AHFE Open AccessSocial and Occupational Ergonomics
Editors: Henrijs Kalkis, Zenija Roja
Topics: Social & Occupational Ergonomics
Publication Date: 2024
ISBN: 978-1-964867-28-1
DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1005314
Articles
The use of protective hearing devices and perceived noise disturbance and social climate in open office environments
Open office environments are architectural solutions that are believed to economize the use of office space and facilitate social interactions at work. However, research has shown that employees in open office environments may experience lower job satisfaction, stress reactions, and exhibit poorer performance. Exposure to noise in open office environments may prompt avoidance behaviours such as working from home, using meeting rooms for single use at work, or using protective hearing devices. We examine to what extent open office workers used protective hearing devices, and whether this use was related to reports of noise disturbance and if this use seemed to influence the perception of the social climate at work. Sixty-eight participants working in open office environments completed the survey. The participants worked within the same company and building but on three different floors. The use of protective devices, disturbance from noise, and social climate at work were assessed with questionnaires. The results showed that the participants were primarily disturbed by noise generated by colleagues. The social climate at work was in general perceived as relaxed and comfortable and encouraging and supportive. Fifty-four percent of the participants used protective hearing devices often or always, however this use was not significantly associated with perceived disturbance, self-rated hearing nor seemed to interact with the participants experience of the social climate at work. However, the participants frequent use of protective hearing devices is a behaviour that may interfere with the effectiveness of architectural and technical solutions such as sound masking that aim to add sounds designed to improve the intelligibly of speech and reduce overhearing.
Emilie Stroh, Roger Persson, Jonas Borell
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Information ergonomics and factors related to sociotechnical environments of work among Ghanaian HE faculty members
Maintaining performance in ubiquitous work environment is increasingly dependent on the quality of physical, cognitive and organizational ergonomics of work. During and after the pandemic there has been significant change in higher education of working environments. More work is done in sociotechnical environments spatially dispersed and even asynchronously. Recent changes cause challenges assessed by sense of self-efficacy, sense of self-regulation and directly information ergonomics related factors. It is also about the daily flow of work and how it has effect also on personal level. The paper brings about the findings of a survey conducted in two Ghanaian universities during autumn and winter 2023. Relatively large sample (n=250) helps to shed light on the key factors of information ergonomics. The paper also presents framework to assess organizational and individual perspectives of information ergonomics when working in sociotechnical environments. There are implications to digital literacy and organizational norms too.
Jussi Okkonen, Reetta Oksa, Edward White, Mia Laine
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Human Factors and Facial Recognition Technology in Emergency Response: An Integrative Review
Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) has the potential to enhance emergency response by improving efficiency, reducing response times, and potentially saving lives. It is important to explore both the benefits and challenges of implementing FRT in emergency response protocols and identify the gaps in research on its application in emergency response. This integrative review collected articles from 2010 onwards through keyword searches in titles and abstracts across multiple databases, with inclusion and exclusion criteria applied, focusing on English-language peer-reviewed articles mentioning specific keywords related to emergency services and facial recognition. Data collection involved converting PDFs to plain text and coding--both human and non-human--for thematic analysis refined over rounds of close readings for accuracy. The results reveal positive and mixed findings regarding FRT in emergency response across various studies. Several methodologies were employed, including machine learning and deep learning techniques, achieving high accuracy rates in identifying individuals, particularly in scenarios like disaster rescue and masked-face recognition during the COVID-19 pandemic. Studies also evaluated FRT's effectiveness in disaster victim identification, safety systems integration, and medical applications, showcasing its potential across different contexts. However, limitations such as challenges in real-world deployment, concerns regarding privacy and bias, and the need for further validation and standardization were highlighted across the studies, indicating areas for future research and development to enhance the technology's efficacy and ethical use. The review emphasizes the importance of addressing technical, ethical, and governance challenges to deploy FRT effectively and responsibly in emergency response, serving as a valuable resource for stakeholders and researchers seeking to understand and advance the field.
Aimee Roundtree
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Fitting New Needs and Requests of Transport-Related Professions: The Freight Industry and Truck Drivers' Profession
Nowadays society, being characterized by fast technological development, is imposing new educational needs at all educational levels. Therefore, the human resources for a demanding labor market must be prepared for throughout life learning, adapting each one’s activity to the technological development, and have digital skills be creative, and adaptable to technological advances and the related changes, as resources to anticipate, adapt, react, create, and improve in their working context. In this era of change, human capital needs are evolving quickly, imposing new challenges and perspectives on the new generation of students to be qualified in the current labor market. The most advanced industries, like the Automotive and the Transport Sectors, need to attract and keep a skilled and creative workforce, with the motivation and ability to learn throughout life, be comfortable with fast change, and work in an interactive and collaborative environment to design and manage highly complex sociotechnical systems. The new challenges of Industry 4.0 and 5.0, in both the automotive industry and transport sectors, call for educational areas and models that optimize and value soft skills (e.g. cognitive flexibility, intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, adaptability to change, initiative, creativity, and efficient communication in a digital environment). These are competencies and skills for project management and problem-solving, knowledge allowing for understanding the human-system interaction and cooperation, communication skills in multidisciplinary teamwork, adaptability to changes, and an enormous motivation to keep learning throughout life. This interdisciplinary approach imposes, both on research and practice, a need for multidisciplinary teams that are now a reality. So far, our educational system is composed of different levels until the end of high school followed by higher education choices. Thus, there is a gap that should be bridged. As an example, it should be referred to the truck driver’s profession, which is disappearing in most developed countries. The freight industry is fighting to hire a new truck driver. The existing ones are approaching retirement age, and the older ones refuse to learn to work with new in-vehicle technology. However, truck drivers are necessary, having a set of competencies that seem out of their function, generally assumed as just driving a truck. Vehicles equipped with connectivity and cooperative technology, such as modern trucks, particularly, truck platooning systems, require truck drivers with competencies to deal with the in-vehicle and infrastructure-integrated technologies, as well as a diversity of communication requests. If we compare the truck drivers’ profession with the aviation sector since its history, there is a strong difference. The recruitment of a pilot and a truck driver has been very different since the beginning of both professions. However, the new technological requests in the freight industry are changing the conditions to embrace the truck drivers’ profession. Thus, the creation of specific courses addressing the new competencies required for the truck drivers profession should be taken into consideration. This paper intends to propose new concerns, requests, and solutions for improving the freight industry.
Catarina Neto, Anabela Simoes
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Ergonomic Risk Factors of Musculoskeletal Injuries in Aviation Maintenance
The aviation maintenance mechanic faces a multitude of occupational hazards each day due to the complex nature of the work they perform on aircrafts. The most common problem reported by aviation maintenance mechanics was work related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). Studies have shown that aviation maintenance mechanics suffer WMSDs, most often affecting the back, head, neck and lower extremities. The objective of this study is to assess the risk of WMSDs and propose innovative engineering control of ergonomic hazards associated with aviation maintenance work in a local aviation maintenance hanger. The ergonomic assessment tool used was the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA). This ergonomic assessment tool uses a systematic process to evaluate whole body postural and risks associated with job tasks. Using the REBA worksheet, the evaluator assigns a score for each of the following body regions: wrists, forearms, elbows, shoulders, neck, trunk, back, legs, and knees. The scores for each of these body parts vary. The lower arm score can either be valued as a 1 or 2. The neck and wrist REBA score can range from 1 to 3. The legs are scored 1 to 4. The trunk is on a scale of 1 to 5 with the upper arm stretching as high as a score of 6. Although these scores have different boundaries, the lower they are, the better. Scoring a 1 in all these categories would ensure the workplace is ergonomically friendly and free of wide exposure to WMSDs. The assessment body region score was complied with the risk factor variables, (force/load score, coupling score and activity score) generating a single score that represents the risk level of WMSDs. This individual number tells the evaluator how urgent change is needed. After observing the aviation maintenance mechanics repairing an aircraft engine, an ergonomic risk assessment of the mechanic was conducted using the REBA tool. The final ergonomic assessment resulted in an average REBA score of 9, which represents the risk level of WMSDs. This score indicates that aviation mechanics are at a high risk of WMSDs. Interventions are recommended to reduce the risk of harm to aviation maintenance mechanics. Our study results show that aviation mechanics working at the assessed maintenance hanger are at high risk of WMSDs due to improper engineering controls. The aviation mechanics are subjected to musculoskeletal pain while working in awkward positions and repetitively repeating tasks with no ergonomic benefits. Implementing the recommended engineering controls that re-engineer work practices, processes, posture and body movement will reduce the potential risk of WMSDs. Utilizing ergo chairs, anti-fatigue mats, and ergonomically designed tools will improve the REBA score, resulting in low risk. The common theme of poor posture and lack of ergonomic friendly tasks throughout the worksite will be reduced to an acceptable level through ergonomic interventions.
Ali Aljaroudi
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Identification of Risk Factors in Work Environments with Ornamental Aquaculture Activities in Morelos
Global aquaculture comprises extraction fishing and aquaculture; both sectors pose occupational safety and health (OSH) challenges, with physically demanding tasks leading to higher injury rates. In Morelos, Mexico, the highest concentration of production units (UP) and ornamental fish production has persisted for over a decade. However, no research has delved into the inherent occupational risks of this activity, and there is a lack of knowledge regarding potential impacts on worker safety and health in this industry. This proposes a questionnaire to identify ergonomic risks in ornamental aquaculture activities and environments. It integrates five sections: physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic and psychosocial risk factors, the resulted questionnaire 84 questions with 112 response options.
Carlos Alejandro Martinez-ibanez, Martha Roselia Contreras-valenzuela
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Human Factors and Ergonomics in Patient Safety Within the Framework of Environmental, Social and Governance
The healthcare system is one of the keys to sustainable development and has historically embraced the social pillar of environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts, caring for patients and medical employees. Since the human factor and ergonomics (HFE) is part of the social efforts, integration of the HFE into the process and quality management system might create a new discourse also for management of patient safety system. Hence the integration of HFE in patient safety with the ESG framework is a current and evolving field of study. Aim of the research is to investigate scientific literature on the field of HFE in Patient Safety and ESG framework in order to develop systematic literature review on how to develop sustainable patient safety with HFE integration with ESG framework. Systematic literature review was performed during the study, using monographic and PRISMA method guidelines. Research results show that sustainable development is one of the key issues in the healthcare industry. Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE) scientific researches in patient safety have addressed various contemporary factors, including technology use, human errors and its role in patient safety, work efficiency and work abilities in patient safety a.o. Integrating HFE in patient safety with the ESG framework can lead to a holistic approach towards improving patient safety and healthcare outcomes and most importantly – provide sustainable patient safety. This integration can help healthcare organizations manage risks and opportunities related to environmental, social, and governance criteria, hence improving the overall wellbeing of patients and at the same time also for healthcare workers.
Olga Veilande, Henrijs Kalkis, Zenija Roja
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Self-reported noise sensitivity and perceived enjoyment of working in an open office environment
Individuals may vary in their sensitivity to noise and this may affect how they relate to their surroundings. As part of an intervention project about the psychosocial effects of informational sound masking, we examined the occurrence of self-labeled noise sensitive individuals as well as the association between three indicators of noise sensitivity and one indicator for the perceived enjoyment of working in an open office environment. We also examined how the indicators of noise sensitivity correlated with age, gender and ratings of behavioural and architectural countermeasures, and the perceived impact of the sound environment on work tasks. Sixty-eight individuals (32 women and 35 men) between 24 and 64 years of age participated by responding to an online questionnaire at baseline in March 2023. The results showed that 47 % labeled themselves as at least being somewhat sensitive to sounds, while 53 % stated that they were not especially, or not at all, sensitive to sounds. Furthermore, 57 % reported that they much, or to a high degree, enjoyed working in an open office environment, whereas 43 % reported that they did not, or only to some extent enjoyed this. Spearman rank order correlations indicated that individuals who labeled themselves as noise sensitive, or reported having a propensity to react very strongly to sounds, were more likely to report a lesser enjoyment of working in an open office environment. In addition, they were also more likely to rate that the sound environment negatively influenced their ability to concentrate and to perform at work. Accordingly, individual variations in sound sensitivity is one factor to consider when designing and operating open office environments; and may also be a factor that impacts the recruitment of individuals to employments in open office environments.
Roger Persson, Jonas Borell, Emilie Stroh
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Process improvement with AI in service industry: case studies
To be competitive in the market and deliver results in the long-term perspective, service industry companies are using different techniques for process improvement and optimization. One of the most used business efficiency improvement techniques is Lean methodology. With a development of technologies and referring to industrial revolution 5.0, implementation of Lean approach and process improvement provide most effects by adding artificial intelligence (AI) and other related technologies to classic Lean instruments. The aim of the research is to study real case studies in the service industry and evaluate pre-requirements of possibility to implement process improvement using AI technologies in service delivery and evaluate the degree of human support that is required during and after implementation of measures. Research is focusing also on factors that support or limit use of technology for full automation of processes, discovering both short-term and long-term perspectives in different level manual processes. Systematic literature review, content analysis, empirical refinement and validation are used as research methods for this paper. Empirical study and validation involve both IT and Lean practitioners. Main results show that process improvement with AI provides higher efficiency and quality increase for service industry companies. The level of automation depends on many factors and in particular on the initial process embracing and introducing Lean instruments.
Svetlana Kocerova, Henrijs Kalkis, Zenija Roja
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Globalization, cultural pluralism and the formation of vocational identity in the world of “boundaryless” careers
The global transformations of the contemporary world, to which all aspects of social and individual existence are subjected, seem inevitable and their complexity difficult to grasp. New opportunities and new possibilities, but also fears and anxieties, are emerging on a micro and macro scale. The specific nature of qualitatively new transformations is not irrelevant to the multicontextual changes in the world of work, which place new demands on workers. This vision implies fundamentally new ways of interpreting the world and making judgements about the condition of the contemporary human being – including the human being as a “manager” of his or her own career. In the knowledge-based economy, it becomes crucial to develop the careers of its members and to invest in a career “portfolio”. Changes in the world of “boundaryless” careers bring the issue of proactive career behaviour of the subject up to date. A distinctive feature of proactive career planning, leadership and management is the awareness of being a subject who takes action in the direction desired for him/herself and influences the reality around him/her by initiating change. Identity is formed in the context of social and cultural influences of the reality undergoing permanent change. Identity styles determined by socio-cognitive processes refer to the individual’s preferences in processing information about the subjective “I”, in making decisions, in choosing strategies to construct or avoid shaping one’s identity and the quality of career decision-making in the world of “boundaryless careers”. In a situation where no a priori career scenario brings a guarantee of success, the investment in a career identified as the “property” of an individual becomes a necessity and demands proactive planning, direction and management. Commitment to an internally defined career can be an important source of crystallisation of the (vocational) identity, which seems to be essential for the development of an individual’s career in the universe of “boundaryless” careers in the reality of the globalising world.
Agnieszka Cybal-Michalska
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Immersive assistive technologies for knowledge transfer of crafts: Exploration and technical challenges
Immersive technologies have created a paradigm shift in the realm of traditional crafts, offering unprecedented avenues for digitization and knowledge transfer. This scoping review explores the integration of immersive technologies within the traditional crafts domain, focusing on their utilization for digitization and their impact on knowledge transfer processes. Through a systematic analysis of available literature, this review aims to map the existing landscape of immersive technology applications in traditional craftsmanship, dissecting the modalities and influence on knowledge transfer. Emphasizing the use of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR), this study endeavours to identify trends, gaps, and prospects for leveraging immersive technologies in the preservation, transmission, and enhancement of traditional craft knowledge. As set of results will be presented, namely a positioning map of existing solutions within immersive technology and their activeness in assistance. An overview of topics occurrences, visualized in a Venn diagram. An identification of the perspectives throughout the literature articles, a used methods overview and lastly a set of fundamental elements providing a set of tendencies to include when dealing with knowledge transfer of immersive technologies in crafts. It becomes clear from literature that existing studies focus rather on very specific test setups due to the unique nature of each craft or craft process. This leaves opportunity for generalization and creation of a structured repository. There is a trend towards usage of virtual avatars in studies that make use of immersive virtual elements in their experiment setups. There is a clear motive across the literature to combine the flexibility of the virtual with the familiarity of physical work environments. Therefore, mixed reality could form a possible solution, combining virtual and real-world components.
Ian Garcia, Jouke Verlinden
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Psychological Impacts of Different Organizational Cultures Toward Telecommuting on Workers
This study focused on the culture and policies regarding telecommuting autonomy in companies and aimed to examine the impact of these policies on telecommuting. Specifically, the author investigated the effects of employees' perceptions of company policies and culture regarding telecommuting on their satisfaction, work engagement, stress reactions, and subjective productivity. A web-based survey was performed on 300 employees who regularly telecommute. Respondents were divided into three groups based on their ratings of questions about the company's policy toward telecommuting. Differences in satisfaction, work engagement, stress reaction, and subjective productivity were compared among the three groups. The results suggest that satisfaction declines in the group with the least autonomy. The results also suggest that engagement increases in the group perceived to be the most proactive in implementing telecommuting.
Toshihisa Doi
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Trust and satisfaction in the airline: Retention of skilled employees during COVID-19
The airline industry has been hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, airline workers' job stability has become uncertain, and many have suffered job instability. Thus, the employees might perceive role ambiguity. Conversely, the role of customer service employees is essential as they can add value to the products and services in the organization. According to previous studies, employees' perception of role ambiguity reduces trust in the organizations and task performance. The author explores how customer service employees' "positive emotion strategic behavior" and "negative emotional effects" played a role in increasing and decreasing the propensity of trust toward their company. The findings show that positive emotion strategic behavior, such as the employees' ''surface acting and deep acting", serve as trust repair and provide a valuable antidote in the workplace. Conversely, negative emotional effects, such as emotional exhaustion due to role ambiguity, devastate employees' intrinsic motivation.
Noriko OKABE
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
Measuring safety culture in the Disaster Resilient Society context: an actionable toolkit
Given the multifaceted and multiscale nature of the concept of safety culture, its shifting to the Disaster Resilient Society (DRS) context requires a comprehensive exploration of its multiple aspects and dimensions, making it meaningful from the public safety perspective. Starting from factors and aspects of safety culture described in scientific and technical literature, we have defined specific indicators for measuring safety culture in three target groups: citizens, practitioners and public servants indirectly involved in prevention, preparedness and response. CORE EU project has shaped an original Safety Culture model, addressing multiple levels of safety culture and grasping the many facets that characterise the large cultural diversity encountered when the analysis targets different societal groups, from citizens to practitioners. Following this reference model, a toolkit for the execution of Safety Culture measurement campaign has been developed, supporting the investigation in a geographic community. It consists of three techniques specifically tailored for each intended target group: first step is an initial collection of quantitative data, with a large-scale survey; the second step implements a qualitative data collection with semi-structured interviews and, finally, the third, qualitative, step consists of focus groups. The paper describes the overall proposed methodology to run a Safety Culture campaign in the DRS context, provide examples of designed tools and discusses the early results of the toolkit validation in seven European regions.
Gabriella Duca, Giovanni Gugg, Vittorio Sangermano, Antonio Di Palma
Open Access
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Conference Proceedings
Visualizing the Development and Trend of Sustainability Science and Social-ecological System Research
Over the years, sustainability science (SS) and social-ecological systems (SES) research have emerged as important domains under the umbrella of sustainability research, each advancing interdisciplinary collaboration and sharing a similar purpose of fostering sustainability. However, the illegibility of their relationship and contribution to each field remain unclear. Few papers visualize the pathways and apply data-driven methods in the fields of SS and SES research. We aim to demystify this relationship by identifying research pathways and archetypes of the development of both SS and SES research, and hence illuminating patterns, trends, and connections that suggest promising directions for further research.To achieve this goal, we applied a mixed-method approach that combines citation network analysis with archetype analysis, to study SS and SES research. The roles of both research pathways were elucidated to identify and characterize existing synergies. Our findings highlight the significant role of SESs to SS as a bridging research model and underscore previously unrecognized potentials within the sustainability research domain. As a conclusion, this study not only clarifies the relationship between SS and SESs but also visualizes the pathways of each domain with a data-driven approach.
Yu Liu, Izzy Yi Jian, Yangyang Pan, Baokang Wang, Peter Hasdell
Open Access
Article
Conference Proceedings
An Interactive Aesthetic Study of a Digital Display APP for Chinese Copper Chisel Paper Cutting Cultural Gene
This paper discusses the study of interactive aesthetics of the cultural digital display application of traditional Chinese folk art copper chisel paper cutting. The main reasons for selecting Foshan copper chisel paper-cutting as the research object are as follows: firstly, copper chisel paper-cutting is the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage, which has a history of 800 years, and has high historical research value and cultural protection value; secondly, the scarcity of raw materials and the fault line of the inheritors have caused copper chisel paper-cutting to be nearly extinct, and there is an urgent need to utilize the modern design method to carry out the salvage protection and living inheritance; finally, the mobile Internet and digital technology have broken the boundaries of space and time, and broadened the scope of the dissemination of intangible cultural heritage. In this paper, we design a digital display app for copper chisel paper-cutting culture, aiming to enhance users' knowledge and experience of copper chisel paper-cutting, stimulate users' aesthetic interest and creativity, and promote the dissemination and inheritance of copper chisel paper-cutting culture through the digital media and interactive aesthetics.The thesis firstly analyzes the artistic characteristics of copper chisel paper-cutting art, which is summarized as strong folklore connotation, unique material characteristics and subtle production technology. The paper extracts the cultural genes of copper chisel paper-cutting from both explicit and implicit cultural genes, including material genes, color genes, craft genes, composition genes, semantic genes and aesthetic genes, and reveals the profound cultural connotations and symbols contained in copper chisel paper-cutting. And based on the interactive aesthetic principles of information, emotion and behavior, the design framework of digital display applications is proposed.Then, based on the theoretical framework of interactive aesthetics, this paper discusses the design objectives, design principles and design strategies of digital display app. The authors believe that the digital display app should be able to effectively convey the connotation and value of copper chisel paper-cutting culture, and also consider the aesthetic needs and experience of users. Therefore, the authors constructed the design elements of the digital display app from three aspects: content, form and function. In terms of content, the authors chose representative and educational copper chisel paper-cutting works, as well as related history, techniques and inheritance information. In terms of form, the authors used multimedia means such as animation, music and video to enhance the visual and sound effects of the digital display app. In terms of function, the authors provide basic functions such as browsing, searching, collecting and sharing, as well as interactive functions such as collage, coloring and creating, which improve the usability and interestingness of the digital display app.The innovations of this paper are: firstly, the extraction and translation of cultural genes are taken as the core of the design, which preserves the aesthetic concepts and cultural connotations of copper chisel paper-cutting, and at the same time gives copper chisel paper-cutting a new form of expression and a way of dissemination; secondly, it applies the method of interactive aesthetics, which enhances users' perception and participation in the culture of copper chisel paper-cutting, and promotes users' aesthetic experience and cultural identity; thirdly, it combines the advantages of the mobile Internet and the digital Thirdly, by combining the advantages of mobile Internet and digital technology, the scope of audience and influence of copper chisel paper-cutting culture has been broadened, which provides new possibilities for the living inheritance of copper chisel paper-cutting culture.The conclusion of the thesis is that the cultural gene translation of copper chisel paper-cutting needs to utilize the technical advantages of digital media, create diversified forms of expression and interactive methods, and improve the cultural communication effect and user experience of copper chisel paper-cutting. Copper chisel paper-cutting culture digital display APP is an effective method of inheritance and innovation, which can maintain the cultural essence of copper chisel paper-cutting while breaking the rigidity of design, enriching the design resources of intangible cultural heritage, and giving the copper chisel paper-cutting a new value of the times and aesthetic significance.In addition, the thesis points out the prospects and limitations of the research.
Yuting Zhao, Wei Bu
Open Access
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