Supplementary Reading material for students reading for M.Sc in Business Ergonomics

1. Module: Consumer Ergonomics
Name of Facilitator: Jayadeva De Silva
Psychology in
Ergonomics
Supplementary
Reading
material

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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%20F
S%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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