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Chapter 16
Designing Work for People
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Module 1: Human Factors Engineering (HFE)
• Importance & meaning of human factors– Uses knowledge of human capabilities to design jobs,
machines/tools, & products for safe, efficient, & comfortable human use
– Assumes that workers are a constant & that work needs to adapt to the worker
– Early days of the factory marked by little concern for human capabilities & limitations
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Human Factors Models
• Driving forces of major system design issues– Technology
• Computerization, automation, task complexity/ speed, information display, & general
– Society• Demography, skill/education trends, geopolitical
change, & litigation/consumerism
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Human Factors View of the Workplace
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Figure 16.3The Human Factors Viewof the WorkplaceSource: AppliedErgonomics (1974).
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Interaction of Worker & Equipment
• Input component• Provides information to human or computer
• Output component• Receives information from human or computer &
converts the information to action
• Displays• Provides an individual with information
• Controls• Permits an individual to take actions
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Worker/Equipment Interaction
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Figure 16.4 The Interaction of Worker and EquipmentSource: AppliedErgonomics (1974).
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Modern Human Factors Challenge: Cell Phones & Driving
• Next time you drive:– Observe how many drivers are talking on their
cell phone…– Observe how they drive…an accident waiting
to happen?
• Recent laws ban use of handheld cell phones while driving in some states
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Module 2: Contemporary Work Design Challenges
• Technology– Automation
• Way of completing work through use of mechanical or electrical devices rather than through direct human action
• Common motivation: Eliminate humans from the system
– Issue of human error– But are humans ever really eliminated?
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Valuable Roles of Automation
Carrying out functions that humans can’t do
Carrying out functions that humans can do but do poorly
Assisting humans in areas where they have limitations
Freeing humans to do more satisfying & valuable work
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Costs of Automation
• Complexity– Increase potential for system failure
• Reliability– Operators may undertrust or overtrust an
automated system
• Communications– Critical to understand “conversation” between user
& system when designing an automated system
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Computers
• Human-computer interaction (HCI)– No general statement can be made about
the effect of computerization• Some jobs may become more important,
while others become less important• Must consider corresponding changes in
employee status, satisfaction, & motivation
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Computers (cont’d)
• User-centered design– Focuses on user during
system development– Usability engineering
• Participatory design
• Concentration on usability represents shift from a technological focus to a strategic focus
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Work Schedules
• Shift work– Much research centered on the 24-hour or
circadian rhythm of humans– 2 different types
• Fixed shift• Rotating shift
– More likely to be associated with problems than fixed shifts
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Flexible & CompressedWorkweek Schedules
• Flextime• Workers are given discretion over the time they
arrive at & leave work on a given day
• Compressed workweek• Workers may work longer than 8 hours a day &
fewer than 5 days a week
• Consequences of flextime & compressed workweeks
• Telecommuting
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Approaches to WorkDesign & Redesign
• Motivational approach– Used to increase worker satisfaction &
reduce turnover through modification of motivational levels
• Mechanistic approach– Used to increase productive efficiency
through modification of tasks or equipment
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Approaches to Work Design & Redesign (cont’d)
• Perceptual-motor approach– Used to reduce errors or accidents through
knowledge of perceptual-motor skills & abilities
• Biological approach– Used to reduce injuries & increase physical
comfort through reduction of fatigue & discomfort
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Work Design & Disabilities
• Americans with Disabilities Act– Accommodation
• If disabled worker can perform essential function with an accommodation & the accommodation is reasonable & feasible, then employer is required to make that accommodation
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Accommodation (cont’d)
• Examples accommodations:• Eliminating (or shifting) marginal tasks that pose
challenges for the disabled worker
• Redesigning work procedures
• Altering work schedules
• Providing technology or support for employees with reading or visual disabilities
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Accommodation (cont’d)
• Vanderheiden’s design & redesign approaches for accommodating various disabilities– Change the individual
– Provide the individual with tools
– Change the way the work is designed
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Work Design & Disabilities (cont’d)
• Cross-cultural issue in disability & design– Hofstede’s individualism-collectivism dimension
– Important for multinational organizations to examine extent to which spirit of “accommodation” requirement is met in non-U.S. facilities
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Module 3: Safety in the Workplace
• Injury– Overexertion
– Impact accidents
– Falls
– Bodily reaction to chemicals
– Compression
– Motor vehicle accidents
• Death– Motor vehicle related
– Falls
– Electrical current
– Drowning
– Fire related
– Air transport related
– Poison
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Most frequent causes of workplace deaths & injuries
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Safety Regulation
• Occupational Safety & Health Act– Federal agencies that maintain & enforce the Act
• Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA)
• National Institute of Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH)
– While necessary, legislation is not a sufficient condition for worker safety
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Traditional Approaches to Workplace Safety
• Model of unsafe behavior
– An accident requires a hazard & a behavior (unsafe act)
– There is never 1 cause of an accident but multiple factors that interact
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Model of Factors Contributing to
Workplace Accidents
Figure 16.6 A Model of Factors Contributingto Workplace AccidentsSource: Adapted from Sanders & McCormick (1993).
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Traditional Approaches to Workplace Safety (cont’d)
• Engineering approach– Assumes that individual will engage in an
action that might lead to injury unless environment prevents that action
– 3 levels of “prevention”• Design level• Safeguard level• “Warning” level
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Examples of Pictorials Conveying Hazard Information
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Figure 16.7 Examples of PictorialsConveying Hazard Information Source: Laughery & Wogalter (1997).
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Engineering Approach (cont’d)
• 4 characteristics of effective warning at the basic level
• It must catch worker’s attention• It must identify the hazard• It must inform worker of consequences of
not avoiding the hazard• It must tell worker how to avoid the hazard
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Two Kinds of Hazard Warnings
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Figure 16.8 Two Kinds of Hazard Warnings Source: Laughery & Wogalter (1997).
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Engineering Approach Ergonomics
• Close connections with the field of exercise physiology– Work safety: most commonly studied injuries
are lower back & upper extremity disorders• Another common injury: Cumulative trauma
disorder (CTD; e.g., Carpal tunnel syndrome)
• Correct design of tools, keyboards, & motions can greatly reduce risk of CTDs
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Traditional Approaches to Workplace Safety (cont’d)
• Personnel approach– Assumes that “safe” individuals can be
selected or trained
– Myth of accident proneness• Certain demographic characteristics,
abilities, & personality characteristics may be associated with unsafe behavior
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Traditional Approaches to Workplace Safety (cont’d)
• Motivational approach– Assumes worker is capable of behaving
safely, but may choose not to → worker must be motivated to behave safely
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Newer Approaches to Safety
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• 3 levels play a role in safe behavior– Individual level
– Micro-organizational level
– Macro-organizational level
• Role of leaders in safety
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Newer Approaches to Safety (cont’d)
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• Safety climate & culture– Safety culture ranges along a continuum from a
strong emphasis on safety to disregard for it– There must be commitment at every org. level– Group leader seems to be central to process by
which culture is adopted by individual work groups
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Module 4: Violence at Work
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Violent actions carried out by a non-employee against an employee
Vs.
Violence perpetrated by employees & directed toward fellow employees
• Many hypotheses for why workplace has become more violent since the early 1990s
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3 Levels of Violence
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• Level 1• Spreads rumors & gossip to harm others,
consistently argues with co-workers
• Level 2• Refuses to obey company policies & procedures,
verbalizes wishes to hurt co-workers or management
• Level 3• Recurrent physical fights, destruction of property
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Experiential Sequence of Violence Perpetrators
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Figure 16.12 Routine Experiential Sequence of ViolencePerpetratorsSource: Based on Kinney(1995).
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“Typical” Violent Worker
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• Most cases of workplace violence involve some feeling of being treated unfairly, & perpetrator has some real or imaginary grievance against organization or a person in the organization
• Characteristics of a violent worker– May include: Abuses alcohol, has a history of violence,
has difficult accepting authority, is a white male 25-30 years of age
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Theories of Workplace Violence
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• Frustration-aggression hypothesis– Argues that frustration leads to aggression– Ultimately found to be too broad
• Not all frustrated individuals act aggressively & not all aggressive acts are a result of frustration
– Modern view: Frustration leads to stress reaction & individual expends energy to relieve this stress
– High self-esteem is associated with violence
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Employee Behavior as a Result of Frustration & Employee Control
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Figure 16.13 Constructive and Destructive Employee Behavior as a Result of Frustration and Employee ControlSource: Spector (2000).
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Theories of Workplace Violence (cont’d)
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• “Justice” hypothesis– Proposes that some violent acts can be
understood as reactions by an employee against perceived injustice
– Relevance to the 3 types of justice• Layoffs & firings• Performance appraisals
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Special Type of Violence: Bullying
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• Bullying - Harassing, offending, socially excluding, or assigning humiliating tasks to subordinate repeatedly & over long period of time
– 4 steps in escalation• A critical incident
• Bullying & stigmatizing
• Organizational intervention
• Expulsion of the victim
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Conclusions About Workplace Violence
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• Employees need avenues for communicating concerns about the fairness of organizational decisions that affect them
• Managers need to be sensitive to signs of potential trouble in form of individual worker behaviors
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Permissions
Slide 1: McGraw-Hill Education Digital Image Library, PhotoDisc/Getty Images, Source Image ID: BU009512, Filename: OS40098.JPG
Slides 4 & 6: Figures 16.3 & 16.4 from Applied Ergonomics (1974). Applied ergonomics handbook, pp. 10, 12. Surrey, UK: IPC Science and Technology Press. Used by permission of Elsevier Science/Harcourt.
Slide 7: McGraw-Hill Education Digital Image Library, Royalty-Free/CORBIS, Source Image ID: CB004939, Filename: BOM0054.JPG
Slide 12: McGraw-Hill Education Digital Image Library, Steve Cole/Getty Images, Source Image ID: AA047639, Filename: 127027.JPG
Slide 24: Figure 16.6 adapted from Sanders, M. S., & McCormick, E. J. (1993). Human factors in engineering and design, 7th ed., p. 321. New York: McGraw-Hill. Used by permission of The McGraw-Hill Companies.
Slides 26 & 28: Figures 16.7 & 16.8 from Laughery, K. R. Sr., & Wogalter, M. S. (1997). Warnings and risk perception. In G. Salvendy, Handbook of human factors and ergonomics, 2nd ed., pp. 1184, 1188. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Copyright © 1997. This material is used by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Slide 34: McGraw-Hill Education Digital Image Library, Filename: OS05005.JPG
Slide 36: Figure 16.12: Routine Experiential Sequence of Violence Perpetrators Source: Based on Kinney (1995).Violence at work: How to make your company safer for employees and customers. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Slide 39: Figure 16.13 from Spector, P. E. (2000). Industrial and organizational psychology: Research and practice, 2nd ed., p. 242. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Reproduced with permission.
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