Summary

The concept of Situation Awareness was originally developed in aviation but has also become more and more important in the domain of driving. Endsley (1988) defines Situation Awareness as “the perception of the elements in the environment within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning and the projection of their status in the near future” (p. 792). In her model she argues that a cognitive representation (schema) of the current and the future situation is formed on the base of knowledge in long-term memory which guides attention to the relevant cues in the environment. Due to the dynamics of the situation, this mental representation has to be continuously updated. This update is understood as a cyclical process, including an active search in the environment for information which may prove or disprove the activated schema and lead to modifications.

In this report a secondary task method is presented to investigate Situation Awareness in the driving context. It is assumed, that the self paced use of secondary tasks can be used as an indicator for drivers’ Situation Awareness. Situationally aware drivers are able to decide in accordance with the demands of the actual driving situation if execution of a secondary task is safely possible or not. This enables them to avoid higher workload levels in already demanding driving situations. Maintaining Situation Awareness when using secondary tasks includes anticipative processes based on accurate perception and comprehension of the situation just before a secondary task is started as well as continuous updates of the situation model via control processes during secondary task execution.

To investigate these processes, a study in the driving simulation was conducted. The driving course consisted of specific situations, each including a potential conflict. In every situation, the driver had to adapt his driving behaviour appropriately to ensure driving safety. In addition, situations without any special demands on the driver were constructed. At predetermined points of the route, the driver was offered the choice to perform an additional task. This offer was given either just before a critical situation or in a non-critical situation. Given such an offer, the driver had to decide within a given time frame whether the situation was suitable for the secondary task or not. This should be done according to the situational demands. The driving task should always remain the primary task.

In study 1, a highly standardised, externally paced task was implemented. It consisted of sequentially displayed numbers with a fixed duration of 500 ms per number. The driver was told to read each number aloud just after it had appeared on the display. The driver was instructed to perform the task for as long as the situation allowed (maximum 5 sec). He was instructed to interrupt the secondary task and return to the driving task whenever the driving task required full attention. If the task had once been interrupted, it could not be continued. In study 2, a realistic menu system was implemented. This task was self-paced by the driver and could be interrupted any time. The task was to navigate to instructed options within the menu. In both studies, behavioural adaptations in the driving task, in the secondary task as well as in the allocation of visual attention were measured. To evaluate the adequacy of these strategies, the effects on driving safety were analysed (driving errors and collisions).

The results of both studies show that our experimental setting allows the use of situationally adaptive strategies in the interaction with secondary tasks while driving as an indicator of drivers’ Situation Awareness. Indicators for anticipative as well as control processes could be found: In anticipation of higher future situational demands, drivers rejected tasks more often to avoid overload due to the dual task situation. Furthermore, drivers interrupted task execution timely before a critical situation. The results of the analysis of eye glance behaviour show that, during the decision phase, the driving scene was processed more deeply. If drivers showed anticipative strategies they were able to maintain driving safety. The number of driving errors was comparable to a baseline-condition without any secondary task offers. If the situational demands were underestimated and drivers executed secondary tasks in already highly demanding traffic situations, driving safety decreased.

Analysis of eye glance behaviour further indicates that, during secondary task execution, the situation’s development was monitored by short glances back to the driving task. These control glances were used for a comparison between the expected and the actual situation development and were adapted to the situational demands in frequency and duration (if the secondary task allowed it). If the driver detected a deviation from the expected situation development, he interrupted the secondary task. Results from eye glance analysis indicate that, during secondary task execution, the monitored part of the environment was clearly reduced. It is assumed that due to the constraints of the secondary task, monitoring of a situation’s development has to be restricted to a subjectively relevant part of the environment. The interruptability of the secondary task, as it was the case in the menu navigation task, allows a more frequent and longer monitoring of the driving task.

Practical relevance

The implementation of a secondary task approach allows identification of relevant processes of Situation Awareness while driving. The specific experimental setting allows a realistic assessment of driver interaction strategies with secondary tasks while driving. It permits analysis of specific compensation strategies and of their effects on driving performance and safety.

Situational Awareness and anticipatory processes

Author: Wolfgang Kallus

Keywords: Situational awareness, aviation accidents, spatial disorientation, psychophysiological strain measurement, simulator study, anticipatory behaviour control

Summary

This contribution develops the hypothesis that anticipatory processes are of much higher importance for errors in flight and driving than classical approaches of the situation awareness concept presume. Thus, it is proposed to change the sequence of perception, comprehension, and projection in the near future into a feedback loop. This loop highlights, that the anticipation of changes can modify the perceived cues. This is well in line with classical and modern conceptions of action, dating back to the ideomotor principle and the principle of reafference. In addition, an option to skip the step of “comprehension” in case of highly automatized actions is proposed. Comprehension can be replaced it by a simple match-mismatch checking process. Data from two simulator studies on spatial disorientation of pilots are presented, which show increased heart rate in the period before errors occur. The first results were based on data from 21 experienced jet pilots. Among other exercises they had to perform a landing on a hardly illuminated runway (black-hole approach) in a motion-based disorientation trainer (DISO-Airfox®, AMST-Systemtechnik GmbH, Ranshofen, Austria). The heart rate increase starts about ten miles out, which is far more than enough time to switch to a safe maneuver. Similar differences were found with a sample of 15 licensed pilots, who had to perform the black-hole approach with a computer mock-up of the simulator with a turbo-prop aircraft model. In both studies heart rate was recorded with an adapted multichannel EEG-amplifier of g-tec (Austria) from electrodes placed on the chest of the pilots. The replicated anticipatory physiological changes of pilots with crashes in the simulator indicate that we should pay more attention to the analyses and explanation of anticipatory processes, which are not necessarily “aware”. Whereas Endlsley’s (1995) classical model of situation awareness with the levels “Perception of the relevant factors from the environment” (“Level 1 – SA”), “Comprehension/understanding of the significance of these factors” (“Level 2 – SA“) and “Understanding of the system progress in the near future” („Level 3 – SA“) is a very useful framework for the description of the weaknesses of information processing in (aviation)accidents, the analyses of anticipatory processes might have additional impact on the explanation of the behaviour in time-dynamic systems and the development of the preventive training. Experimentally designed studies will have to be conducted in a next step, as the replicated ex post facto analysis only lead to hypotheses and cannot rule out any other alternative explanation of high heart rate during a black-hole approach like high workload of less capable pilots.

Practical Relevance

Supporting anticipative processes in the control of dynamic systems by training and technical support systems might be an important contribution to enhance safety and to reduce human error.

Do the elderly drive with more situation awareness than the younger?

Author: Mark Vollrath, Jannette Maciej, Jürgen Howe,Susanne Briest

Keywords: elderly drivers, intersection, driving behavior, accident risk, situation awareness

Summary

The concept of ‘situation awareness’ (SA) has been developed in the context of aviation and supervisory task in the industry. Recently, it is also beginning to become popular in the area of ground traffic. However, from the background of existing theories and models in traffic psychology (e.g., about perception, attention, memory etc.) it remains unclear what really is the added value of SA. One possible candidate is the third component of SA, the anticipation of critical situation elements in the near future. This should be especially relevant for driving through intersections. Here, the driver has to anticipate how other vehicles will move in order to decide how and when to enter the intersection. In order to assess the relevance of anticipation as compared to attention factors, older drivers are examined in this study, as their main cognitive deficits are described as being in the area of attention, especially divided attention. In contrast, older drivers should be more able to anticipate what will happen in difficult traffic situations due to their larger lifelong driving experiences. Thus, if anticipation of future critical events is really a crucial factor for driving safety, older drivers should not be at loss as compared to younger drivers. However, if attention is more important, older drivers should behave differently than younger drivers and should also be more error-prone than younger drivers.

These ideas were examined with a driving simulator study in the Virtual-Reality-Laboratory of the DLR (German Aerospace Center). Sixteen old drivers (69 to 84 years of age, 11 male and 5 female) were compared to 16 young drivers (31 to 47 years of age, 10 male and 6 female). In both groups, the yearly average mileage was about 16000 km. Subjects were first tested with regard to their divided attention performance using the Wiener Testsystem (WAFG). Within each age group, subjects were then classified as poor or good divided attention performance. Each subject drove a course comprising five different intersections three times. At each of these intersections, drivers turned left and had to yield possible oncoming traffic from right or left. At one intersection, no traffic was coming. Two other intersections introduced traffic from the right or left, respectively. The fourth intersection had traffic from both sides. Finally, the fifth intersection had traffic from the right and visual complexity was increased by adding buildings, standing cars and standing pedestrians. Driving behavior (speed approaching the intersection, gap duration when turning left) was recorded as well as a subjective evaluation of the difficulty of each intersection directly afterwards. Additionally, observers counted errors while turning left (collisions with vehicles from the right or left).

If anticipation of future critical events was the relevant factor, the intersections should become more difficult the more vehicles have to be taken into account. Additionally, in this case the visual complexity of the intersection should not influence the difficulty much. At first glance, the analysis of the duration of the accepted gaps seemed to support this idea, as all drivers took longer when cars were coming from both sides and the addition of visual complexity hardly changed the accepted gap duration. However, the comparison of older and younger drivers contradicted this view: The difference between the two groups was nearly identical in all intersections. Older drivers waited at all intersections for gaps which were approximately 1.5s longer than younger drivers. If anticipation was the crucial factor for intersection difficulty, this should not be the case. Then, the difference should be smaller at intersections with two-way traffic (as older drivers have lots of experience with anticipation) and larger at intersections with increased visual complexity (as older drivers have problems with attention). However, this was clearly not the case. From this point of view, attention seems to be sufficient to explain the effects of the different intersections and the age effect.

This interpretation was supported when both age groups were split with regard to their attention performance in the Wiener Testsytems. Older drivers with a poor attention performance had more errors when turning left than older drivers with good attention performance. For the concept of SA, this means that the study failed to show an additional effect of anticipation (the third stage of SA), although strong effects of situational factors could be shown and the age groups differed clearly in their behavior. Overall, the concept of SA provides a good frame of reference to address different aspects of information processing. However, an additional value with regard to predicting or explaining driver behavior in safety-critical situations could not be shown.

Practical Relevance

More than 30% of all heavy accidents with large material damage, injuries or fatalities occur at intersections. Older drivers are overrepresented in this situation. A detailed analysis of driver behavior and driver errors contributes to increasing traffic safety.

A procedure to estimate the effects of cognitive and visual distraction of in-car tasks on situation awareness while driving

Author: Martin R. K. Baumann, Diana Rösler, Josef F. Krems

Keywords: Visual demand, distraction, cognitive demand, situation model, in-car tasks, driving

Summary

To ensure traffic safety telematic systems have to be designed in such a way as to not visually and / or cognitively distract the driver while driving. This paper introduces a simple procedure to separately measure visual and cognitive demands of telematic systems. The first experiment collected performance data of the procedure for three in-car tasks that differed in their visual and / or cognitive demands. In the second Experiment these data have been compared with the influence these tasks had on situation awareness while driving a simulator.

Practical relevance

In recent years different telematic systems have been increasingly offered as basic equipment in new cars. These systems have to be designed in such a way as to not distract the driver while driving. This paper introduces a simple procedure, based on a well-known experimental psychology paradigm, that allows an evaluation of the systems’ safety-critical visual and / or cognitive demand early in their developmental process.

Cognitive Parameter for the Relationship of Situation Awareness and Behaviour

Author: Oliver Sträter

Keywords: Situation Awareness, Cognitive coupling, Cognitive processing loop, Anticipation, Timely adaptation, Driver modelling

Summary

The concept Situation Awareness attempts to address an important aspect of human involvement in technical systems, namely the active impact of the human cognitive system on future developments of a situation. In literature the boundaries of the concept in relation to other cognitive concepts like mental models are often blurred and consequently appropriate measurements are lacking as well. The paper identifies the issues underlying the concept and the problems of measuring it. It then proposes a theoretical basis for the concept and concludes that such a theoretical basis for the concept of Situation Awareness allows by better measurement to consider the concept for system design.

Practical relevance

The concept situation awareness is important for the understanding of the active role of the human in a technical system. Nevertheless the measurement of the concept is not satisfactory. The article describes an approach to model the concept situation awareness in such a way that the concept can be used in system design.

Enhancement of situation awareness in time- and safety-critical driving situations using semantically enriched warning signals

Author: Nicola Fricke, Manfred Thüring

Keywords: Semantic Enrichment, Situation Awareness, Driving Simulator, Collision Warning

Summary

Situation awareness is important for maintaining a constantly safe driving behavior. Especially in critical driving situations, such as potential collisions, it is sometimes not possible to achieve an adequate level of situation awareness. As a consequence, it might not always be possible to avoid negative outcomes because aspects of the situation or the driver or both might lead to impeded conditions. To help drivers focus on relevant aspects in the driving environment, it could be helpful to assist them by presenting a collision warning signal. An effective warning should inform the driver about the critical situation. Relevant aspects in such a situation are information about the nature of the danger and its spatial position. Therefore, the collision warning signal should be enriched with this semantic content. The aim of such an approach is to enhance the situation awareness of a driver so that he can make an adequate and fast reaction.

For the presentation of information on the identity of a hazard it is reasonable to use auditory icons. They have shown promising results when used as warning signals in terms of fast reactions and easy identification. The aspect of signalling the spatial position of a dangerous object or event is more difficult. Some studies have found good results in enhancing a driver’s visual target identification using spatial auditory icons, but such signals have only been tested under static conditions or under artificial study conditions. Therefore, it is not clear whether such signals lead to an improvement in enhancing situation awareness when used in realistic driving conditions. An additional option would be the usage of an alternative presentation format for such spatial information, e.g. to visually indicate the position of an object.

The aim of this research was to investigate whether several combinations of semantically enriched warning signals could improve situation awareness. The hypothesis was that the signals would lead to faster and more correct actions in critical driving events than a conventional tone warning. Several studies are presented that were conducted to address the above mentioned aspects.

In two laboratory studies with 20 and 16 participants, the best auditory icons for signalling a certain driving event were investigated using a choice-reaction paradigm and a free association test. The stimuli with the fastest identification times and rates were chosen and used in more realistic driving simulator studies to cue potential collision objects. Another study with 12 subjects tested whether a spatially presented auditory icon could be identified in a static driving environment. Results suggested that the ability of participants to identify a position in space is good enough to differentiate in terms of broad categories, such as “in the front” and “to the left”.

These studies set the groundwork to investigate spatial auditory icons in a first driving simulator study. In this study, 73 subjects participated. Three auditory icons (bicycle bell, dog bark and car horn) were coupled to their respective objects in six collision scenarios. The auditory icons were compared to a spatial tone warning, a simple tone and a no-warning condition. No advantages were found for the spatial auditory icons in terms of brake reaction time, distance to collision object, and number of collisions. Furthermore, only 4 out of 36 participants in the spatial conditions stated that they had consciously noticed the spatial information. Accordingly, no objective effect could be found in the variables and additionally no situation awareness enhancement was obvious. Therefore, another design option for the spatial information was used in a second driving simulator study with 160 participants. In two collision scenarios, the sound of screeching tires and a bicycle bell were compared to a simple tone warning. In addition, the same conditions were combined with a light-emitting diode (LED) warning that contained information about the spatial position of the object. Thus, two auditory conditions (auditory icon or tone) were either presented single or combined with visual-spatial information (with LED/ without LED). Results from this study showed an advantage in brake reaction time for the conditions with the LED warning. Furthermore, there was a positive effect for the sound of screeching-tires in the car scenario in terms of brake reaction time and number of collisions.

In summary, signals that are designed following the principle of semantically enriched warnings can assist drivers in dealing with safety- and time-critical driving situations. However, that is only true for specific combinations of auditory and visual warnings which have to match the expectations of the driver. This seems to be the case for the sound of screeching tires combined with an LED warning to be used in frontal-collision situations. Such signals can improve the situation awareness in a critical driving situation and result in a fast and appropriate response that may help to avoid a collision.

Practical relevance

This paper addresses how a combination of studies can lead to insights in the design of collision warnings aiming at an improvement of the situation awareness in time- and safety-critical driving situations. Following the results, non-verbal semantically enriched warnings communicating information about the nature of a hazard and its spatial position seem to be able to support drivers in critical driving situations.

Situation Awareness applied to Aeronautics and Automotive: Studies and Guidelines

Author: Jerome Barbe, Lucas Stephane

Keywords: Situation Awareness, Subjective Assessment Methods, SAGAT, CC-SART, Cross Domain Studies, Aeronautics and Automotive Domains

Summary

This paper presents an overview of the emergence of Situation Awareness (SA) methods in the context of highly automated embedded systems. Furthermore, we show the commonalities and differences in the use of SA methods in automotive and aeronautics related to the specificities of each domain. The experiments presented aim to show how the methods may be used and the different results that may be obtained, rather than a detailed description of the target applications that were evaluated. A final discussion provides recommendations and guidelines, as well as pros and cons for the SA methods employed specifically for each target application used in each particular domain.

Practical relevance

This paper aims to show how to use Situation Awareness methods in the early design as well as in the evaluation process of onboard systems. Subjective assessment methods such as SAGAT and CC-SART were used in a cross domain studies. Commonalities and differences in the use of SA methods are showed in automotive and aeronautics related to the specificities of each domain.

Vol. 2 - 2009

Social Determinants of Programme Developments of Labour Policy in Germany

Author: Günter Neubauer und Paul Oehlke

Keywords: Work research and labour policy, humanisation of work and quality of work, socially oriented research and technology policy, institutionalized forms of participation and constellation of social forces, democratic welfare state and regulated markets

Summary

Our presentation lays the focus on the relationship between macro-level determinants and micro-level developments of labour policy programmes since the late 1960ies. Protagonists of labour policies succeeded in transforming the recessionborn trends of social upheaval into a broad reform agenda under the label of venturing more democracy. It implied quite a variety of legal improvements in labour policies, in particular, in the areas of occupational safety and health and of industrial relations. Works councils’ rights of codetermination in social, personnel and economic questions laid down in the amended Works Constitution Act from 1972 included explicitly the application of scientific knowledge in the design of work and technology according to human needs. These demands were taken up by the Federal Government through funding the action and research programme “humanisation of work” (1974-1989) which distinguished by producing scientific findings alike for improving working conditions and modernizing the national economy. According to such bipartisan objectives there were institutionalized diverse interaction channels between the social partners from project to programme level. In a relative short time, they began to function as dialogue arenas with learning effects top-down and bottom-up thus contributing to rationalize basic conflicts and to promote the building up of an integral labour-oriented power constellation which did realize elements of productivity progress according to human needs. By and large, the alternative design solutions in various fields of personnel and organizational, work and technology development were focused by the competent bipartite advisory panel of the government into a comprehensive understanding of innovation giving a programmatic input for linkages of technical and economic dimensions with social and human demands. But, herewith supported, the shift of the Fordist techno-economic paradigm towards integrated work tasks and autonomous team work implied an increasing influence of works councils and unions on programme level which was questioned by the employers and their federations. Their resistance resulted finally in a restriction of the rather big transfer projects of the social partners informing and qualifying their respective target groups. The further termination of branch activities and their discourse platforms, getting a striking expression in the melting down of the programme budget in the 1990ies indicated a creeping erosion of the workoriented actor configuration during the superseding “Work and Technology” programme (1989 to 2000). The formerly wide-spread opportunities of participation functioning as the institutional backbone of programme development have been dried out in the course of the neoliberal transformation of the welfare state to primarily competitive functions. In this transition period, the comprehensive understanding of innovation narrowed down to more or less entrepreneurial objectives in both of the following programmes from 2000 onwards though centered still on the general objectives of “innovative workplace design” and “competence development”. In view of the up- and downgrading spirals of labour policies work researchers are demanded to get a deeper understanding of their social and economic determinants. Thus, regressive orientations on national and company levels have been released by liberalized financial markets stimulating an intensified global competition which forced companies to short-termed, often quarterly profit calculations. The mounting pressure on reducing costs though detrimental to quality production was supported by the deregulation of labour markets and the spreading of precarious forms of employment giving rise to strained and worsening working conditions as well as stagnant or even shrinking wages. Moreover, private and public practices of limiting and saving labour, social and tax expenses combined with insufficient consumer demand, public investments and corporate innovations altogether in favour of uprising private profits, shareholder value expectations and monetary liquidity pushed finance-driven accumulation and speculation strategies triggering off a still ongoing and deepening financial and economic crisis. It puts on the agenda again a renewed political embedding of unfettered market forces through social regulations and public interventions. They might offer nowadays again chances for a renaissance of humanisation policies which could pave the way for better work, quality production and a high development path in a sustainable perspective.

Practical relevance

The analysis of social determinants of the development of labour policy programmes gives points of reference for a deeper understanding on the practical relevance of funding activities for industrial science. There might be gained, moreover, a better evaluation of the respective selection criteria of research subjects, of the appropriate methodologies and particularly of the opportunities for a broader application of research results. In this context, particularly the new generation of academics is demanded to develop a reflexive relationship concerning the context-dependence of their own contributions to definitely improving working and living conditions.

Relevance of the concept “betriebliche Lebenswelt”

Author: Eva Senghaas-Knobloch

Keywords: Subjective coping strategies, subjectivation of work, organizational mindfulness

Summary

The concept of „betriebliche Lebenswelt“ was developed in the context of basic research for the “Aktions- und Forschungsprogramm Humanisierung des Arbeitslebens” (‘Action and Research Programme on Humanization of Worklife’) which aimed at transcending tayloristic working conditions. The empirical research took place between 1979 and 1981 and explored subjective strategies which workers and employees develop to cope with demands to fulfil their given tasks. The findings demonstrated that group specific, partly unconscious, subjective strategies in the context of different organizational departments and different hierarchical levels merged towards an organizational configuration that blocks humanization of work conditions. But it was not until the late 1990ies, when tayloristic management approaches in mass production were problematized and an interest in the subjective dimension of work gained momentum in theory and practice. In recent work- and industrial sociological research the new management strategies were conceptualized as “subjectivation” of work. This article discusses the strengths and weaknesses of this concept with respect to an understanding of the new management trends and of the subjective responses on the side of the workers and employees: The concept of “subjectivation” rightly emphasizes the new organizational perception of subjectivity not any more as disturbing but as a important achievement potential at work, and it correctly analyzes the new management strategies aiming at self commitment and self control of workers, replacing direct orders. But, “subjectivation of work” in this sense is not new to non-industrial vocations and professions since the intrinsic quality at least of the person related services demands selfcommitment and self control. Also, the concept of “subjectivation” rightly addresses the new attempts to use subjectivity as an economic potential for rationalization. But it underestimates the relevance of subjective coping strategies which contribute to the fact that workers under new as under old conditions often rise open critique against overburdening demands only after having experienced severe health problems. New data on the increase of psychic health problems give evidence that it is fruitful to use a psychoanalytical understanding of subjectivity that encompasses the relevance of the unconsciousness also in new work contexts. It is argued that the concept of “betriebliche Lebenswelt” is founded on such an understanding of subjectivity which helps explaining why workers and employees under the new conditions of internal quasi-marketization of organizations and of demands on self-management and self-control hardly express openly their problems with commissioned tasks but lacking resources to fulfil them. What is needed, therefore, are special organizational spaces for their articulation.

Practical Relevance

Supporting anticipative processes in the control of dynamic systems by training and technical support systems might be an important contribution to enhance safety and to reduce human error.

Ergonomics in the Debate on Humanisation – A Review

Author: Friedrich Fürstenberg

Keywords: Job research, labour politics, labour economics, ergonomics interdisciplinary, ergonomic research, humanisation of work as an active process

Summary

In the 1970s and 1980s German-speaking ergonomists reached a consensus that ergonomics is a science relating to human work, which must use an interdisciplinary approach and integrate and apply the knowledge gained in the individual disciplines. This consensus and the debate on labour and social policies which took place during this period resulted in a wide variety of approaches to the question of scientifically correct and humane job design which finally crystallised into an Action Programme for Humanisation of Working Life (HdA) . This objective of subject-oriented job quality has persisted up to the present day. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has, for example, defined global promotion of decent work as its principal objective. In Germany, the German Ministry of Labour’s initiative New Quality of Work (INQA) and trade union demands for ‘good work’ are examples of the efforts to promote subject-oriented job quality. The basic consensus described above was documented in several widely-circulated memoranda from the Gesellschaft für Arbeitswissenschaft (GfA). The experience gained with the available instruments for ongoing advancement of ergonomics (research, teaching, further training, institutionalisation in education and business) and its application in the form of research programmes (HdA-, AuT-, …) etc., was evaluated to enable conclusions to be drawn on ways to promote further development of ergonomics and job/workplace research, in which humanisation of work is regarded as a process involving action and negotiation and the actors approach issues relating to job design, introduction of new ideas and conservation of old ones in accordance with their personal interests. Promotion under the HdA programme transgressed the normal confines of technology promotion in an innovative way, in that ‘participation-oriented execution’ involving various advisory committees was not only the hallmark of, but also the motive force behind the programme. The ‘HdA Community’(consisting of representatives from the employers’ associations, the DGB and individual German unions, ergonomists, scientists from other disciplines, the bureaucracy and institutions responsible for projects) met at these committees and also at workshops, congresses, product presentations etc. and conducted a critical, but constructive dialogue. Despite all the contentious and opposing positions defended during this dialogue, this was one of the biggest advances made by the HdA programme (AuT programme). Supported by research under the HdA programme, correct job and workplace design evolved to a certain extent into a socio-cultural development project. But the limited nature of the political objectives and of the execution and results of the HdA projects (AuT-P.) become evident in retrospect: • concentration on industrial work processes (work systems),

• predominance of technical or technological solutions based on available expert knowledge,

• failure to activate the workers themselves and to involve them systematically (despite the participation-oriented basis on which the programme was planned),

• failure to make due allowance for gender issues,

• failure to make due allowance for as yet unrecognised, but growing challenges presented by an aging workforce and the need to design jobs for increasingly older workers,

• the relationship between work and private life and its consequences for a worker’s lifestyle (this HdA been noted during the programme’s early phases but not adequatelyinvestigated),

• the lack of investigation into relationships extending beyond the confines of individual work units, including systematic international comparisons. In spite of these shortcomings, the period during which the HdA and AuT projects were running was one in which ergonomics made great strides forward and succeeded in applying acquired knowledge to the design of scientifically more acceptable work systems and processes. This is still valid comment despite the fact that expectations HdA been exaggerated and that performance HdA been sub-optimal in some cases, which some observers attribute to excessive emphasis on political aspects. Because labour politics, if practised in the open, critical, but constructive way that prevailed within the HdA community of the 1970s and 1980s, will remain a fruitful source for improvement in the quality of labour relations.

Practical Relevance

The contribution is seen as a summary of significant statements from publications on encouragement of application of ergonomic knowledge on correct job and workplace design that has been through interdisciplinary studies. It outlines possible approaches to questions of evaluation and defines humanised work as a socio-cultural development project. It is also a plea for continuation of the programmes for advancement of job and work research at both national and trans-national level.

Evaluation of the DGB-Index ‘Good Work’ from an ergonomic point of view

Author: Jochen Prümper und Gottfried Richenhagen

Keywords: DGB-Index ‘Good Work’, stress/strain, resources, income and security, quality criteria

Summary

For several years attempts have been made, in several countries, to determine via an index, the quality of jobs regarding working conditions and income. Examples can be found in Flanders/ Belgium (Bourdeaud’hui et al. 2005; Van Ruysseveldt et al. 2002), Canada (Brisbois 2003; Lowe 2007), Austria (Hofinger & Michenthaler 1998), South-Korea (Phang et al. 2007) and the U.S. (Howell & Diallo 2007; Lower-Basch 2007). A further concept aims at calculating the quality of work at regular intervals across European state borders. The European Trade Union Institute for Research, Education and Health and Safety (ETUI-REHS), for example, recently presented the ”Job Quality Index” (JQI), “an indicator that enables comparison both over time and between European countries, using a broad but focused conceptualisation of job quality that can be updated at regular intervals“ (Leschke & Watt 2008, p. 7). The DGB-Index ‘Good Work’ is part of the endeavours to develop a national index. It has been developed with the aim to allow “a scientifically based report about the quality of work in Germany” (Sommer 2007, p. 4) and to provide on a scale from 0 to 100 “a figure for the quality of working conditions and income from an employees point of view” (Lauschke 2007, S. 9). Index values between 80 and 100 define “Good Work”, values between 50 and 80 “Moderate Work”, an index value lower than 50 means “Poor Work”. The questionnaire underlying the index consists of 31 questions (see Fuchs 2008, p. 18 and 25ff.). Each of the 31 questions allows for 10 to 13 possible answers, depending on the kind of question. Those questions are condensed to 15 dimensions which themselves are divided into three general indices: stress/strains, resources, income and security (Stuth 2008, p. 7).

The questions deal with the following topics: Resources: 1. Possibilities of qualification and development, 2. Room for creativity, 3. Career opportunities, 4. Possibilities to gain and exert influence, 5. Information flow, 6. Quality of the management, 7. Company culture, 8. Collegiality, 9. Sense of the work, 10. Organisation of the working time. Stress/strains: 11. Intensity of labour, 12. Emotional requirements, 13. Physical requirements. Income and security: 14. Professional perspectives / Job security, 15. Income Each dimension consists of up to 3 questions. In order to calculate the index, a value between 0 and 100 points is attributed to each answer. In this way, the same value can be obtained by a different combination of answers. The partial values of each of the 15 dimensions are generated from the average of the answers to the respective questions (Fuchs 2008, p. 19ff). The values of the answers from each dimension are then weighted by means of different coefficients (see Fuchs 2008, p. 19ff.) and summarized in general indices. The DGB-Index ‘Good Work’ was released for the first time in the year 2007 (Lauschke, 2007) and is to be provided annually. According to the “DGB-Index Gute Arbeit 2008 – Der Report“ [engl.: “DGB-Index Good Work 2008 – The Report“] (Stuth 2008) 13% of the employees work in Germany is categorized “Good Work“, 55% “Moderate Work“ and 32% “Poor Work“ (Stuth 2008, p. 12). In addition to the index, an online module has been published in the internet, allowing every employee to calculate of his or her jobs index value using the same methodology (see http://www.dgbindex-gute-arbeit.de ). The DGB-Index ‘Good Work’ claims to provide a well grounded and scientifically based report about the quality of work in Germany. This article critically examines the index from an ergonomic point of view and comes to the conclusion that its application cannot be recommended for the following reasons:

1. Scientific quality criteria: The DGB-Index claims to be an ergonomic measure to define the work quality in Germany. So far it has not been argued whether the index matches the quality criteria (especially objectivity, reliability, validity) scientifically defined for such measures. This must, in fact, be considerably doubted.

2. Evaluation method: Constructional faults based on methodological errors in the generation and calculation of the items raw score causes a heavily distorted and inappropriate method of valuation.

3. Company appliance: The index's application in a company context without modification must be criticized because the underlying questionnaire retrieves facts that are partly or entirely outside of the sphere of influence of the single company. In addition, essential strain situations are neglected.

4. Mapping the index scores to categories of ‘Good Work’: The DGB-Index divides jobs into three categories: “Good Work“, “Moderate Work“, “Poor Work“. The criteria for “good“ work and its calculation methods have a priori been set in a way that allows only very few jobs to be rated ‘Good Work’. Regular and representative reports on the quality of work in Germany must be thoroughly appreciated. The authors consider employee surveys a suitable method. But this goal can only be attained if such a coverage is scientifically based and takes place transparently in public. In this regard the article on the DGB-Index ‘Good Work’ reveals important faults.

Practical relevance

The DGB-Index ‘Good Work’ is supposed to be representatively applied in Germany and within chosen companies in order to deduce measures for a better labor situation on the basis of appropriate employee surveys. Therefore, its ergonomic base is of high practical relevance.

Vol. 3 - 2009

Integrating User Experience and Usability Engineering: Elements, Principles, and Procedures

Author: Hannes Gotthartsleitner, Peter Eberle and Christian Stary

Keywords: Usability Engineering Life Cycle, SW-development cycle, User Experience, hedonist quality, Usability, User Interface, epistemological analysis

Summary

This paper deals with two approaches to human-oriented design of interactive systems: Usability Engineering (UE) and User Experience (UX). UE can be considered a well established field since the advent of User-Centered Design, while UX has been recently touted to supplement traditional user-interface development with human-related factors, such as fun. In the contribution not only the underlying conceptual frameworks are revisited for both approaches, but also the procedures to be followed in the course of development. UE is a traditional engineering discipline. As such, its emphasis is on handling principles for design that should lead to user interfaces meeting requirements, as they concern user-related objectives in terms of interaction facilities and work tasks. Usability Engineering design elements and lifecycles have been proposed, in order to structure the development process starting with collecting requirements, following design guidelines, and mapping specifications to accurate code in the course of implementation. Experiences when using a structured procedure for development have been consolidated in standards and normative frameworks, driven by international bodies at international levels (EU, ISO). Software-ergonomic principles, such as robustness, have been embodied for design and evaluation of interactive artefacts. UX is a set of hedonic qualities that can be assigned to interactive artefacts. It can also be measured in terms of user satisfaction, attractivity of an artefact, or fun when using an artefact. However, so far no consensus on a definition or a theoretical model on UX has been achieved. In an attempt to put the different approaches into mutual context the relationships between users, artefacts and the organization in which artefacts are utilized, have been considered and could link UX to UE aspects, such as ergonomic principles. UX manifests itself along the user-artefact relationship and the organisation-artefact relationship. At the user-product relationship the functions provided as well as the hedonic qualities are perceived at a pragmatic layer. At the organisation-product relationship no conceptions of users are addressed in a direct way, rather business processes and business communication. From the perspective of perception qualities can be decomposed into a perceived pragmatic quality and a perceived hedonic quality. The perceived pragmatic quality mainly corresponds to usability since it targets perceived utility and functional use. The perceived hedonic quality is not goal-oriented, in contrast to the functionality-driven aspects. However, it concerns certain quality aspects, such as innovativeness, originality, or exclusivity. The hedonic quality addresses human eager towards curiosity and proudness in social relationships whereas the pragmatic quality addresses the need towards security, control and trust. According to UX frameworks developers try to combine hedonic and pragmatic quality in the artefact, e.g. having structured layouts or innovative colours. The user perceives the qualities of the product and judges according to his or her perception. As such subjective factors play a role, whereas developers achieve objective qualities. Nevertheless, the perception might correspond to the intention of developers. When evaluating the design of interactive artefacts, the pragmatic and hedonistic quality is perceived in a mutually independent way, although both contribute to the perceived attractiveness of an artefact. As such, they need to be considered in a mutually tuned way for design, but might be differentiated for evaluation. From a methodological perspective, UX can not only be implemented along the traditional engineering phases, but also using the same methods. However, UX requires adjustments that reflect hedonic qualities, both, for designing artefacts, and evaluating them. A coherent development procedure would require references of traditional development principles, such as task conformance, to hedonic qualities in a context-sensitive way, such attractiveness of interactive task accomplishment. These relations will be the topic of further research when aligning UX to UE, and vice versa.

Practical Relevance

In this article we review existing concepts of Usability Engineering and UX. For practical use guidelines to integrate UX and Usability Engineering techniques in the course of user-interface development are examined.

Ergotyping in the computer-aided development and design process

Author: Christiane Kamusella and Martin Schmauder

Keywords: Ergonomic tools, Human model, Product development process, Digital prototyping, Machine safety

Summary

The computer-aided development and design process of technical products and systems is carried out using digital prototypes. For ergonomics-related problems, ergonomics tools in the form of digital man models are applied. The methods and tools that are oriented to particular ergonomic aspects can be subsumed under the new term „ergotyping,“ a neologism that comes from “ergonomics” and “prototyping.” Ergotyping is applied when ergonomic aspects are analyzed with the above-mentioned tools and methods: when planning man-machine systems. The goal of ergotyping is the quickest possible, optimal synthesis of functionality and interaction with people according to the requirements of ergonomics. This article conveys a general overview of the integration of ergotyping. Prospective goals for the further development of digital ergonomics tools is discussed and explained, though limited to the mechanical sector and using the example of product ergonomics. When one considers the main phases in the product-development process, the DIN EN 614-1:2006 mentions general ergonomic tasks for the definition, conception, realization, and application phases. These tasks provide a framework for the integration of ergonomic principles. Phases particularly of interest are those in which digital prototyping, and with it, ergotyping, can be applied. From ergonomic tasks, necessary tools for ergotyping components and the structure of the design process are derived. Should the preparation of ergonomic analysis criteria in ergotyping orient itself more toward the rules and regulations during the individual phases of the development process, the product manufacturer can be supported in his compliance with legal requirements. In the field of machines, the individual interpretation of ergonomically relevant standards to create ergonomic components, and the implementation of ergonomic aspects can be carried out in a step-model. In Step 1, ergonomically relevant contents of harmonized type A and B standards can be prepared as ergotyping components that represent minimum requirements that must be met. For this, one can draw on Section 1 of the Table of Standards in the German Machine Ordinance. The standards that are to be considered product-comprehensive, that is, those that do not limit themselves to one individual machine, can be considered the foundation of every development. In Step 1, contents of type C standards are not taken into account, since these detailed requirements pertain to specific types of machines and are limited to a particular application. In addition to the standards and their contents included in Step 1, ergonomic requirements from further governmental rules and regulations, the regulations of the accident insurers, and the state of the art can be implemented in Step 2. Through this, the so-developed ergotyping components undergo extension beyond the minimum requirements. In order to support the design engineer with the systematic and comprehensive implementation of ergonomic requirements in relation to the man-machine interface, a systematic provision of interpreted contents in ergotyping components within the above-mentioned steps is sensible. For this reason, ergonomic contents of standards allow themselves to be grouped according to user-oriented and product-oriented features with the corresponding subaspects. User-oriented features are, for example, physical requirements such as body measurements, posture, body strength, and movement, among others. Among the product-oriented features are, for example, what is required of machine elements for the reception of information, such as displays and signals, requirements of information input and actuating elements like operating components, etc. Ergonomic requirements come in the form of guidelines, procedures, and statements of characteristics, the last of which provide, on the one hand, indications both for product-oriented conceptual parameters for the object to be designed and for preset evaluation criteria. On the other hand, there are user-oriented parameter features that the man model must represent. Ergonomic guidelines define design goals that should be reached through the corresponding simulation algorithms in the man model and the connected analytic tools. Procedures establish the methods of use for ergonomic tools. Should we succeed in adding ergonomics tool that comprehensibly implement state-of-the-art ergonomic standards to the present functional range of digital man models, such component would provide a further incentive to practitioners to use them in planning and development tasks. There is greater benefit to the user because parameters, data, and their reference to the source of the standards are traced. Particular potential may arise in the future from the systematic integration of harmonized standards, since they are relevant for product manufacturers in generating their product conformity certificates. Emerging solutions can be categorized as ergotyping.

Practical relevance

Digital man models possess as ergonomics tools various features for research and development tasks, and they help to fulfill different ergonomic requirements. This article directs attention to the security and health requirements, including ergonomics, that product manufacturers must adhere to. For these requirements, considerable effort is still required in order to add further useful modules to ergonomics tools. This article should provide a framework for that endeavor.

Semi-autonomous robots in search and rescue missions. Users‘ views and suggestions on potentials and design

Author: Michael Knoll, Peter Protzel and Peter Sedlmeier

Keywords: search and rescue robots, human-robot-interaction, semi-autonomous, user requirements

Summary

This paper is based on an evaluation that investigated the possibilities of applying robotics technology in search and rescue missions. Due to technical progress, the possiblities for the use of semi autonomous robots in this field are rising. Research on semi autonomous robots usually focusses on the technical optimization of the robots. The user’s perspective – if analyzed in terms of scientific methodology at all – is considered with regard to handling and controlling mechanisms at best. This limited view disregards the fact that the use of robots in rescue missions does not represent a typical human-computer or human-machine interaction (cf. Fong et al. 2001; Scholtz 2003). The aim of search and rescue robot development is the construction of robots that can be integrated in dynamic interactions characterized by a high degree of mutual dependencies and a very low error tolerance (cf. Dietrich & Childress 2004; Pawlowsky et al. 2005; Weick et al. 1999). The robots’ deployment in such highly sensitive functional interplays and the interaction between humans and robots within this context can only be successful if all interaction partners are able to contribute their potentials (Scholtz 2003). Therefore, our study placed particular emphasis on interaction processes and on the exploration of tasks that could potentially be performed by robots. A further goal lay in identifying elementary characteristics and skills semi-autonomous robots must have in order to become helpful tools. The results of the study show that even if they do have reservations, rescue personnel are very interested in the potentials of working with robots. Their expectations concerning possible tasks and relevant qualities highlighted efficiency, effectiveness and context orientedness as essential characteristics of the co-operation. Social factors of human-machine interaction come particularly into focus with regard to the special potentials of semi-autonomous robots compared to guided robots (cf. Fong et al. 2003; Echterhoff et al. 2006), such as the ability to relieve rescue workers of some of their work load, to be resistant to a wide variety of dangers and to operate for very long time periods as a result of not being constrained by the limits of human physical and psychological capacities (cf. Burke et al. 2004; Casper 2004). Specifically in those instances where rescue workers must give up control, aspects like confidence, feedback, a shared understanding of reality and the accomplishment of existing expectations about the robots’ proficiency become central issues. Rescue teams work under very critical conditions. Therefore using robots should require little to no additional manpower or mental and communicative involvement by the human rescue workers. Accordingly, rescue workers see reliability as the most important of qualities robots should have. Other preferable characteristics were robustness, mobility, compactness, easy handling and long operating times. Concerns were uttered about using robots in fields that require immediate contact with victims – such as the rescue of people and medical treatment – and about giving robots decision-making authorities. The study shows that these delicate domains should receive particular attention in the construction of robots for search and rescue purposes. The consideration of rescue workers’ needs, concerns and know-how about the characteristic interaction mechanisms of rescue missions can enhance research and development processes and help to focus them on practical applications.

Practical Relevance

By exploring preferences and notions of potential users, this survey contributes to the development of semi-autonomous search and rescue robots and helps to prevent resource intense wrong turns that could be the result of an exclusively technology-oriented approach. It considers the robots’ involvement in interaction and communication processes – a topic that has been neglected so far – and widens the discussion by exceeding ergonomical aspects and building a bridge to the social sciences.

Situation awareness and automation at naval work-places

Author: Heiko Tietze and Heino Widdel

Keywords: situation awareness, automation, assistance system

Summary

Due to the multiplicity of new and improved sensors, naval air traffic control requires technological support for fast and confident tracking. Future military command and control systems are intended to relieve the operator by innovative human-machine-interfaces and by assistance systems. Regarding resource theories, SA should increase with assistance. The more spare time the operator has the better he can engage in the task and tracks can be identified faster and with enhanced reliability. On the other hand, automation is known to have an impact on vigilance, complacency, overtrust, training and reliability of performance. Therefore, it is questionable whether assistance has a positive or negative bearing on operator’s SA. An innovative graphical human-machine interface (HMI) was used in the study. The HMI prototype consists of a Tactical Situation Display that provides essential information necessary for situation evaluation and handling (figure 1). A Track Detail Display is shown on a secondary screen, where the operator finds parameters that are necessary for a verbal assignment. Computer assistance is implemented as rule based decision support for classification and identification of objects. Figure 2 shows the graphical display of the assistance system. During the experiment, SA was assessed by the Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT). With this method, simulation is frozen at certain times, the system displays are blanked while the operator has to answer questions in multiple-choice mode concerning the scenario. The study was conducted as 2x2 design with the factors complexity (low vs. high) and decision support (with and without). Complexity was synthesized mainly by the number of tracks but as well by the kind of threat. The experimental trial was preceded by a sufficient practice run with the simulation system and the SAGAT procedure of about one hour. In the experimental trial, each of the four runs, randomly assigned to two low and two high complexity scenarios, lasted about 20 minutes. Runs were interrupted five times to present the SAGAT probes of three or four questions. Sixteen experienced subjects attended the study. Results were evaluated with respect to both factors as means of the correct answers. To contrast SA with performance, users’ behavior was measured and compared to the identity of the track (ID) that would be given by the computer decision support system. Since the ID has different relevance it was taken into account and the third factor ID (red forces = hostile or suspect, blue forces = friendly or assume friendly and neutral) was included in the analysis of variance (ANOVA) of performance. The ANOVA of SAGAT questions reveals a significant main effect of assistance (F_(1,5)=9.67; p<.01; η²=0.39). With decision support, the number of correct answers is reduced by about 10%. Both, the factor complexity as well as the interaction are not significant. However, scenarios with higher complexity tend to decrease SA furthermore. Figure 3 shows the interaction. The 2x2x3 ANOVA of behavioral data points to an effect of the factors kind of track (F_(2,30)=19.59; p<.001; η²=0.57) and complexity (F_(1,15)=6.89; p<.05; η²=0.31). Tracks that should be identified as red forces have 50.6% accordance to the computer calculated ID, blue forces 24%, and neutral tracks 37.9%. During runs with low complexity, tracks were identified correctly with 41.3%, in high-complexity-scenarios with 33.7%. The concordance is raised by about 4.5% with decision support (not significant). Figure 4 shows the interaction. The results support the hypothesis that assistance may have a negative impact on SA. With decision support, SA was diminished by about 10%. Higher complexity of scenario tends to reduce SA furthermore. In contrast to SA, an assistance system is supposed to reduce workload and should result in better performance. Hence, a slight improvement of performance was observed in this study, too. Both, the diminished SA and the increased performance should be taken into account for explanation. Usually, the operator has to observe single tracks, has to acknowledge changes in track behavior, and should recognize track specific data, whereas no decision support is available in conventional systems. With assistance, the task changes to monitoring the assistance system. It is not necessary to have all data present but to know how and why the computer acts. The principal task is solved satisfactorily or even improved, supposing a perfect system. However, the operator pays attention rather to the assistance system than to the scenario or single tracks. As a consequence, he may have a proper SA of the assistance system but not of a track itself. Exaggerated verbalized, the measured ‘scenario SA’ persists only due to the questioning and as tracks need to be selected. This phenomenon is also known as out-of-the-loop problem. Additionally, an assistance system has to be monitored for malfunctions, maladjustments and limited abilities. Any technological system is designed with operational limits. Users need to know these limits. Artificial intelligence may reduce restrictions and extend system’s capacities. On the other hand, more rules and fuzzy logic makes it difficult to cope with the assistance system. Finally, all negative aspects should be balanced with the improvements of the supporting device. In most cases, decision will be made in favor of the support. If so, the ergonomic design is demanded to give all necessary information in an appropriate way. Thereby, it has to be considered that the operator’s task is switched to monitoring.

Practical Relevance

Situation awareness has been proven to be an important indicator for ergonomic assessment of human-machine interfaces and yields additional information along subjective and performance dimensions. Results of this study indicate a diminished SA under assistance that should be coped by operational or technological measures.

Effect of high-precision demands on muscular strain during handarm- trunk movements

Author: Marianela Diaz Meyer and Kurt Landau

Keywords: delicate objects, unstable objects, muscular strain, subjective assessment, motion-analysis

Summary

This paper focuses on the investigation of unstable objects, which are a type of delicate objects. Due to special object characteristics, handling delicate objects in the workplace requires extraordinary precision and care, in order to avoid human injuries or damaging the object. Examples of delicate objects are unstable objects (e.g. filled with liquid) and fragile objects, whereby the worker requires predominantly kinesthetic and visual feedback during its handling. The worker predominantly requires kinesthetic and tactile feedback during the handling of other delicate objects, such as sharp edged, slippery and flexible objects. Unstable objects (e.g., filled with liquid) can be found in many industrial sectors such as chemical and pharmaceutical laboratories, food-processing industries, companies in the service area, and maintenance work. The deficit in investigations related to the effects of handling unstable objects, i.e. human strain, has motivated the present study. 30 subjects (15 male, 15 female) participated in this experiment. The instability of the object was realized through the use of glasses (60 mm x 110 mm), which were filled with different amounts of water. This was varied in four levels: 0%, 80%, 90% and 95% full. Independent of the water level, the weight of the glass was kept at a constant 460 g. This weight corresponds to the weight of the 95% filled glass without extra weight. Extra weight (addition of metal elements inside the glass) was used to keep the weight constant for the other conditions. Subjects were instructed to reach for the glass, grasp the glass, transport it to one of the target positions (D1=80%, D2=100%, or D3=140% of the arm`s length), and then return the hand back to its initial position. The arm’s length is defined from the acromion to the phalangion III (mean = 65.2 cm, S.D. = 5.6). There were no instructions relating to the speed of the movement (self-paced movement). The muscular strain was assessed by normalized electromyographic activity (sEA) of the following five muscle groups (right side): M. trapezius pars descendens (T), M. deltoideus pars clavicularis (D), M. biceps brachii (BB), M. flexor digitorum superficialis (FD), and M. erector trunci (ET). A modified version of the questionnaire used by Chiou et al. (1998) (four questions) was used in order to measure the subjective assessment of the instability of the object. The sum of the four answers represents the subjective assessment of instability. It assesses the optic, tactile, and kinesiological feedback between the subject and the moving object. The results of the statistical tests proved that different movement strategies were used, in order to fulfill higher precision demands due to the object`s instability. Smaller movements are transmitted to the hand, when it is closer to the body. During increased instability, this control strategy makes it possible for more precise movements, which avoid spilling the contents of the glass. The fill level significantly affected sEA in muscles T and BB. Furthermore, women presented a significantly greater strain on the muscles T, BB, and FD than men. The small, but highly significant increase in the amplitude of the electromyographic activity during the handling of filled objects, suggests a dependence of the muscular strain on the demanded precision. The fill level also significantly affected the subjective assessment of instability. It is believed that this individual evaluation of the difficulty of the task affects the coordination of the locomotion system, and subsequently affects the response in terms of the muscle activation, the trajectory of the hand, and the angular motion of the main joints of the trunk and hand-arm system.

Practical relevance

Manipulation of unstable objects (e.g., fi lled with liquid) can be found in many industrial sectors such as chemical, pharmaceutical laboratories, food-processing industries, companies in the service area, and maintenance work. However there is in the context of ergonomics insuffi cient assessment of human performance and stress-related research during the manipulation of unstable objects. Adequate empirical movement data and stress-related date for the developing of digital human models are as well required.

Vol. 4 - 2009

Health Literacy and Prevention Culture. Indicators of Health and Success within Organisations: a model of action

Author: Ralf Schweer, Ulf Krummreich

Keywords: Health Literacy, Prevention Culture, Employability, Model development, „Gemeinsame Deutsche Arbeitsschutsstrategie” (GDA)

Summary

Based on the changed requirements of a transformed world of work, in which the measure aimed at a specific person is increasingly playing a more important role alongside workplace enhancement approaches, an integrated model for action is developed for healthy and successful work against the background of the Joint German Occupational Safety and Health Strategy. On the basis of current concepts and research results concerning the processes of accident and work-related illness, an integration of the concepts of health literacy and prevention culture into future prevention strategies is advocated. The incorporation of the concepts into the Joint German Occupational Safety and Health Strategy (GDA) serves as an example. The GDA is the work safety strategy supported jointly by national and regional government and accident insurance companies. This has the objective of maintaining, improving and promoting the safety and health of employees with coordinated and systematic work safety, complemented by measures for the promotion of health in the workplace. Evidence is provided for the increasing importance of the subject of health on the basis of current research findings. From these approaches, the requirement is derived that – in addition to preventive measures for the promotion of health – the personality of the employee and personal responsibility should be taken more into account. The concept of health literacy is not restricted by the authors to the factor of the acquisition of knowledge; instead, current findings and concepts concerning employability are also incorporated in the observations. For example, the model of health literacy that is presented (Kriegesmann et. al., 2005) takes into account theories of motivation and theories of personality with its differentiation between capacity to act, knowledge and ability for action, readiness to act, motives for acting. The concept of prevention culture is advanced based upon the approach to company culture proposed by Schein (1985). According to this, prevention cultures are also implicit in the fact that they are opinions about action that are accepted by everyone. They are the result of collective processes; the basic principle is reflected, more or less, in the behaviour of every individual. Prevention culture also grows historically, which is to say as a result of organisational knowledge and learning. The integrated stage model of health literacy and prevention culture presented here builds a bridge between the workplace enhancement approaches of the last few decades and these new findings. It favours a cooperative inclusion of all parties involved in the subject of health and in addition asks for a sustained approach. Organisations and individuals are called upon to accept the subjects of health and health promotion as a key area of competence for successful and healthy existence in a rapidly changing environment. The employability of the individual and the prevention culture of an organisation thus fuse into an integrated model of health literacy & prevention culture. The individual stages of the model each build upon one another and can be defined, and thus specifically promoted and developed, on the basis of their development criteria or indicators. Three different development stages are postulated that can act as a means of orientation and an opportunity for development for companies. The model pursues several objectives:

1) Implementing health and safety in the core processes of a company.

2) Promoting a lastingly forward-looking attitude towards handling the organisation’s resources.

3) Shaping the company as the foundation of the preventive measures.

4) Improving the health literacy of the individual employee and thus maintaining employability.

5) Strengthening interest in the development of one’s own competences, and positively structuring employability as a life-long learning process and as something that can be

directly experienced.

The basic assumption of the authors is that encouragement by the company can have a supporting effect but will not fundamentally change the employees’ development of competence. It is much more the case that the health-literate employee himself adapts to the complexity and variability of modern service-providing businesses. He develops a self-concept that defines health and life-long productivity as a positive aim and that connects growth and interest in company developments with commitment. The sustained implementation of the subjects of health literacy and prevention culture requires continuity, commitment and well- structured processes as well as the broad acceptance of all those involved.

Practical Relevance

The integrated model of organisational prevention culture and health literacy provides distinct key factors, to evaluate the level of prevention culture and health literacy. This knowledge can be used to generate and integrate measures, capable of lifting organisations and individuals to the next level of development. The concept is also integrated in the new political strategy “Gemeinsame Deutsche Arbeitsschutzstrategie”; therefore it influences the future of prevention strategies in Germany.

Wuppertaler Gesundheitsindex für Unternehmen (WGU)

Author: Mike Hammes, Rainer Wieland, Sandra Winizuk

Keywords: Health care index, demands, physical disorders, absenteeism, presenteeism

Summary

Companies decide to take action in improving internal structures and operations with a variety of goal settings. Characteristic values and indexes are approved to control such actions as they are able to illustrate the developments of changing processes in a clearly manner. There already exist some suggestions in practice and literature to develop an index approach to control actions in workplace health promotion. The “Wuppertaler Gesundheitsindex für Unternehmen (WGU)” was developed to asses a company’s health care potential and to control actions taken place in workplace health promotion. The present article firstly outlines the concept the WGU is based on. Secondly it reports some results about its validation. The WGU is conceptualized as a resource oriented index. It bases on an effect model in order to design work healthy and efficient. The model relates the following five domains of work: (1) working conditions and tasks, (2) leadership behavior, (3) personnel characteristics such as health care competency, (4) psychological demands and well being during work and (5) long-termed effects such as physical disorders and absenteeism. Within the WGU, the domains (1) to (4) are represented by measures with high relevance for the employee’s health: (1) regulation hindrances, (2) employee oriented leadership behavior, (3) health care competency and (4) balance of demands as the difference between functional and dysfunctional demands. The measures (1) to (3) are modify able input variables, ‘balance of demands’ is a non modify able process variable. The four measures are transformed to characteristic values, lying between 0 and 1. A characteristic value of 1 stands for an optimal development of the underlying measure. Value 0 means no occurrence of the underlying measure. The four characteristic values are weighted on the base of two studies. The WGU is the sum of the weighted characteristic values. The WGU is a normal distributed measure. It allows classifying employees and their working conditions, using four levels of a company’s health care potential. Based on the mean value, we differ the following levels of health care potential: high (up to plus one standard deviation), low (up to minus one standard deviation), very high (more than plus one standard deviation) and very low (more than minus one standard deviation). Domain (5) of the effect model is represented by the occurrence of physical disorders, absenteeism and presenteeism. These measures are related to the WGU as output variables. The analyses of two studies show a systematical relation between the levels of the WGU and the occurrence of physical disorders. Also the height of the WGU shows a statistically meaningful relation with absenteeism and presenteeism. The higher the WGU level is, the more seldom are physical disorders. This is most strikingly for unspecific disorders. Here, the four levels are differentiable statistically meaningful for both studies. For cardiovascular disorders, only three levels are differentiable. The levels ‘high’ and ‘very high’ have to be combined to one level. In respect to musculoskeletal disorders, the four levels are differentiable significantly in one study. In the other study, we again have to combine the levels ‘high’ and ‘very high’ to one level. The higher the WGU value is the lower is the extent of absenteeism and presenteeism. This shows an examination of corresponding crosstabs (median bisection), which become significant for both studies. This result is primarily interesting, concerning presenteeism, because it is contradictory to the expectation that bad working conditions will lead to absenteeism. Contrary to this expectation we found that the worse working conditions are, the longer employees go to work despite illness (paradox of presenteeism). This contribution introduces the “Wuppertaler Gesundheitsindex für Unternehmen (WGU)” which allows to reliably appraising the company’s health care potential and also enables to make assured statements about relations between the WGU and output measures, which are relevant for companies and employees (occurrence of physical disorders, absenteeism, and presenteeism).

Practical Relevance

The “Wuppertaler Gesundheitsindex für Unternehmen” allows appraising a company’s or department’s health care potential and, respectively, enables to make assured statements about relations between the WGU and the occurrence of physical disorders, and the extent of absenteeism, and presenteeism. As an index, it enables to illustrate the actual state of health care potential and its development in a clearly manner, and thus, positions itself within the current controlling practice. Because it is able to differentiate up to four levels of health care potential, concerning occurrence of physical disorders, it allows detecting groups of employees for which actions of health care promotion are most indicated.

Multimedia Software to simulate and practice safety behavioural patterns at work to improve the employability

Author: Yvonne Ferreira, Verena Bopp, Ralph Bruder

Keywords: Safety at Work, Stress, lifting and carrying loads, older employees, Gender Mainstreaming

Summary

There are two ways to improve the employability. The first is on the individual and the second is on the organizational level. It makes sense to simultaneously work on both levels and to use an integrated concept. Thus, it is possible to derive sustainable and effective measures. Above all, measures on the individual level require support from the whole organization because it is very difficult to change personal behaviour. Therefore, it is necessary to create innovative and appealing methods to convince the employees, that improving their own employability is worthwhile and feasible. Nevertheless, an individual can achieve more: they can not only change their own behaviour but also develop a new perspective on their work place. Often, there is only an undefined feeling that something with the work place is wrong. However, what exactly it is and how to change it is unclear. This is where the presented software comes in. Especially in small and medium-sized enterprises, knowledge and possibilities to create working conditions to promote health are missing. It was the aim to create an instrument to fill these gaps in knowledge and to highlight the resources of the employees and the company. The instrument has the following functions:

• Health promotion • Improvement of job design

• Employee qualification

• Ability of individuals to detect and minimize deficits, and through utilization of personal strengths to affect gainful change.

The employees have to utilize their own experiences to improve their capacity to act. Hence, the instrument has to focus on simulation, practicing of behavioural patterns and e-learning. Next to the goal of assisting small and medium-sized enterprises, another focal point was to improve the employability of three employee segments, which have a particular relevance. These groups are:

• older employees

• employees with an health impairment

• and women in terms of gender mainstreaming.

Furthermore, not only the employees but also the managers and employers need to be considered. Employability has a lot of infl uencing factors, for example skills, competences, abilities and talents, physical fi tness, work equipment, workplace, work climate and so on. To limit the scope of the work, only two relevant ergonomic themes were focused upon. These themes are:

• Proper stress prevention

• Lifting and carrying loads

These themes are, on the one hand, very current and on the other hand, they have many interconnections with other (working) conditions. In order to simulate and practice safety behavioural patterns at work, we chose a multimedia software. Multimedia means, that not only digital mediums are integrated but other technical and application-oriented dimensions are utilized as well. Multimedia concepts allow the use of time-dependant dimensions (for example videos and audio files) and time-independent dimensions (for example words, graphics or pictures). Such software allows the integration of databases, communication systems as well as virtual realities. The software supports multi-tasking, parallel as well as interactive tasks. Above all, the aspect of interactivity is particularly interesting for learning and teaching scenarios. The content can be regulated by the user on demand or based on their abilities (for example speed, language). The developed software uses animations, interactions, videos … and several sensory channels for better and comfortable learning. This leads to an increased retention of the learned and practiced knowledge. Unfortunately, the software is only available in German, but it is free. Please look at www.vbf.arbeitswissenschaft.de. The download requires some time, so please be patient.

Practical relevance

Motivating instruments to improve the employability are in part cost savings, for example, by decreasing the amount of missed work time. They also assist the employees in improving their physical well-being and their quality of life.

Work – Psyche – Back pain: Influencing factors on the employability and occupational strategies for prevention

Author: Peter Stadler, Erika Spieß

Keywords: Employability, psycho-social stressors, work-related risk factors, back pain, heath promotion

Summary

In view of the demographic change in the work force, there is an increasing focus on the question of how the employability of an ageing population can be maintained and promoted. Against this background, the article deals with the number one health problem – back pain – and its work-related psychosocial risk factors. A literature search was conducted for this purpose in various databases in the fields of medicine, psychology and social sciences (MEDLINE, PSYNDEX, PsycINFO), in order to detect risk factors and deduce strategies for promoting employability. The literature research shows that work-related, psycho-social risk factors have a huge stand-alone influence on the genesis and chronification of unspecific back pain. A high work pace, poor job control, monotonous work tasks, gratification crises, lack of feedback, deficient social support from co-workers and superiors, social conflicts at the workplace and a resulting dissatisfaction with the working environment are empirically verified risk factors for back pain. In the past, these factors have not been taken into consideration sufficiently. In order to effectively reduce back pain, it is necessary to adopt a bio-psycho-social concept which takes into account the multicausality of such diseases. It has meanwhile been empirically verified that holistic interventions in an industrial setting pay off – with respect to both health and finances. Studies show that back pain can be reduced by up to 40%, if these psycho-social risk factors at the workplace could be avoided. Therefore prevention efforts should include psychosocial risk factors more than they used to have. Reducing work-related stressors and building up health-promoting resources are important fields of actions in an industrial setting in order to prevent back pain and to maintain and promote employability. A central role is played particularly by work organization measures and strategies to promote the work climate. Work organization measures in this note are, for example,

• autonomy and control at work,

• variable and interesting workplaces;

measures to counter monotony at work can be: job enlargement, job enrichment und partially autonomous teamwork,

• preventing enduring time pressure,

• social support at work,

• transparency concerning the work and the company,

• compensation for work situations which are emotionally straining (e.g. working on or receiving extra breaks).

Management strategies to promote the work climate are, for example,

• giving credit to successful work,

• giving regular feedback to the workers,

• coaching and mentoring,

• all measures which target an improvement of the social climate at work.

The success of the organizational efforts to promote back health also depends on how preventive measures can be adapted to the concrete risk factors at the workplace, the active participation of the employees and support by the management and leadership. This can be an important contribution to maintain and promote employability.

Practical Relevance

The authors show important fields of actions in organizations to reduce work-related stressors and build up health-promoting resources, particularly by work organization measures and strategies to promote the work climate. This will help to prevent back pain and promote employability.