Document Type

Conference Presentation

Publication Date

2005

Abstract

Presently, ergonomics is associated with occupational health and safety and related legislation, and not with business performance. Therefore, companies perceive ergonomics as a “must” and not as a “want”. In order to strengthen the position of ergonomics and ergonomists, we discuss the opportunities to link ergonomics explicitly to company strategies and business goals. Conceptual models are presented and examples are given to illustrate the present and desired situation. It is concluded that ergonomics has a clear potential to contribute to business strategies and goals. In order to utilize this potential, considerable changes must take place within the ergonomics community by moving from a health ergonomics paradigm to a business ergonomics paradigm.

Comments

For a more in-depth look on this subject, please see: Dul, J. and Neumann, W.P., 2009. Ergonomics Contributions to Company Strategies. Applied Ergonomics, 40(4): 745-752. doi:10.1016/j.apergo.2008.07.001 Neumann, W. P. and Dul, J. (Accepted) Human Factors: Spanning the Gap between OM & HRM. International journal of operations & production management. http://digitalcommons.ryerson.ca/ie/4/ Neumann, W.P. and Dul, J., in press. Human Factors: Spanning the Gap between OM & HRM. International journal of operations & production management, 30(9): 923-950. DOI 10.1108/01443571011075056