the application of more in-depth

neurophysiological methods such as brain imaging techniques. Social or

Organizational Ergonomics involves the optimization of sociotechnical work systems,

including their structures, policies and organizational processes. Thus, ergonomists

are often involved into the social design of communication systems, interaction

routines within the working groups, times and shifts schedules in a company, and

other related issues. Cognitive Ergonomics is concerned with the cognitive processes

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at work with an emphasis on an understanding of the situation and user performance.

This approach addresses problems such as perception, attitudes, attention distribution,

decision making, formation of learning skills, usability of human-computer systems,

and cognitive aspects of mental load, stress, human errors that intervenes in our day

today activities or at work. (Cañas, Velichkovsky and Velichkovsky). This key focus

of this essay is Cognitive Ergonomics and how we can apply this discipline in order to

build a productive, safer and efficient work environment. Few of these aspects are

discussed in depth, in understanding how to build a safer, efficient and a rewarding

work place in the purview of Cognitive Ergonomics.

Perception is identifying, organizing and interpreting sensory information to

represent and understand our environment (Schacter, 2011). People perceive different

things in different manner. For instance, one employee may perceive the newly

launched leadership programme negatively whereas another may perceive it to be a

positive depending on various reasons. Therefore in such a situation, it is important

that internal communication programmes focus on a consistent message that delivers

benefits of the leadership programme, right throughout in order to form a positive

perception in the minds of the employee, in order to build a positive perception about

the leadership programme.

An Attitude is “a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular

entity with some degree of favour or disfavour” (Eagly & Chaiken, 1998). Attitudes

have an impact on human behaviour. For instance a sales force with a positive attitude

is certainly going to bring in more sales to the organisation. Going back to the

Hawthorne experiments conducted in the USA during 1924 to 1932, it showed that

even post changing the working conditions in the control group, respondents reflected

better productivity, as they held a positive attitude towards work. Attitude formation

takes some time but an organisation can work towards, forming certain positive

attitudes in the minds of the workers. For instance ‘safety at work’ is an attitude.

‘Zero defects’ in the production line is an attitude. Studies also show that the impact

of work environment on safety should possibly be more geared towards motivating

people to actively participating in safety activities than finding fault with the worker

(Neal & Griffin 2006).

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Vigilance or ability to sustain attention is also an important aspect in cognitive

ergonomics. It is considered as an aid to maintain effectiveness, constant flow and

safety of an operation. It is however difficult for an individual to sustain attention if

they are stressed out, fatigued or pressurised. (Dutcher 2001). Nevertheless,

According to (Dismukes 2001), vigilant, conscientious or highly-skilled workers also

may prone to routine infractions. As cited by Gaultney and Collins-McNeil (2009)

Lim and Dinges (2008) has concluded that sleep deprivation affects attention

processes in several ways such as slowing responses and causing lapses in attention.

Aircraft pilots, doctors and other employees who take night shifts do experience this.

According to (Collins-McNeil 2009), on organization’s demanding employees to

work extra hours, ‘Despite what we know about the vital importance of sleep,

corporate culture often conflates sleeplessness with productivity and accomplishment,

either explicitly, by requiring employees to work extra hours, or more subtly by

admiring those who skimp on sleep. It would appear, however, that it is in the best

interest of a business to value sleep, to encourage employees to get enough sleep, and

to educate them about the importance of sleep and good sleep practices’

It is also important to realise that humans do make mistakes. As cited by (Gallimore

2004), (Shappell & Wiegmann 1997) has mentioned that ‘Human beings by their very

nature make mistakes; therefore, it is unreasonable to expect error-free human

performance’. This understanding is very important especially in production settings.

Whilst it is a great mission to pursue to be ‘zero defect’, it is also important for

managers to accept that it is natural to make mistakes by human beings. In

complicated working context, demands on the user can be taxing and beyond the

'normal' parameters of physiological and psychological abilities. But most

organisations are concerned with taking measures to reducing technical errors of

machinery, equipment and tools and not errors attributable to humans are not

addressed as comprehensively. (Gallimore 2004). Airline industry provides many

examples of using ergonomics to avoid human errors. However over trusting a system

too much also can be misleading. The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident

is result of over-trusting a system. The control panel has indicated that an important

valve had operated as instructed, and the control room operators trusted that the

system was reporting accurately. Actually, the valve had not operated as instructed,

but it created a hazard. Operators are blamed when they have performed as an

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ergonomist would expect them to do. In fact the actual cause of the accident has been

a control system design error that provided incorrect information to the operators

(http://ergoweb.com)

Psychological theories of focused auditory attention such as the Cherry's 'cocktail

party effect' (1953) were further expanded by Broadbent (1958) and Treisnam (1964)

in his filter theory and attenuation theory respectively. There seem to be some

evidence that focussed visual stimuli is similar to auditory stimuli (Eysenk & Keane

2000) and hence visual attention resembles a zoom lens rather than a spotlight. These

theories and findings would be useful in gaining a better understanding of human

factors especially in the areas of identifying safety and emergency protocols in

workplaces.

Decision making is also another cognitive element that could be applied to

ergonomics. "Control of critical incidents" is a part of decision making and mostly

relates to situations such as fire control, medical emergencies, military operations, the

rescue of victims of kidnappings, etc. The common feature underlying in all these

cases is that person in charge of these incidents makes decisions under time pressure

and with little information to prevent catastrophic consequences. Hence, despite

number of complex psychological processes are involved in such instances, decision-

making is considered to be the most important out of them. (Cañas, Velichkovsky and

Velichkovsky).

2. Building a safer, efficient and productive environment

Understanding the concept of cognitive ergonomics is not enough. It is important that

business leaders induce a culture that encourages application of Cognitive

Ergonomics. There are many ways to do so, and explained below are some real life

examples from the organisations that practices cognitive ergonomics.

Initiative to build a safer, productive and efficient environment is a responsibility of

both leaders and subordinates. One way is to building these elements to the

organisation’s operation system as well as organisation’s appraisal system. For

instance workforce at the spare parts facilities of Nissan in the Netherlands is a high

performing warehouse where employees work in teams. All teams are empowered

extensively and each is responsible for creating and meeting their own KPIs,

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pertaining to innovations in processes that lead to reduced cost, higher quality, and

increased safety. (RMS Insight 2011). This way, both cognitive and conative elements

are used to promote safety

Building safety and employee productivity to organisational policies and its core

values is another way to achieve this. Abbot being a health care provider has a global

environment, health and safety policy that is actively practiced. The policy applies to

all Abbott operations and employees worldwide. It highlights that it is the

responsibility of every employee to work safely, and to report practices or conditions

which are inconsistent with this policy or, which pose unacceptable risks to human,

health or the environment. Abbots core values as an organisation are, ‘Pioneering,

Achieving, Caring and Enduring’ (Abbot.com)

Improving ergonomics involving IT to improve safety is practiced at Intel. Intel has

taken an initiative to reduce the health care cost increase due to extensive computer

interaction by employees. Intel initiated a programme called safety management by

walking around where managers carried out an audit of safety issue by observing and

talking to employees. These data were then built into a single online database, where

IT managers became safety auditors. Intel also uses ergonomic risk management

software that has reduced the impact of cumulative trauma disorders and speech

recognition application to reduce the use of key board and the mouse.

Top management’s involvement is of utmost importance to building a safety, efficient

or productive culture. Leaders should encourage safety at work place as well as

general well being of the individuals. Certain organisations introduces, physical and

psychological therapy programmes, diet programmes in order to enhance the general

well being of people, which intern will result in efficient and productive workplace.

3. Conclusions

Cognitive ergonomics play a central role in designing a rewarding workplace.

Balancing both physical ergonomics and cognitive ergonomics will satisfy the

workforce by ensuring health and well being of the employees. In order for the

workplace to be effective and efficient the organisation design and processes should

engage a balanced combination of cognitive ergonomics, physical ergonomics and

social/organisational ergonomics. This will help retain a loyal work force and also it

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will help organisation attract good talent out there, as it will help develop a good

brand proposition as a good employer, which people will look forward to be

employed at.

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References

I. Cañas,J,J, Velichkovsky B,B and Velichkovsky B,M, Human Factors and

Ergonomicshttp://tu-dresden.de viewed 20 October 2013

II. Dul, J, Weerdmeester, B, Ergonomics for Beginners, Taylor & Francis e -Library, 2003.

III. Dutcher, J. W. (2001). Attitudes toward flight safety at regional gliding school

(Atlantic). BSc directed study presented in fulfilment of AVIA314 course

requirements. The University of Newcastle, Australia. Available at

http://www.freewebs.com/johndutcher/documents/Attitudes%20Toward

%20FS%20at%20RGS%20%28A%29.pdf viewed 20th March

IV. Eagly, A. H. & Chaiken, S., 1998. Attitude Structure and Function. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College.

V. Eysenck, M. W. and Keane, M.T. (2000). Cognitive psychology: a student's

handbook. (4th edn). Psychology Press Limited.

VI. Gallimore, J. J. (2004) Importance of Human Factors in Quality Improvement.

http://www.med.wright.edu/sites/default/files/hsm/humanfactos.pdf viewed 20

May 2013.

VII. Gaultney, J, & Collins-McNeil, J 2009, 'Lack of sleep in the workplace: What the psychologist-manager should know about sleep', The Psychologist-Manager Journal, 12, 2, pp. 132-148, PsycARTICLES, EBSCOhost, viewed 31 October 2013.

VIII. Health and Safety Executive, Annual statistic report for Great Britain 2012/2013 http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/overall/hssh1213.pdf viewed 20 October 2013

IX. http://ergoweb.com

X. Intel White Paper Employee productivity January 2012, Improving workplace ergonomics through IT@ ww.intel.com/content/www/us/en/it-management/intel-it-best-practices/improving-workplace-ergonomics-through-it.html viewed 10 October 2013

XI. Neal, A. and Griffin, M. A. (2006). A Study of the Lagged Relationships

among Safety Climate, Safety Motivation, Safety Behaviour, and Accidents at

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the Individual and Group Levels. Journal of Applied Psychology. Vol. 91, No.

4. Available from doi:10.1037/0021-9010.91.4.946 viewed 20 May 2013

XII. RMS Insight 1st Quarter 2011 Rotterdam School Of Management, Erasmus University

XIII. Schacter, D., 2011. Psychology. New York: Worth Publishers.

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