Advances in Social & Occupational Ergonomics

The paper presents progress and results of the project, which was performed for the particular macroergonomic system. The goal of the project is the analysis of the buses’ production process capability after the assembly hall expansion. The project includes the reengineering of the macroergonomic industrial system model for the new work organization, visualization and verification. Furthermore, the evaluation of workstations and configuration of human working teams, which supports particular workstations were described. The performed activities enabled describing imperfections of created concept as well as for proposing some improvements. On the one hand, this allowed for the human working teams to accept the manufacturing enterprises’ identity and on the other hand for minimizing the costs of assembly process.

The article presents an analysis of the applicability of 3D laser model technology in the ergonomic assessment of the working environment. The results show that in the case of 3D technology, it is especially useful to describe the changes in the working environment and the ways of performing work activities (deviations from the regulations regarding activities specified by the employer). The article also presents algorithms for the use of 3D laser models in many workplaces where one cannot plan the work tasks in detail, since they are flexible and often their course is changed. This applies to work such as that of warehouse workers, maintenance staff or mining work.

The article presents a multiple-criteria-based evaluation of the suitability of selected measuring devices for assessing fatigue levels in miners during underground work in a bituminous coal mine. The changing levels of fatigue and decreased psychomotor performance influence worker reliability and susceptibility to accidents. Therefore, monitoring the level of fatigue can be a means of accident prevention. The study allowed to identify the physiological parameters that are relevant in monitoring worker reliability. A multi-criterial compartment establish most reliable fatigue indicators based on before and after work measurements: multi-frequency segmental body composition analysis, reaction time and recognition with Dufour Cross-Shaped Apparatus and analysis of changes in power grip strength.

The future factory empowers managers with new capabilities and enables the realization of sophisticated approaches based on the collaboration of devices, network services within the single enterprise and among enterprises. This is a key issue especially for the maintenance. Technical systems are no longer passive, but became active entities that can do self-monitoring, proactively inform third party services about their status or maintenance needs and therefore greatly enhance existing efforts for remote and autonomous maintenance. Influence of the Industry 4.0 approach on working mode is nowadays the issue widely discussed. Does it lead to the insensate production where there is no place for human factor?

In the field of labor protection system there must be distinguished the Polish legal system, which is the legal scope of work including safety and health as well as the organizational system of state institutions and workplaces. For many years the sector of economy in which there have happened most fatal and serious accidents has been the building sector. A number of factors has impact on this such as the low level of education of workers, the lack of reliable selection of subcontractors and little awareness of the need to comply with health and safety regulations on building sites. However, this situation has begun to change since the founding of the “Agreement for safety in the building sector”. This Agreement was established in August 2010 by the largest building companies and its aim was to launch a wide-ranging actions for safety on building sites and reduce the number of accidents at work.

Product design process is the information interation process with knowledge-driven. According to the characteristics of design process, a process-oriented design knowledge classify strategy based on cognitive theory, information technology and design theory was established. The three-layer knowledge model was put forward based on knowledge property, knowledge extraction and application with semantic ontology search was discussion, then the immigration, association, synthesis, reasoning of knowledge were realized. Finally, an instance of refrigerator was used to verify the feasibility.

In this study, an innovative transfer aid is proposed to respond to home care needs of ageing society. The fact that long-term care demanders nowadays prefer to live with their families and friends indirectly results in the gradually increasing number of non-professional caregivers. The incidence of work related injuries of amateur caregivers will be higher than professional nurses. Among all of the nursing activities, patient handling (PH) is the most frequently reported injuries. It is not uncommon to see even the professional nurses getting hurt from transferring patients, not to mention the non-trained caregivers. One of the reasons is that they are not familiar with transfer aids, such as when and how to operate proper aids. Accordingly, the operation of transfer aids for patient handling during home care must be reconsidered and redesigned. Activity theory and Contextual design were adopted in this paper to redesign the caregiver centered transfer aid.

The retirement age reform of 2013 extended the time of mandatory economic activity. Coupled with a difficult situation of mature age people in the job market, it necessitates developing an employment policy for people over 50’. An analysis of employment opportunities for mature age people in various sectors should constitute the basis for its development. It would allow for proper selection and direction of activities supporting employment of mature age people (subsidizing, counseling, trainings etc.). In the pilot study, organizations in Lodz Voivodeship were analyzed. Many sectors were examined, however, due to the constraints on the length of the article, only the results for the electrical job sector are presented and compared with the entirety of the studied organizations. Current employment of people age 50+’, demand for mature age employees, actions in the job market for professional activation and employability of people over 50 years of age and adjustment of work conditions of typical occupations in the electrical sector to the needs and capabilities of mature age people were studied in the article. Further, the article provides an answer to the question whether people aged 50 and over are motivated to work and learn. Methodological triangulation was employed in the analysis in order to achieve a comprehensive picture of the phenomenon and to increase the scientific insight of the research results.

There are several parameters must be correctly evaluated to guarantee a good level of interaction between worker and working system, in order to avoid safety and health problems. The lack of attention to occupational ergonomics issues may to potential ergonomics risk for which decision makers are ignore when develop new product and process. This paper proposed a novel framework to facilitate the ergonomics knowledge management for occupational risk assessment. It serves two objectives, the first objective is to aid the decision makers predicting ergonomics risk element at early stage of development product and process. The second objective is to develop knowledge-based ergonomics assessment system (KBEAS) in automotive assembly plant. The respondents of the study are about 250 and consist of assembly workers ranging from operator to executive level in automotive component assembly plant. The activities of direct observation, activity analysis, photography, video, survey questionnaire and interviews, are employed to measure the occupational ergonomics risk factors. The outcome of these activities will be used as an input for analytical hierarchy process (AHP) technique to prioritize the occupational ergonomics risk ate workplace. The outcome of this framework could ease decision makers in assessing and prioritizing the ergonomics risk at the early stage of product and process in automotive component manufacturer.

The aim of the article is to present, on the basis of a case study of a selected enterprise, the architecture of children’s product quality creation that takes into account the requirements set down in the European Toy Safety Directive. The requirements of the directive 2009/48/EC concerning in particular toy safety, ergonomics, packaging, marking, etc. will be discussed in the article. The article reports the results of pilot studies on the conformity of a specific group of toys in Poland with the requirements of the European Directive and confirm the significance of the problems. Critical processes which determine elimination of product defects by business process quality management, identification of customer requirements, technical and organizational infrastructure provision, design, planning, manufacturing, warehousing, distribution. How the quality of those processes is managed is a decisive factor for the effectiveness of building quality into the manufacturing process, reducing the number of errors to manufacture a defect-free product that meets customer requirements. How the quality of those processes is managed is a decisive factor for the effectiveness of building quality into the manufacturing process, reducing the number of failures to manufacture a defect-free product that meets customer requirements. The overarching goal of such an approach is customer satisfaction which can be effected by achieving such process efficiency that each product is defect-free and is consistently conforms to standards.

The article presents the results of analyses the objective of which was to determine a method of description of employee attitudes to change. The analyses were conducted during the process of implementation of changes to the organization of workstations in order to improve their ergonomics. Such a model is prerequisite for analyzing the dynamics of change implementation in the organization and should have the following characteristics: it should be unambiguous, adequate, complete and disjunctive. The phenomena analyzed in the study had not been thoroughly researched or described in literature. Neither engineering assumptions nor the possibility of controlling social phenomena during the implementation process is taken into account in the currently existing theories of organizational change in the social and management sciences. Therefore, sociological exploration appeared to be the only way to discover the specific character and regularity of the examined processes. The research and analysis strategy is based on the methodology of the grounded theory. Estimations of individual factors and their subsequent comparison make it possible to identify the direction and the pace of the formation of employee commitment to organizational change.

Observation of Polish enterprises in the open labour market reveals a marked reluctance to employment of disabled people. Entrepreneurs appear to hold a common belief that a person with disabilities is a risk to productivity and a source of additional costs. Further, employers tend to think that it is truly difficult to find a job that a disabled person could perform. The authors of the article decided to find out whether these convictions might possibly be a consequence of employers’ insufficient knowledge as regards disability employment. 50 large, 80 medium-sized and 149 small employers (including micro employers) agreed to participate in the study. Individual, researcher-administered survey was used in the study. The article only presents the results for small and micro organizations as regards employers’ knowledge concerning the definition of a person with disabilities, the degrees and causes of disability; statutory working time of disabled workers; matching jobs and adapting the workplace to the needs and capabilities of disabled employees; financial support to employers of the disabled as this information was deemed fundamental in employment of people with disabilities.

Given the very fact of rapid ageing of population and drastic decline in skilled and experienced construction workers, it is anticipated that the problem of shortage of construction workforce in Hong Kong will exacerbate in the coming decades. In order to alleviate the problem, the work proposed here aims at identifying the effective measures for extending the working lives of the construction workforce in Hong Kong by proposing a conceptual model for examining the influence of individual factors and work-related factors on work ability. A better understanding of the potential factors affecting the current and future work ability of construction workers will greatly assist the formulation of evidence based interventions to retaining the workforce in the Hong Kong construction industry.

In systems theory, safety is an emergent property of the interactions among the system components, that is, how the work system is obtained without affecting its constituent components or the system as a whole, providing that the expected result operates at the prescribed level of reliability. However, if the system becomes unbalanced due to the undetected failure of one of its components or interactions, that can produce a dysfunction that materializes as an adverse event (accident). Therefore, as of the design stage, interactions among the components must be identified as a series of potential dysfunctions and converted into safety layers that contribute to the functional balance of the system. That stage is successful if end users, work safety and health personnel, design engineers, and project managers all participate actively in the group, using participatory ergonomics principles and tools.

Movement of diversity management (DM) is gradually spreading in Japanese hospitals. However little has been discussed about the effectiveness of DM in organizational ergonomics domains. Hence, this case report aimed to extract the elements of workforce diversities in Japanese nursing workplace. We conducted a semi-structured interview to four nurses with enough career to response the interview. Three were administrative nurses (male = 1, female = 2) and one was non-administrative nurse (male = 1). As the results, twelve elements of diversities with narrative evidences were extracted; (1) Seniority, (2) Career, (3) Age, (4) Gender, (5) Nationality, (6) Role orientation, (7) Employment pattern, (8) License, (9) Personality, (10) Disability, (11) Family, (12) Benefit package. According to their interviews, their workplace has been received the diversities of seniority, career, age, gender, employment pattern, disability, family and benefit package. On the other hand, they regarded the acceptance of license, personality, nationality and role orientation diversities as future issue. These diversity elements may be key points for the practical DM in Japanese nursing organization.

The evaluation model produced by the research on urban rail driver’s mental workload based on original science and Extenics. This paper uses the SHEL model to establish an index system including 13 important indexes that reflect the influence on individual mental workload of the urban rail train drivers. The SHEL model and the index system are also used to design the driver pressure source questionnaires. Our researchers randomly selected 300 qualified drivers from Shanghai Urban Rail Transit Company to participate in questionnaire survey and psychological interview. According to the basic principle of Extenics, using Extension method, we determine the weights of 13 indexes in the questionnaire data, then structure each rating section’s classical domains and the joint domains of all levels, and calculate the correlation degree between the mental workload and the evaluation degree for confirming individual driver’s mental workload level, forming the mental workload evaluation model of Extenics. Finally, through a concrete sample instance of the application, we managed to test the feasibility and reliability of this method. The evaluation results can provide decision-making reference for drivers’ performance on management aspects and they are also good for enhancing and ensuring urban rail traffic safety and efficient operation.

An internal summary of the findings from the 2014–15 final investigations reports highlighted that the human factor element contributed to 71 % of the occurrences recorded in that year. Of these recorded human factor related contributions, 32 % were attributed to the category, lack of supervision (the largest contributing category), as having had either a direct or indirect effect on the recorded occurrences. The findings of the summary indicated that while there were procedures in place with the intent of managing safety, these procedures were not successfully executed due to a lack of supervision. This paper proposes that a lack of supervision could be understood as contributing to an ineffective safety culture because a supervisor plays a vital safety role in reinforcing proper procedures and work practices to correct systemic weaknesses. This study suggests that the failures in supervision noted indicate an ineffective safety culture within the South African Railway Industry that may potentially increase accident occurrence rates.

Work-related upper limb disorders (WRULD) is noted in instances of excessive video gaming. This research aims to identify the plausibility of video gaming as a confounding factor in WRULD epidemiology. A questionnaire was deployed to 327 participants to measure gaming behaviour and pain on a dichotomous scale. 2 × 2 Pearson Chi-square cross tabulation was utilised for statistical analysis of all pain-related variables. Analyses indicated that gaming impacts on office-work pain in most circumstances, and must thus be considered a confounder. 66.36 % of office-working participants play video games, and this number is expected to increase. 63.3 % office-workers indicated ergonomically designed workplaces; 19.8 % of video gamers indicated ergonomically designed gaming areas. Finally, 68.2 % of video gaming office-workers indicated that they play video games for more than 3 h per day, without rest breaks or pauses. Preliminary findings indicate that further research is warranted for purposes of identifying the relationships in more detail.

Many enterprises have implemented Lean Production Systems (LPS), for German Enterprises they are an industry standard. The main target of LPS is the reduction of waste. In LPS, all processes that do not contribute to value adding are considered as waste, e.g., waiting or unnecessary motions of the employees. Therefore, LPS have a strong influence on the design of work systems. For instance, there are reports about a work intensification, a reduction of “hidden” breaks and a high degree of repetitive work tasks. These work conditions are identified as the cause for physical disorders of employees. Other sources claim a high potential of LPS for improving labor conditions. All in all, there are significant knowledge gaps considering the impact of LPS on the work system, workload and labor conditions in manufacturing. Thus, the article presents a structural analysis with the aim to identify connections between LPS and changes of work system and work conditions.

Customer aggression is a significant organizational problem in modern working life, particularly for employees in the service sector who are in direct contact with customers. For employees in this sector, the high level of customer interaction may be the reason for undesired consequences like stress and burnout. In the context of a service, it is possible to define customer aggression as a customer’s behavior aimed at harming or discomfiting those giving service. Customer aggression has a negative effect on the employee’s health and safety. This study aimed to demonstrate the effect on the burnout level of salesman and cashier exposed to customer related stressor. The study sample comprised 403 employees of service sector. In the data analysis, T-test, correlation and regression analysis were used. From the results of the analyses, the finding was obtained that verbal abuse significantly increased the emotional burnout, job stress and depersonalization levels of workers. According to the results obtained from the research, while a positive significant relationship was determined between customer aggression and Burnout tendency.

Knowledge about the effects of primary factors on comfort level is useful in Human-Machine-Interface (HMI) design. The study and the mathematical modeling of these effects strongly depends on cross relations between the different kinds of comfort, the primary factors’ effects, and the modifiers’ actions. Starting from a sizeable bibliographic analysis, this paper describes a study, based on the axiomatic design approach, of the interactions between the results, factors, and modifiers in comfort/discomfort evaluation. The modifiers’ influence was determined by measuring the changes in information content. This study allowed us to validate and optimize our equation for the perceived “level of well-being” in order to better study the perception of comfort/discomfort in HMI.

We generated a model to improve the satisfaction individual group members involved in a decision-making conversation by the intervention such as eliciting opinions from the members that cannot express in the discussion for group decision. We assume to estimate the group status by measuring the utterance (phonetic) characteristics in the conversation. Our goal is to develop a model that would provide decision support. In group decision making, some members may hesitate or yield their position to superiors, or they may offer no concrete ideas or suggestions, and thus may feel frustration during the conversation. Members who are in a weak position may not be as confident and may not be able to clearly express their intentions. As a test case, we consider the challenge of providing support to a group during a decision-making process (e.g., route, stopover) while traveling in a car. We sought to measure the satisfaction of each member during the process of decision making. Furthermore, the relationship between individual satisfaction and receptivity depended on how a member was accepted during the group discussions. We found that several participants in the test conversations exhibited increasing levels of stress when proposals were rejected or not thoroughly discussed. Thus, we think that reducing the frequency of such situations may be relevant in improving decision-making satisfaction. Therefore, we propose that a model in which all members of the group are given an equal opportunity to make proposals, and in which no members face continuous rejection during the decision-making conversation, will produce the greatest satisfaction. We plan to continue to study this model to facilitate the design of a decision support system.

Child who remains long periods in hospital are the one that suffers most from the influence of hospitals, but is the largest contributors to the humanization of studies. This work has its origin in the project process of Santa Casa de Montes Claros-Brazil hospital analysis focus in the concepts of humanization. It analyses the relationship between the health pediatric environment and the importance of the proposals of the humanization programs dedicated to the admitted child. One APO (post-occupation analysis) was adopted with cognitive approach, in order to diagnose, describe and analyze the built environment, perception and environmental cognition from the point of view of users. As there is a lack of studies in Brazil about that, from the information obtained from this paper, you can to propose suggestions for structural improvements to the hospital that contributes to the effective healing process of patients.

MSDs are one of the major causes of occupational disease in the work places and disability among the work force. A Meta analysis was used to determine the prevalence of the work-related MSDs among the Iranian working population in different occupational sectors. Data were collected from 50 research papers, scientific reports that have addressed the problems on musculoskeletal symptoms for workers in industry, service and health sectors. The techniques were used to study including Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire, Rapid entire body assessment (REBA), Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), PATH (Posture, Activity, Tools and Handling), Ovako Working Analysis System (OWAS), self-report and the Quick Exposure Check (QEC). Workers were with a mean age of 36.5 years with the average 16.5 years duration of employment in their jobs. Prevalence of MSDs in the target anatomical areas included Neck ranged from (20–81 %), shoulder (30–80 %), low back (30–70 %), Hand and wrist (20–60 %), Knee (40–70 %) and foot (20 %). Conclusion: The highest disorder were observed in back and knee. The epidemiological evidence on the work-relatedness of these disorders is needed thus high quality studies in cause and effect were recommended to show this association. The results likely to be useful to researchers and managers to minimise the occurrence of these disorders through prevention measure.

The Textile industry is the largest manufacturing industry at Pakistan that has good reputation in global supply chains. Organizations want to achieve excellence by optimally utilizing their human capital. Socio-technical complexity of working systems along with high level of expectations, workplace stress management has become an area of deep concern where textile sector is no exception. It is highly important to address stress related issues so that organizations can capitalize benefits related to their human resource by ensuring their well-being at all levels. People involved in management, are expected to be vulnerable to stress because of their critical role in organizations. The objective of this study is to identify causes of workplace stress among managers of textile industry. In this cross-sectional study, data through a questionnaire has been collected from 125 managers from different areas of textile sector like spinning, weaving and apparel manufacturing. Exploratory factor analysis has been carried out where factors like physical agents at work, training and development, support at work, family/work interface, work environment and role have been found to be the major causes of workplace stress.

The aim of this analytical study was to analyze the relationship between the Quality of Work Life (QWL) and the presence of depression or anxiety symptoms in administrative employees of a public university in Mexico, with a probabilistic sample of 225 people. The CVT-GOHISALO and Goldberg’s depression and anxiety questionnaires were applied to the sample to measure their QWL and the presence of depression or anxiety symptoms. Only in one of the seven dimensions of CVT-GOHISALO instrument, the highest percentage of satisfaction was of high level. In all other dimensions the highest percentage of satisfaction was of low level. As for the presence of depression symptoms, 20.9 % of the employees had them and anxiety symptoms occurred in 59.1 %. In all dimensions, the higher satisfaction with the QWL and the absence of depression or anxiety symptoms were related, all crosses were statistically significant. High satisfaction with QWL, is a protective factor for not having depression or anxiety symptoms. The risk of developing depression or anxiety symptoms, is up two times higher for those with low satisfaction levels with their QWL than for those who have high satisfaction levels.

Currently, high-risk organizations are implementing various safety management activities such as collecting incidents and pointing and calling. However, activity mannerisms can reduce the motivation of organization members. In psychology, workers’ voluntary motivations are interpreted as a type of intrinsic motivation. One theory posits that intrinsic motivation is increased through internal specifics and adequate gaps in emotion, cognition, and handling ability of the object. We apply this theory to a method that maintains motivation in safety management activities by continuously providing safety-related information at suitable intervals. The pluralistic specific (internal specific) of each worker at a specific time is predetermined by appropriate methods.

The aim of this study was to develop a taxonomy of human factors that influence human errors and faults that cause injury accidents in hands in the automotive manufacturing industry harnesses. The methodology cultural consensus theory of Cognitive Anthropology with a mixed-method approach to collecting and analyzing data was used. Collection instrument known as free listings to identify about the point of view of members of the security group, successive card sorting was applied in data collection for the classification of the elements of the cultural domain. The statistical models; multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis were applied to obtain mutually exclusive and high-level categories, internal validity and reliability of survey participants were estimated with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The main result was a taxonomy composed of five categories: unsafe acts, unsafe conditions, personal factors, supervision and organizational factors. Future studies are required to validate the taxonomy.

Many epidemiological and questionnaire based studies reported that fishermen had a high incidence of musculoskeletal disorders. To our knowledge this is the first time that manual material handling tasks have been investigated aboard. We investigated several manual material handling tasks in sea fishermen by means of different tools: NIOSH revisited protocol, 3DSSPP and heart rate. We found LI between 2.77 and 6.34, while handling boxes from the boat to the truck, and between 1.63 and 5.83, while transferring boxes outside the cold storage on the boat. Furthermore 3DSSPP© analysis showed low/medium level of low back compression force but low strength capability at shoulder, hip and trunk level. Lastly heart rate measurement while handling crates from the ship deck to the cold storage and inside the cold storage showed a significant increase of heart rate respectively of 42.7 and 40.5 %. Results showed high values of risk for all the tasks investigated.

Despite the continuous mechanization and motorization of vessels, fish sorting and packaging tasks aboard a boat are still not automated due to the peculiar features of the fish sector and the lack of working spaces. To our knowledge, no studies of biomechanical risk assessment on fishermen have ever been made aboard. We found high risk values of REBA score while sorting fish at stern floor due to extreme trunk flexion. Furthermore applying OCRA checklist we found high level of risk also while sorting fish on a table at stern. Lastly we assessed filling crates task by means of surface electromyography (sEMG); we investigated right and left forearm flexor and extensor. We found higher mean values of sEMG for the left side than for the right side. We assessed this task also by means of OCRA checklist using sEMG for force value choice obtaining high risk indexes. Results showed high values of risks for all the investigated tasks.

There are many risk analysis methodologies to assess the working environments and the tasks. Some of the assessment templates provide generalized frequency, probability and severity values. However, the risk analysis may be successful only if the forms are filled out by experts. The frequency values vary in a specific range and these values have significant importance for determining whether the task or process is in a high or moderate risk level. Therefore, this study presents a novel methodology to obtain more realistic frequency weights. For the purpose of the study, a crane operator who is performing a material handling task is asked to wear a mobile eye-tracker. Data is gathered from the external video recordings and eye movements. The frequency of the predefined risks is calculated from such data as fixation counts and durations regarding with risk factors.

This study aims at presenting a methodology for risks analysis that is carried out incorporating the practices of Lean Manufacturing. This approach shows the opportunities of integrating health and occupational safety with methodologies of process performance improvement and problem analysis. The methodology is supported on the results of the application in a work unit through the development of a focus group that followed a technical and scientific model developed with the integration of theoretical precepts of lean in risks analysis.

The standard for ergonomics sets parameters for the working conditions to the psychophysiological characteristics of workers to provide comfort, safety, and efficient performance. The machine-man-task system approach allows the voice of the worker to be included in the design of the production system, the steps of implementation and validation. The aim of this work is to assess the tasks of postal workers in their jobs and propose suggestions to minimize the risks of accidents, injuries and illnesses. The approach used has four ergonomics phases: diagnosis, assessment, design, and validation. The diagnosis showed that levels of illuminance, effective temperature, relative humidity, ventilation, and fire extinguishers coverage met the requirements of standard. The noise level and comfort according to anthropometric measurements didn’t met the requirements of the standard. The ambulation of workers was excessive. A new layout ran for ambulation reduction and validated by the workers as well as labor gymnastics.

Workplace mobbing can adverse effects on occupational health and safety are termed psycho-social risk factors. Psycho-social risks, compared to other risk groups like physical, biological and chemical risks, the lesser-known area of occupational health and safety in Turkey. Psycho-social risks are identified as social and organizational adversary activities which emerge due to the methods applied and arranged in relation to work life that give rise to psychological and physical harms. Mobbing as psycho-social risk factors can cause many negative effects on employees in today’s work life. These negative effects also results some unintended consequences such as low job satisfaction, absenteeism, aggression, anxiety, depression and some health problems. As with all hazards, mobbing (in whatever form) should be treated as a health and safety hazard and risk assessment methods should be used to prevent and control it. This paper objectives to identify the prevalence of reported workplace mobbing among a group of health workers, to evaluate the association between reported mobbing and its effect on workers’ health. As a result of this study, we could come to the conclusion that the first of all we have to reduce psycho-social risks. After this achievement, we are able to say that psycho-social risks are the result of harmful effect on individual.

The identification of ergonomic risk and it physical location in production areas is the proposal method called ergonomic hazards mapping system (EHMS). It aim is find the interaction between process conditions that enhance development of musculoskeletal disorders and the work system elements that need to be changed using ergonomic point of view. The EHMS was developed considering the analogy between a mapping quality process that shows a general picture of production activities and it layout and an ergonomic system focused on identify existing hazards at workstations. For it validation, a study case was implemented in a corrugated cardboard production process, the result is an schematic representation of ergonomic risk factors and the identification of body parts of workers that could be damaged if their work conditions do not be improved.

The present research was done with the aim to evaluate and improve a workstation focused in the assembly of spark plug wire which are composed by boot, terminals and wire. A pneumatic double acting controller with a lockable food pedal was employed as the mechanism for join the parts. Rula and Ocra analyses were done for identify the principal body part compromised by the task and for stablished the presence of a risk for the worker for the omission of an ergonomic right design.

Sustained attention is critical for military service members in operational environments. This study explored the relationship between sustained attention and mindfulness among military personnel and veterans (n = 247). Volunteers completed a sustained attention task (Integrated Visual and Auditory Continuous Performance Test), and two mindfulness surveys (Mindful Awareness and Attention Scale [MAAS] and the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire [FFMQ]). Results revealed positive correlations between the MAAS and Full Scale Response Control Quotient (FSRCQ) and Full Scale Attention Quotient (FSAQ) scores. For the FFMQ, Acting with Awareness was positively correlated with the FSRCQ and FSAQ; Describing was correlated with FSRCQ; and Non-judging was correlated with FSAQ. Thus, increases in mindfulness were associated with increases in sustained visual and auditory attention, and certain facets of mindfulness were more closely aligned with sustained performance than others. These results suggest mindfulness training may assist with improving sustained attention, and that research in this area is warranted.

The important problem of Arctic zone of Russia development is the development technology choice, because of some specific features of this territory. One of the possible alternatives is long-distance commuting technology. This type of work organization becomes more and more actual for extractive industry, for construction and services all over the world. It is especially important for remote regions, like Arctic, and for regions where the qualified labor force is not accessible. Long-distance commuting technology (fly in/fly out, shift work) has some advantages and disadvantages. Advantages are connected with economic indicators of work, and disadvantages—with social aspects of this technology. Productivity evaluation shows long-distance commuting technology is efficient for development of new areas and industries in remote regions. But it is also efficient to maintain existing industries and settlements with existing infrastructure permanently. So the development technology depends on the regional conditions.

This study evaluates the environmental and social impacts of the hotel industry in the local community and its influence on the environment, through a case study in the city of Maragogi, State of Alagoas. The surveys were conducted by sampling, where four projects of different categories were observed. This analysis identifies the organizational and human factors to reduce these impacts and the role of leaders and stakeholders in the model of the decision-making process in maintaining the hotel chain. Through semi-structured questionnaires to the hotel, its staff and representative bodies presents the perception of organizational factors, human and important environmental involved. The results suggest a regionalized model of environmental management for the hotel industry that can contribute to mitigate environmental and social impacts observed in the use of natural resources, contributing to an effective sustainable development, and prevent this activity can derail tourism in other municipalities that have similar tourism.

The purpose of this study was to verifying effectiveness of the guidelines for supporting resilience enhancement. Moreover, we aimed to discuss the effective way to use the guidelines based statistical data. The two fitness centers of the Metropolitan area joined this research in Japan. The fitness clubs approached to enhance resilience using the guidelines for a month or three months. The samples were 18 employees (Center A: 10, Center B: 8) completing the before-and-after evaluation using a questionnaire about resilience. The effect size (r) of result for paired t-test was pointed as the evaluate index for effectiveness of the activities to enhance resilience with the guidelines. As the result, center A’s resilience increased (r = 0.15 − 0.64), center B’s resilience decreased (r = 0.23 − 0.80). The organizational improvement activities including the improvement organizational process and interaction cause more effective resilience enhancement rather than the activities aiming to individual ability development to strengthen individual weakness.

The researchers investigated trust in a distributed work team. We explored the extent to which increased negative affective implicit and explicit attitudes are associated with loss of trust after a trust violation. We also investigated the effects of an attempt at trust repair after this violation. Participants performed a remote team task with two teammates. One of the teammates exploited the participant and then attempted to repair trust. Implicit and explicit affective attitudes and trust were measured. Increased negative explicit attitude toward the violator was associated with loss of trust in this teammate. Also, the attempt to repair trust significantly increased trust, but was still significantly lower than baseline. Results highlight the importance of explicit affective attitude as a trust predictor. Also, loss of trust resulting from exploitation may be increased by attempts at trust repair, but complete restoration of trust may be challenging after exploitation has occurred.

This study describes the application of triangulation method to strengthen validity of the integrated Balanced scorecard (BSC) performance measurement models for actor and regulator. This integrated BSC model has been developed by author in the previous research by combining Balanced Scorecard-Supply Chain Operation Reference-Regulator contribution model. This model referred as B-S-Rc-model. This model has been tested using Structural Equation Model (SEM) in leather craft industry in Yogyakarta (Indonesia) and valid to measure the performance of the regulator and supply chain’s actor. The model is further validated using a triangulation approach to strengthen the validity of model using a combination of method (Quantitative and Qualitative) and data source. It can be concluded that generally the B-S-Rc model is valid. Nevertheless, there is relationship between two variables and two indicators that detected inappropriate with the model, but still can be justified due to acceptable certain conditional factor. This study concluded that the method of triangulation can enhance the validity of the model because it combines multiple data sources and methods.