Job and Work Design

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CHAPTER 12

• Job and Work Design

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Human Factors Psychology

• Also known as Engineering Psychology or
  ergonomics ( also referred to as the human
  factors field)
• Designed to integrate both human and physical
  perspectives when designing systems and the
  workplace

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Role of the Human Factors
Psychologist

• Is to be involved with the system development to
  improve the success rate of the system
• This type of psychology revolves around the
  person-machine interface, being able to make
  components so that a person and machine can
  function together
• Workplace design

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Person-Machine system
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Roles of people and machines

• The first step in person-machine systems is to
  decide which tasks the person will do and what
  tasks the machine will do
• And the advantages of both human and machines

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Advantages of human and
machines

• HUMAN
• Better at interpreting and dealing with events
  that occur
• Creative solutions to problems
• Ability to learn

• MACHINE
• Able to operate in a very dangerous setting
• Functions for a longer period of time
• Stronger and reacts faster than a human

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Person-machine

• Being able to combine the strengths of the human
  and machine
• Equally important is the ability to transfer in
  formation from the machine to the human

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Display

• The display is the presentation of information to
  the human by the machine
• It can be presented to the human either by visual
  or auditory means or the least used Tactile and
  Olfactory displays
• Visual displays should be chosen if the message
  is long and complex
• Auditory display is better if the message is
  short and must be dealt with immediately

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Issues in designing visual display

• Making sure the visual display represents the
  information
• How well the information is presented or mapped
  (mapping the relationship between the real world
  and the display)
• Placement of the display
• Visual recognition

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Enhancing interpretation of
displays

• Standardized placement of the display
• Placing the display at eye level using a Heads-up
  display (HUD)
• Choice of color to indicate a change from normal
  to abnormal or an annunciator (a display that
  announces a change that requires immediate
  attention)

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Auditory Display

• Better used for critical malfunctions than visual
  displays
• Beeps tend to get peoples attention and produce
  the quickest response

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Tactile and Olfactory display

• Tactile or the touch sense is used in some cases
  e.g. a pager or cell phone that vibrates
• Olfactory or smell is limited in its usefulness
  because people adapt to smell, the most common
  Olfactory signal is the odor of natural gas

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Controls

• Controls are what allows the human to control the
  machine
• Its also the most important part of designing a
  person-machine system
• There are 4 things to consider when designing
  controls affordance, compatibility,
  standardization, and ability to choose the
  correct controls

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Control Design

• Affordance
• a control device that allows only the intended
  use
• Compatibility
• a control that meets a persons expectations
• Spatial compatibility
• A control that represents action in the real
  world
• Movement compatibility
• A control that represents movement in the real
  world

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Work space design

• Its easy to design a workplace baked on the
  physical features of the average person
• But psychological factors can prevent the best
  use of the equipment

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Workplace envelope

• The three dimensional workspace in which a person
  uses his/her hands
• General practice is to use designs that fit about
  95 of the population that uses the workplace
  envelope
• In 1993, Sanders and McCormick offered a system
  of prioritys when designing the workplace
  envelope

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Workplace envelope design

• Primary visual tasks
• Controls for interaction with the visual task
• Display relation ship
• Arrangement of elements that are used in a
  sequence
• Conveniently locate the elements that are use
  frequently
• Consistency

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Computer and human factors

• Problems with Ergonomic computer workspace design
• Poorly set up workstation
• Fix set of standardizations
• Physical strain

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Repetitive motion injury

• Caused by many repetitions of a small motor
  behavior
• 1 in 6 computer users will develop a repetitive
  motion injury
• Costliest compensation claim
• Solutions
• Vary the work the employees do
• Job enlargement
• Job rotation

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Nontraditional work schedules

• Dual-income Familys
• Nontraditional schedule was designed for the
  dual-income familys and couples
• Alternative work arrangements, such as, flextime,
  telecommuting, job sharing and shift work

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Shift work

• Meets staffing needs after regular working hours
• Moonlighting
• Working a second or third job in addition to
  ones regular job
• Circadian rhythms
• 24 hour functioning cycles

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Compressed workweek

• Working the same number of hours in fewer days
  per week
• Higher job satisfaction
• Operation costs are reduced
• More time spent with the employees family

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Flextime

• Allows the worker to choose the work schedule
  except for the core hours
• Gliding time allows workers to changer their
  hours with no prior notice
• Flexitour a is fixedtime schedule in which a
  worker is required to maintain a self-chosen
  schedule for a period of time
• Core hours is the central hours when all felxtime
  workers are required to be present at work

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Workplace design

• Workplace
• Workspaces of a group
• Open offices
• Eliminate individual offices or cubicles
• Bullpen Offices
• Workers desks are arranged to work in a group
• Landscaped Offices
• Separate employee offices