Will musculoskeletal and visual stress change when Visual Display Unit (VDU) operators move from small offices to an ergonomically optimized office landscape?

This study investigated the effect of moving from small offices to a landscape environment for 19 Visual Display Unit (VDU) operators at Alcatel Denmark AS. The operators reported significantly improved lighting condition and glare situation. Further, visual discomfort was also significantly reduced on a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). There was no significant correlation between lighting condition and visual discomfort neither in the small offices nor in the office landscape. However, visual discomfort correlated significantly with glare in small offices i.e. more glare is related to more visual discomfort. This correlation disappeared after the lighting system in the office landscape had been improved. There was also a significant correlation between glare and itching of the eyes as well as blurred vision in the small offices, i.e. more glare more visual symptoms. Experience of pain was found to reduce the subjective assessment of work capacity during VDU tasks. There was a significant correlation between visual discomfort and reduced work capacity in small offices and in the office landscape. When moving from the small offices to the office landscape, there was a significant reduction in headache as well as back pain. No significant changes in pain intensity in the neck, shoulder, forearm, and wrist/hand were observed.The pain levels in different body areas were significantly correlated with subjective assessment of reduced work capacity in small offices and in the office landscape.By careful design and construction of an office landscape with regard to lighting and visual conditions, transfer from small offices may be acceptable from a visual-ergonomic point of view.     

Development of an objective mental workload assessment tool based on Rasmussen's skill–rule–knowledge framework

It is important to monitor operators’ mental workload during the operation phase. Physiological measurement approaches could record the operator's mental data continuously, and might be less interruptive on the work activities. However, these methods often require the attachment of physical sensors, which are not unobtrusive in the physical sense. Furthermore, the individual difference makes calibrating to each individual tedious and requires trained persons to use. Often high noise-to-signal ratio data are hard to analyze. Due to these factors, physiological workload measurements are hardly widely applied in practical fields. In this study, an objective, non-intrusive and performance-based mental workload predictive model was proposed with high validity (R² = 0.51), which can be applied during the operation phrase. This model, developed based on the Rasmussen's skill–rule–knowledge framework, is comprised of two novel cognitive indices, the attention required index and uncertainty index. It can be used as the basis for establishing an early online warning system automatically. Furthermore, this model also predicts the types of error-prone tasks. This kind of information is expected to provide managers and supervisors with opportunities to intervene and improve tasks before error occurred. Finally, the predictive model proposed in this paper requires more practical application in fields to be completed.     

Appropriation of a shared workspace: Organizing principles and their application

The use and effects of a CSCL-tool are not always predictable from the properties of the tool alone, but depend on how that tool is appropriated. This paper presents the findings from a case study about the appropriation of a graphical shared workspace. When students are presented with a new tool they may encounter competing constraints and multiple possibilities for interacting with it. We argue that during critical events the students make choices, and in order to collaborate, coordinate these choices as a group. We study appropriation by looking into the ways in which small groups organize their contributions during a computer-mediated argumentative discussion. The results of our study illustrate how certain principles for organization emerge from an implicit negotiation of conventions, with mutual influence between the students and the tool.     

Building Healthy Workplaces: What We Know So Far.

By way of introduction to this Special Issue of the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, we hope to achieve three interrelated goals. First, we define what we mean by a "healthy workplace," and we delineate the ways in which work is associated with mental health. We argue that work is both a causal factor in mental and physical ill-health as well as a potential health resource that both may protect us and assist in our recovery from psychological ill-health. Second, we review the individual, organizational, and societal costs of unhealthy work and workplaces, and, consequently, of poor mental and physical health. Our argument is simply that we are incurring horrific economic and social costs when we have unhealthy workplaces. Finally, we provide a framework in terms of a healthy workplace model to help summarize this literature, and to present the articles in this Special Issue. Throughout this introduction, we emphasize that these goals are highly compatible with organizations' traditional focus on enhancing productivity and profitability. Put simply, what is good for Canadian workers is good for Canadian industry. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Musculoskeletal, visual and psychosocial stress in VDU operators before and after multidisciplinary ergonomic interventions. A 6 years prospective study—Part II

A prospective epidemiological field study covering a 2 years period has earlier been published (Appl. Ergon. (1998) 29(5) 335). The study has a parallel group design with two intervention groups (T and S) and one control group (C) of Visual Display Unit (VDU) operators. The present paper covers the period from 2 to 6 years of the study. After 3.5 years, the C group got the same intervention in terms of new lighting system, new workplaces and at last an optometric examination and corrections if needed. The C group reported a significant reduction in visual discomfort after interventions while the two groups (T and S) continued to report significant reduction of visual discomfort after 6 years. By supporting the forearm on the table top, the C group reported significant reduction of shoulder and neck pain while the T group reported significant reduction in shoulder and back pain after 6 years. Organizational and psychosocial factors at work and outside work did not show any significant changes during the study period.     

Creating healthy, high-performance workplaces: Strategies from health and sports psychology.

Consulting psychologists are ideally suited to assist in the creation of healthy and life-enhancing workplaces that can increase employee productivity while promoting behaviors that reduce the risk of lifestyle disease incidence or mitigate the effects of such illnesses when already present. When psychologists integrate strategies from health psychology, these interventions can help reduce medical costs and contribute to worker productivity and morale, because these strategies are proven to decrease the incidence of the five leading lifestyle diseases: coronary heart disease, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, diabetes, and stroke. Integrating techniques from sports psychology as well results in even more effective healthy workplaces than could be achieved from using either set of techniques in isolation. Recommendations are offered for nutritional counseling, smoking cessation, stress management, and exercise initiation. Five skills from sports psychology mental training are described because they could be incorporated into psychologists' interventions for enhancing employee performance. A case study illustrates the key points. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

La constitution d’un milieu de travail sain: Ce que nous savons jusqu’à maintenant.

By way of introduction to this Special Issue of the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, we hope to achieve three interrelated goals. First, we define what we mean by a "healthy workplace," and we delineate the ways in which work is associated with mental health. We argue that work is both a causal factor in mental and physical ill-health as well as a potential health resource that both may protect us and assist in our recovery from psychological ill-health. Second, we review the individual, organizational, and societal costs of unhealthy work and workplaces, and, consequently, of poor mental and physical health. Our argument is simply that we are incurring horrific economic and social costs when we have unhealthy workplaces. Finally, we provide a framework in terms of a healthy workplace model to help summarize this literature, and to present the articles in this Special Issue. Throughout this introduction, we emphasize that these goals are highly compatible with organizations' traditional focus on enhancing productivity and profitability. Put simply, what is good for Canadian workers is good for Canadian industry. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Building Healthy Workplaces: Where We Need to Be.

Many organizations are struggling to define a "healthy" workplace, to assess both the "healthy" and "unhealthy" aspects of their own environment, and to implement initiatives to improve the quality of their work and workplace. There is a huge body of literature documenting the direct and indirect costs of work stress. Research conducted primarily since the 1960s has identified the principal characteristics of jobs that affect well-being. There is a clear parallel between the literature addressing job design as a means of increasing motivation and organizational effectiveness and job design as a means of improving individual well-being. These observations and the supporting literature suggest three principal foundation blocks for a national strategy to address issues of work and mental health. We advocate a focus on the assessment of leading indicators of mental and physical health in the workplace. On the issue of job stress, the organizational research suggests a dual focus, not only on these types of stress management intervention, but also on changing the job stressors through activities such as job design and leadership training. Third, implementation of these first two points requires education and training at two levels: in the workplace and among mental-health professionals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

La constitution d’un milieu de travail sain: Où nous devons être.

Many organizations are struggling to define a "healthy" workplace, to assess both the "healthy" and "unhealthy" aspects of their own environment, and to implement initiatives to improve the quality of their work and workplace. There is a huge body of literature documenting the direct and indirect costs of work stress. Research conducted primarily since the 1960s has identified the principal characteristics of jobs that affect well-being. There is a clear parallel between the literature addressing job design as a means of increasing motivation and organizational effectiveness and job design as a means of improving individual well-being. These observations and the supporting literature suggest three principal foundation blocks for a national strategy to address issues of work and mental health. We advocate a focus on the assessment of leading indicators of mental and physical health in the workplace. On the issue of job stress, the organizational research suggests a dual focus, not only on these types of stress management intervention, but also on changing the job stressors through activities such as job design and leadership training. Third, implementation of these first two points requires education and training at two levels: in the workplace and among mental-health professionals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)