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Books > Professional & Technical > Technology: general issues > Technical design > Ergonomics
Rules and procedures are key features for a modern organization to function. It is no surprise to see them to be paramount in safety management. As some sociologists argue, routine and rule following is not always socially resented. It can bring people comfort and reduce anxieties of newness and uncertainty. Facing constant unexpected events entails fatigue and exhaustion. There is also no doubt that proceduralization and documented activities have brought progress, avoided recurrent mistakes and allowed for 'best practices' to be adopted. However, it seems that the exclusive and intensive use of procedures today is in fact a threat to new progress in safety. There is an urgent need to consider this issue because there is doubt that the path chosen by many hazardous industries and activities is the most effective, safety wise, considering the safety level achieved today. As soon as safety is involved, there seems to be an irresistible push towards a wider scope of norms, procedures and processes, whatever the context implied. This book is not a plea against proceduralization, but it does take the view that it is time to reassess how far it can still go and to what benefit. Underlying these questions, there is a growing suspicion that the path taken might in fact lead to a dead end, unless the concept of procedure and the conditions under which these procedures are developed are revisited.
This study examines the relationship between social inequality and change in the newly democratic South Africa through the lens of paid domestic labour. The interviews with workers, employers, politicians and activists, offer diverse perspectives on the race, glass and gender divides within South Africa.
This edited book presents cutting-edge research looking at the role of multiple intelligence--cognitive (IQ), emotional intelligence, social intelligence--in effective leadership, written by the most distinguished scholars in the two distinct fields of intelligence and leadership. The synergy of bringing together both traditional intelligence researchers and renowned leadership scholars to discuss how multiple forms of intelligence impact leadership has important implications for the study and the practice of organizational and political leadership. This volume emanates from the recent explosion of interest in non-IQ domains of intelligence, particularly in Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence. Indeed, the leading EI and SI scholars have contributed to this book. Research described in this book suggests that: (1) possession of multiple forms of intelligence is important for effective leadership; (2) researchers are just beginning to understand the breadth, depth, and potential applications of non-IQ domains of intelligence; (3) incorporating multiple intelligence constructs into existing leadership theories will improve our understanding of effective leadership; and (4) research on multiple intelligence has important implications for both the selection and training of future leaders.
Machiavelli lives. 500 years after NiccolA(2) Machiavelli has written 'The Prince', this classic of the mechanisms behind success in management has not lost its relevance. In an intriguing and inspiring interplay of quotes, interpretations and examples, Dr Ralf Lisch develops Machiavelli's most famous work into a practical guide providing Ancient Wisdom for Modern Management. Many have heard about Machiavelli but few have really read and understood him. Ralf Lisch's analysis of 'The Prince' proves that widespread associations with evil management are a thorough misunderstanding. He has done away with historic ballast and abstains from a moralizing approach that does not do justice to Machiavelli's works. Instead, he lets Machiavelli have his say and provides a positive and pragmatic interpretation of the wisdom of 'The Prince' from a management perspective. It is a fresh approach that combines theoretical analysis with a practical focus. Dealing with a wide range of essential management topics like careers, success, intellect, decision-making, trust, change management, knowledge management, mergers and acquisitions, networking, sustainability, business ethics, working processes and many others, this book proves that the basics of management have hardly changed over half a millennium. Ancient Wisdom for Modern Management is an amazing insight into the essentials of management and a workable guidance to success in daily business. This open-minded and compelling exploration of 'The Prince' combines reading pleasure with a great opportunity to participate in Machiavelli's truly timeless wisdom.
This book is primarily a summary of research done over 10 years in multimedia and virtual reality, which fits within a wider interest of exploiting psychological theory to improve the process of designing interactive systems. The subject matter lies firmly within the field of HCI, with some cross-referencing to software engineering. Extending Sutcliffe's views on the design process to more complex interfaces that have evolved in recent years, this book: *introduces the background to multisensory user interfaces and surveys the design issues and previous HCI research in these areas; *explains the basic psychology for design of multisensory user interfaces, including the Interactive Cognitive Subsystems cognitive model; *describes elaborations of Norman's models of action for multimedia and VR, relates these models to the ICS cognitive model, and explains how the models can be applied to predict the design features necessary for successful interaction; *provides a design process from requirements, user and domain analysis, to design of representation in media or virtual worlds and facilities for user interaction therein; *covers usability evaluation for multisensory interfaces by extending existing well-known HCI approaches of heuristic evaluation and observational usability testing; and *presents two special application areas for multisensory interfaces: educational applications and virtual prototyping for design refinement.
Although we now have sophisticated algorithms and techniques for determining the shapes and sizes and for matching the fit between shoes and feet, few, if any, of the books currently available cover these new technologies until now. Bringing together high-quality and state-of-the-art contributions from designers, biomechanists, ergonomists, engineers, podiatrists, and scientists from industry and academia, The Science of Footwear provides an in-depth understanding of the technology and techniques involved in the design and development of a popular and demanding consumer product. This book introduces the design, development, manufacturing, and marketing of footwear. The chapters contain data from past research and the state-of-the art methodologies. They not only cover every aspect of the product design, but also how the footwear industry caters to the wide-ranging needs of sophisticated and demanding customers. The footwear industry has rapidly changed over the last 10 years. Mass production has changed to personalization and mass customization, areas that are not well-understood. This book explores these different concepts in a coherent way, drawing on differing views that give a holistic view of the science behind footwear. Collating information from different disciplines, the book provides the tools to develop the next generation of footwear.
This two-volume handbook set introduces the state-of-the-art development in research and applications related to usability and user-experience. Volume one includes methods and techniques and volume two covers research and case Studies. This handbook set is essential for everyone that is interested in understanding how the principles of usability and user-experience can contribute to a design that ensures that the needs of the users have been properly met. The books will cover several areas, such as the conceptual aspects of usability and user-experience, the knowledge of human characteristics in design, the methodological aspects; the books will include intervention, examples of consumer products, digital systems, and augmented and virtual realities. This set will be of interest to those working in the fields of ergonomics, designers, engineers, as well as students and practitioners.
Time-pressed, professionals looking for practical guidance to shape their current or future safety programs should use this book. Pre-Accident Investigations: An Introduction to Organizational Safety helps to identify complex potential incidents before they take place. Based around the 'New View' of human error, it offers established human performance theory in a highly practical context. Written in an engaging, conversational style, around several case studies, the book is grounded in reality, with examples with which anyone can identify. It is an ideal aid for senior safety executives who want to spread the safety message among their colleagues. It is also an excellent choice for course tutors looking for a narrative-led primer.
Successful interaction with products, tools and technologies depends on usable designs, accommodating the needs of potential users and does not require costly training. In this context, this book is concerned about emerging concepts, theories and applications of human factors knowledge focusing on the discovery and understanding of human interaction with products and systems for their improvement. The book is organized into four sections that focus on the following subject matters: * Usability Methods and Tools * Theoretical Issues in Usability * Usability in Web Environment * Miscellaneous In the section Usability Methods and Tools, studies related with new and improved methods and tools for the advancement in the efficiency of the usability studies is reported. In this context, this book provides studies, which cover everything from checklists and heuristics development to kaizen and biometrics measurement techniques. Also, the use of tools, like eye tracker, virtual reality and augmented reality is discussed. The section Theoretical Issues in Usability concentrates on theorical approaches of usability that allow justifying the impact of usability in our lives. Review studies about the importance of usability and connections between ergonomics and virtual reality were reported. General approaches raised the concepts of modeling and simulation to explain changes in human performance and accidents. The section Usability in Web Environment concentrates on studies associated with the use of the Internet environment and mainly discusses the development of new services and creates social communities. The section Miscellaneous shows various studies that focus on aesthetic, affective and emotional design, corporate and inclusive design.
Fratricide has been defined as firing on your own forces, when mistaking them for enemy forces, which results in injury or death. Rates of fratricide incidence have been steadily increasing and the complexity of the contemporary operating environment may lead to a continuation of this trend. Although the majority of research into fratricide has focused on the development of technological decision aids, recent explorations highlight the need to emphasise the social aspects within a socio-technical framework. This book presents and validates, via the use of case studies, a model of teamwork and decision-making factors that are associated with incidents of fratricide. In summary, it offers a review and evaluation of contemporary theoretical perspectives on teamwork and fratricide, as well as a range of accident analysis approaches. A novel theory of fratricide is then presented followed by a new methodology for assessing fratricide. Naturalistic case studies of teams are undertaken in the military domain. These studies illustrate the approach and offer early validation evidence. In closing, the book presents a series of principles designed to reduce the likelihood of fratricide in the future.
This text is a critical and empirically-based introduction to disability studies. It offers a comprehensive, book-length analysis of disability through the lens of Science and Technology Studies (STS), and presents a practice-oriented discussion of how bodies, senses and things are linked in everyday life and configure "enabling" and "disabling" scenarios. Relevant to a broad spectrum of medical practitioners and practicing social service workers, the book will also be essential reading in the fields of disability studies, sociology of the body/senses, medical sociology and STS.
Commonly used throughout the world, manual lifting tasks whether simple or complex all involve variable loads, postures, and movements. This practical guide discusses how to analyze the intricate lifting function and prevent injury during its execution. Outlining revised NIOSH Lifting Equation (RNLE) methods, the book illustrates their use in assessing manual lifting tasks of varying degrees of difficulty. Using examples to reinforce presented concepts, it explains how RNLE methods can be applied to evaluate single, composite, variable, and sequential lifting tasks. It also explores how to interpret and apply the results according to international standards and guidelines.
Since the very earliest years of aviation, it was clear that human factors were critical to the success and safety of the system. As aviation has matured, the system has become extremely complex. Bringing together the most recent human factors work in the aviation domain, Advances in Human Aspects of Aviation covers the design of aircrafts for the comfort and well being of the passenger. The book discusses strategies and guidelines for maximizing comfort, the design of aircrafts including cockpit design, and the training and work schedules for flight attendants and pilots. It is becoming increasingly important to view problems not as isolated issues that can be extracted from the system environment, but as embedded issues that can only be understood as a part of an overall system. In keeping with a system that is vast in its scope and reach, the chapters in this book cover a wide range of topics, including: Interface and operations issues from the perspectives of pilots and air traffic controllers, respectively. Specific human performance issues, studied from within the context of the air transportation system Issues related to automation and the delineation of function between automation and human within the current and future system The U.S. air traffic modernization effort, called NextGen Diverse modeling perspectives and methods Safety and ethics as driving factors for change Cognition and work overload Empirical research and evaluation of the air transportation domain As air traffic modernization efforts begin to vastly increase the capacity of the system, the issues facing engineers, scientists, and other practitioners of human factors are becoming more challenging and more critical. Reflecting road themes and trends in this field, the book documents the latest research in this area.
This volume explores cognitive ergonomics, which is concerned with mental processes otherwise known as brain work. It discusses perception, memory, reasoning, and motor response, as they affect interactions among humans and other elements of a system. Topics will include mental workload, decision-making, skilled performance, human-computer interaction, human reliability, work stress and training as these relate to human-system design.
Meeting the needs of the manufacturing and service sectors of contemporary industry, this volume is concerned with the human factors, ergonomics, and safety issues related to the design of products, processes, and systems, as well as the operation and management of business enterprises. This book will be of special value to researchers and practitioners involved in the design of products, processes, systems, and services, which are marketed and utilized by a variety of organizations around the world.
Time-pressed, professionals looking for practical guidance to shape their current or future safety programs should use this book. Pre-Accident Investigations: An Introduction to Organizational Safety helps to identify complex potential incidents before they take place. Based around the ’New View’ of human error, it offers established human performance theory in a highly practical context. Written in an engaging, conversational style, around several case studies, the book is grounded in reality, with examples with which anyone can identify. It is an ideal aid for senior safety executives who want to spread the safety message among their colleagues. It is also an excellent choice for course tutors looking for a narrative-led primer.
Any consideration of global migration in relation to work and citizenship must necessarily be situated in the context of the Great Recession. A whole historical chapter that of neoliberalism has now closed and the future can only be deemed uncertain. Migrant workers were key players during this phase of the global system, supplying cheap and flexible labour inputs when required in the rich countries. Now, with the further sustainability of the neoliberal political and economic world order in question, what will be the role of migration in terms of work patterns and what modalities of political citizenship will develop? While informalization of the relations of production and the precarization of work were once assumed to be the exception, that is no longer the case. As for citizenship this book posits a parallel development of precarious citizenship for migrants, made increasingly vulnerable by the global economic crisis. But we are also in an era of profound social transformation, in the context of which social counter-movements emerge, which may halt the disembedding of the market from social control and its corrosive impact. This book was published as a special issue of Globalizations.
For boards and executives, high-quality and transparent information is critical to allow effective decision-making. Emerging risks are increasingly challenging issues, both in terms of threats and growth opportunities; not least since the science pertaining to these risks tends to be contested. Emerging Risks: A Strategic Management Guide restores the constructive dialogue between the business professional and the expert/scientist community, essential if companies are to anticipate, plan ahead and exploit leading-edge ideas. It provides insights into some of the major emerging risks of the 21st century and then guides organizations on how to approach and manage those risks proactively in the wake of new regulation, governance and enterprise-wide risk management. The topics covered include: nanotechnologies, covering the industrial revolution of the 21st Century; new information and communication technologies (NICT), discussing the infrastructure of the future; electromagnetic fields (EMF) and their debated health impact; chemical substances/REACH, a regulation with major economic and environmental stakes and an example of emerging risk management; biological risk and its on-going need for international surveillance; supply chain, a top management priority; and country risk, for which security and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are growing issues. The authors assess and propose a process for managing emerging risks and the strategies that need to be put in place, drawing on examples of best practice.
This edited volume of original chapters brings together researchers from around the world who are exploring the facets of health care organization and delivery that are sometimes marginal to mainstream patient safety theories and methodologies but offer important insights into the socio-cultural and organizational context of patient safety. By examining these critical insights or perspectives and drawing upon theories and methodologies often neglected by mainstream safety researchers, this collection shows we can learn more about not only the barriers and drivers to implementing patient safety programmes, but also about the more fundamental issues that shape notions of safety, alternate strategies for enhancing safety, and the wider implications of the safety agenda on the future of health care delivery. In so doing, A Socio-cultural Perspective on Patient Safety challenges the taken-for-granted assumptions around fundamental philosophical and political issues upon which mainstream orthodoxy relies. The book draws upon a range of theoretical and empirical approaches from across the social sciences to investigate and question the patient safety movement. Each chapter takes as its focus and question a particular aspect of the patient safety reforms, from its policy context and theoretical foundations to its practical application and manifestation in clinical practice, whilst also considering the wider implications for the organization and delivery of health care services. Accordingly, the chapters each draw upon a distinct theoretical or methodological approach to critically explore specific dimensions of the patient safety agenda. Taken as a whole, the collection advances a strong, coherent argument that is much needed to counter some of the uncritical assumptions that need to be described and analyzed if patient safety is indeed to be achieved.
How should we organize our selection or training procedures? In what way can a flight crew mediate problems? How are we to understand reported errors? Mechanisms in the Chain of Safety presents recent findings in aviation psychology, bringing fresh insights to such questions. Aviation psychologists study personnel selection and training; they evaluate the management of flight operations, and ultimately they analyse the things that went wrong. The strong interrelation between these components allows us to talk about a chain of safety. This volume appraises this chain of safety by considering the mechanisms that determine its effectiveness - input mechanisms, coping mechanisms and control mechanisms. Each contribution discusses a component of the chain while the book as a whole emphasizes and illustrates that understanding the connections between these parts is essential for the future. By addressing these issues the book leads to further considerations such as how mistakes are linked to training and how coping mechanisms should help us to understand errors and accidents. Mechanisms in the Chain of Safety will appeal to aviation professionals (human factors experts, safety managers, pilots, ATCOs, air navigation service providers, etc.) and academics, researchers, graduates and postgraduates in human factors and psychology. Although primarily written for the aviation industry, this book will also be of interest to other high-risk dynamic activities that face similar challenges: the need to present effective and safe outcomes to the public in general and the stakeholders in particular.
With unintended harm during hospital care costing billions of dollars to the world economy, not to mention millions of deaths each year, it's no wonder the issue is equally front and center in the minds of healthcare providers and the public. Although the issue has been tackled in journal articles and conference proceedings, there are very few books on the topic. And none consider how methods and techniques developed in the area of engineering can handle safety and human error-related problems. Until now. Written by an expert with vast know-how in engineering management, design, reliability, safety, and quality, Patient Safety: An Engineering Approach brings together the pertinent information scattered throughout books and journals, eliminating the need to consult many different and diverse sources to find what you need. B.S. Dhillon draws on his real-world experience to demonstrate how to handle patient safety-related problems using engineering techniques and backs this up with references for further reading at the end of each chapter. He sets the stage with introductory chapters on mathematical, patient safety, and human factors concepts essential to understanding materials presented in subsequent chapters. Dhillon's clear, concise discussion of the topics presents the information in such a way that no previous knowledge is required to understand the contents, yet he does not present it at a merely rudimentary level. He brings a fresh approach and engineering perspective to the issues, giving you a new tool kit for performing patient safety-related analysis, designing better medical systems/devices, and handling patient safety-related problems from an engineering perspective.
Previous studies conducted within the aviation industry have examined a multitude of crucial aspects such as policy, airline service quality, and revenue management. An extensive body of literature has also recognised the importance of decision-making in aviation, with the focus predominantly on pilots and air traffic controllers. Understanding Decision-Making Processes in Airline Operations Control focuses instead on an area largely overlooked: an airline's Operations Control Centre (OCC). This serves as the nerve centre of the airline and is responsible for decision-making with respect to operational control of an airline's daily schedules. The environment within an OCC is extremely intense and a key role of controllers is to make decisions that facilitate the airline's recovery from frequent, highly complex, and often multiple disruptions. As such, decision-making in this domain is critical to minimise the operational, commercial and financial impact resulting from disruptions. The book examines many aspects of individual decision-making in airline operations, and addresses the deficiencies found by presenting to the reader an examination of the relationships among situation awareness, information completeness, experience, expertise, decision considerations and decision alternatives in OCCs. The text utilises a multiple case study approach and proposes a number of relevant and important implications for OCC management. Practical outcomes highlight the need for enhancing training programs enabling existing controllers to readily identify and classify elements of situation awareness and decision considerations as a means of improving the decision-making process. They also draw attention to the need for airline OCCs to understand the extent to which industry experience and expertise of controllers is important in the selection of future staff.
Taking an integrated, systems approach to dealing exclusively with the human performance issues encountered on the flight deck of the modern airliner, this book describes the inter-relationships between the various application areas of human factors, recognising that the human contribution to the operation of an airliner does not fall into neat pigeonholes. The relationship between areas such as pilot selection, training, flight deck design and safety management is continually emphasised within the book. It also affirms the upside of human factors in aviation - the positive contribution that it can make to the industry - and avoids placing undue emphasis on when the human component fails. The book is divided into four main parts. Part one describes the underpinning science base, with chapters on human information processing, workload, situation awareness, decision making, error and individual differences. Part two of the book looks at the human in the system, containing chapters on pilot selection, simulation and training, stress, fatigue and alcohol, and environmental stressors. Part three takes a closer look at the machine (the aircraft), beginning with an examination of flight deck display design, followed by chapters on aircraft control, flight deck automation, and HCI on the flight deck. Part four completes the volume with a consideration of safety management issues, both on the flight deck and across the airline; the final chapter in this section looks at human factors for incident and accident investigation. The book is written for professionals within the aviation industry, both on the flight deck and elsewhere, for post-graduate students and for researchers working in the area.
This volume contains a selection of original contributions from internationally reputed scholars in the field of risk management in socio?technical systems with high hazard potential. Its first major section addresses fundamental psychological and socio?technical concepts in the field of risk perception, risk management and learning systems for safety improvement. The second section deals with the variety of procedures for system safety analysis. It covers strategies of analyzing automation problems and of safety culture as well as the analysis of social dynamics in field settings and of field experiments. Its third part then illustrates the utilization of basic concepts and analytic approaches by way of case studies of designing man?machine systems and in various industrial sectors such as intensive care wards, aviation, offfshore oil drilling and chemical industry. In linking basic theoretical conceptual notions and analytic strategies to detailed case studies in the area of hazardous work organizations the volume differs from and complements more theoretical works such as Human Error (J. Reason, 1990) and more general approaches such as New Technologies and Human Error (J. Rasmussen, K. Duncan, J. Leplat, Eds.)
Understanding the 'human operator' is a central concern of both ergonomists and sport and exercise scientists. This cutting-edge collection of international research papers explores the interface between physical, cognitive and occupational ergonomics and sport and exercise science, illuminating our understanding of 'human factors' at work and at play. Drawing on a wide diversity of disciplines, including applied anatomy, biomechanics, physiology, engineering, psychology and design, the book explores themes of central importance within contemporary ergonomics and sport and exercise science, such as performance, health, environment, technology and special populations. Contemporary Sport, Leisure and Ergonomics establishes important methodological connections between the disciplines, advancing the research agenda within each. It is essential reading for all serious ergonomists and human scientists. |
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