Introduction: Researchers traditionally present the results of their research in academic journals and through conference presentations. Typically, individuals working outside of academia do not have access to traditional journal indexes; the use of electronic archives has been shown to assist in disseminating research findings to potential users outside of the research community. Typically the results of participatory ergonomics research are published in peer reviewed articles or presented at conferences. Some health and safety associations have developed and published (in print or on their website) participatory ergonomics literature reviews and participatory ergonomics program implementation manuals with industry specific examples for their members. The Participative Ergonomics Blueprint and Ontario’s MSD Prevention Guideline are non-industry specific documents that can be used as resources for a participative ergonomics program. Currently, there is not an all-in-one resource for workplace parties containing all of the information to consider when determining if a participatory approach to ergonomics is appropriate for a specific workplace, or when implementing a participatory ergonomics program. Workplace parties would have to consult several sources (such as health and safety association publications, academic literature, books, magazines, corporate resources, safety groups, newsgroups, etc.) to gather and synthesize the information and resources required to develop and implement a participatory ergonomics program. The purpose of this thesis was to evaluate the responses to and effectiveness of an interactive website for knowledge dissemination to industry stakeholders. Methods: I developed an interactive wiki-style website with content based on my lay language synthesis of the participatory ergonomics literature. Relevant case-study examples, drawn from participatory ergonomics intervention studies, were used to illustrate concepts from the literature review. Website visitors were asked to complete a short questionnaire and were encouraged to contribute experiences, tools, links and comments on each web page in the “visitor contributed content” area. The purpose of the questionnaire was to learn more about website visitors and to gather feedback about the effectiveness of using an interactive website to disseminate participatory ergonomics research findings to industry stakeholders. Data were collected to allow computation of total duration of website visit, page order, total number of pages viewed, and the average time spent viewing each page. A qualitative analysis of all visitor contributed content and questionnaire responses was completed. The data were reviewed, grouped into themes and key messages were summarized. Ttests and chi-square analyses were completed to analyze the quantitative questionnaire responses. Results: During the data collection period (October 23, 2006 to May 31, 2007), there were 2214 website visits. With “short duration” and search engine indexing software visitors removed, 256 people came to the website, who browsed the content for more than one minute and viewed more than one page. During this time 54 questionnaires were submitted. All questionnaire respondents reported that the website content did not contradict their previous knowledge of participatory ergonomics. Several respondents stated they would need additional resources in order to determine if a participatory approach to ergonomics was right for their workplace or to implement a participatory ergonomics program. Suggested topics for a participatory ergonomics “tool box” included: timeline for program implementation, a timeline to demonstrate improvements in measurable outcomes of success, guidelines for ergonomics training, guidelines for assessment tools, methods and equipment, and an ergonomics policy/procedure template. Overall, with the exception of the expert’s rating of the visitor contributed content, the respondents found the case study examples and the visitor contributed content helpful. The source credibility of the literature review, visitor contributed and ergonomics content on the Internet were rated the same on all dimensions of credibility by questionnaire respondents. Eight unique website visitors made 13 contributions to the website. Website visitors were more likely to contribute to the website content if they visited the website for more than 10 minutes (chisquare 20.9038, df=1, prob <0.0001). The majority of contributions were added to the “successful and sustainable participatory ergonomics programs” and “participatory ergonomics” pages. Most of the comments were sharing “tips, tricks, and traps” from past experiences with participatory ergonomics (or similar) programs and sharing links to additional participatory ergonomics resources. The most common reason for not contributing to the website content was lack of time and not realizing that it was possible to contribute to the website. In addition to “not realizing that it is possible to contribute”, three people reported they were unable to figure out how to contribute to the website. This implies that prior to expanding this approach to knowledge transfer; there are user interface issues that should be addressed. Conclusions: The most significant limitation of this project was the small number of questionnaire respondents and the sparse visitor contributions to the website content which is likely due to not allowing a sufficiently long data collection period. Feedback from website visitors suggests that additional case study examples and a participatory ergonomics “toolbox” should be added to future iterations of the website. It was surprising that there were no statistically significant differences for the source credibility of the website content based on the literature review, the visitor contributed content and other health, safety and ergonomics information on the Internet. Most website visitors did not share their experiences due to a reported lack of time and user interface issues. To increase the number and frequency of visitor contributions, the user interface issues need to be resolved. An alternative method to engage website visitors (e.g. moderated commenting system) may be more successful than the wiki website created for this project. I believe that it is worthwhile to continue to invest time and resources to further develop this interactive participatory ergonomics resource. With additional time, continued recruitment and promotion efforts and changes to address user’s concerns (moderated commenting system, authority of contributions, addition of a ‘tool box’, etc.) there is the potential to fill an information niche that is currently missing online.

Sammanfattning Vi avser med denna kvantitativa studie att finna faktorer som kan antas leda till stress. Vi avser också att undersöka respondenternas arbetsmiljö och arbetsvillkor och utifrån deras enkätsvar eventuellt kunna se om de har lågstress- eller högstressarbeten. Uppsatsen baseras på en enkätundersökning genomförd under 2002 av Birgitta Eriksson och Jan Ch. Karlsson vid Karlstads universitet i samarbete med Statistiska Centralbyrån. Enkäten Arbetsmiljö och arbetsvillkor besvarades av 1570 förvärvsarbetande individer. Vår undersökning använder sig av utvalda frågor i enkäten som kan antas kopplas till stress i arbetslivet. I studien undersöks: förekomsten av stressfaktorer, krav, egenkontroll och socialt stöd, tid, sjuknärvaro och ersättbarhet, ledarskap, meningsfullhet samt möjligheten att förena arbete med övrigt liv. I analysen studeras dessa variablers eventuella samband med kön, ålder och yrkestillhörighet. Nedan redovisas en kort sammanfattning av frågeställningarnas resultat utifrån tabellerna: 1. I vilken utsträckning förekommer stress bland respondenterna? Överlag visar resultaten att de flesta av respondenterna har få stressfaktorer i arbetsmiljön. Trötthet är dock något som majoriteten av respondenterna upplever efter arbetet, men vi anser att det inte är tillräckligt ofta för att det ska vara oroväckande siffror. 2. Kan det antas om respondenterna har lågstress- eller högstressarbeten? Vi finner att relativt många respondenter i studien har ett lågstressarbete i många avseenden och i relation till de undersökta variablerna. 3. Hur ser kontakten ut mellan respondenterna och deras ledare? Det övergripande resultatet visar på tvetydiga siffror. Trots resultatet anser vi att respondenterna överlag har en relativt god kontakt med deras arbetsledare/arbetsgivare. 4. Upplever respondenterna en hög eller låg meningsfullhet i deras arbeten? Majoriteten av respondenterna upplever att de har en hög meningsfullhet i deras arbeten. 5. Hur väl lyckas respondenterna förena arbete med övrigt liv? En mycket stor andel av respondenterna anser att de lyckas förena arbete med övrigt liv. Intressant är att det inte ofta skiljer sig nämnvärt inom kategorierna kön och ålder och inte heller mellan dessa kategorier, oavsett den analyserande variabeln. Däremot visar resultaten på att det ofta skiljer sig mellan arbetare och tjänstemän inom kategorin yrkestillhörighet. Tidigare undersökningar visar på en ökad ohälsa i samhället i form av bland annat stress. Trots detta visar resultaten i vår undersökning att majoriteten av respondenterna upplever en låg grad av stress på deras arbeten. Nyckelord: Stress, arbetsmiljö, arbetsvillkor, krav, egenkontroll, socialt stöd, meningsfullhet.

Denna uppsats handlar om känsloarbete, det vill säga när man i sitt arbete tvingas visa upp andra känslor än man i verkligheten känner. Känsloarbete som begrepp myntades av sociologen Hochschild 1983 och denna uppsats bygger vidare på den forskning som har gjorts på ämnet sedan dess. Vi har med hjälp av djupintervjuer och analys inspirerad av Grounded theory undersökt hur de anställda vid Länsförsäkringar upplever och hanterar sina känslor i interaktionen till kunder. I kundmötet ser vi en spänning i form av den så kallade interaktionstriangeln som innebär att kunden, servicearbetaren och organisationen har olika mål och förväntningar på servicemötet. Både organisation och kund ställer krav på hur den anställda ska uppträda i servicemötet och vilka känslor han eller hon bör visa upp. De krav vi upplever oss att ha på vilka känslor vi ska visa upp i en viss situation, detta kallar Hochschild för känsloregler. Vår slutsats är att känsloarbete förflyttar sig i en modell från krav till kontroll. Kraven på vilka känslor som ska visas upp kommer från kunden, organisationen och omgivningen. När man har hanterat detta krav uppnår man en form för kontroll. Hanteringen av känslorna som uppkommer sker med hjälp av det vi kallat för hjälpmedel: Stöd, Erfarenhet, Bild av kund och Kommunikation. Dessa hjälpmedel kan användas olika mycket och i olika situationer beroende på servicearbetarens situation och möjligheter. Vår slutsats är att dessa hjälpmedel påverkar känsloarbetet på olika sätt och vi hoppas att framtida forskning kommer att ytterligare kunna beskriva och förklara dessa faktorer.

No description available.

Abstract This qualitative study has been made to examine which factors that are required to create a work place that can be associated with loyal co-workers. The study covers half structured interviews with nine people on different levels and with different positions, within a manufacturing company in Värmland. Our ambition with this study is to find out if, and if so, in what way the view on loyalty and which factors that are required to encourage loyalty, differ depending on witch level one belongs to in the organization. Our thesis is that our respondents will have various ways of expressing the term loyalty, and that these various ways are linked to the different levels that each employee is currently stationed at. The result of this study shows that the way people look at loyalty, and what loyalty is really about, does not differ that much among our respondents, regardless of their level. The factors that, according to the respondents, are important if one wants to create a work place that can be associated with loyal co-workers are: to be able to feel trust towards and have faith in those one works with, as well as the company and the way things are being run, to be able to experience the feeling of community, and that one is happy with ones work place, as well as ones co-workers. Our respondents are of the opinion that a clear and well-functioned communication that spires through the whole organization is necessary if one wants to encourage and keep the loyalty amongst the employees. It is also important to be able to feel included in decisions that affect ones own work, and to feel that one has interesting and stimulating tasks that actually contribute to the whole picture or the final product. This creates a feeling that one is making progress within ones work, and that the company really savors and makes use of their staff’s competence, as well as that one as an employee is contributing to the company’s development and possibility to survive in a market full of hard concurrence. Key words: Loyalty, Trust, Confidence, Solidarity, Communication, Competence, Organization culture. / Sammanfattning Denna kvalitativa studie avser att undersöka vilka faktorer som krävs för att skapa en arbetsplats som kan förknippas med lojala anställda. Studien omfattar halvstrukturerade intervjuer med nio personer, på olika nivåer och med olika befattningar, inom ett tillverkningsföretag i Värmland. Vår avsikt med denna undersökning är att försöka få reda på, om och i så fall på vilket sätt synen på lojalitet och vilka faktorer som krävs för att främja lojaliteten, skiljer sig åt beroende på vilken nivå man befinner sig i organisationen. Vår tes är att synen på lojalitet kommer att ta sig uttryck på varierande sätt hos våra respondenter och att denna varierande syn hänger samman med nivån som man befinner sig på. Studiens resultat visar att synen på lojalitet liksom vad lojalitet egentligen innebär, inte skiljer sig speciellt mycket åt bland våra respondenter, oavsett nivå. De faktorer som enligt respondenterna är viktiga för att skapa en arbetsplats som kan förknippas med lojala medarbetare är, att kunna känna tillit till och ha förtroende för sina arbetskamrater liksom för företaget och den verksamhet som bedrivs där. Det är också viktigt att kunna uppleva känslan av samhörighet och att man som anställd trivs såväl på sin arbetsplats som med sina arbetskamrater. Våra respondenter menar att en tydlig och väl fungerande kommunikation, som genomsyrar hela organisationen, är nödvändigt för att främja lojaliteten. Att få känna sig delaktig i beslut som rör det egna arbetet liksom att ha stimulerande och intressanta arbetsuppgifter, som faktiskt bidrar till helheten eller slutprodukten är också av stor vikt. Detta gör att de anställda känner att de utvecklas i sitt arbete och att företaget verkligen tar till vara på deras kompetens. De anställda kan även på detta sätt uppleva att de bidrar med sitt till företagets utveckling och möjlighet att överleva på en många gånger mycket konkurrensutsatt marknad. Nyckelord: Lojalitet, Tillit, Förtroende, Samhörighet, Kommunikation, Kompetens, Organisationskultur.

Trots att Sverige har kommit långt med sitt jämställdhetsarbete är arbetslivet fortfarande inte jämställt. Samhället präglas av könsmönster och könsstrukturer som i sin tur skapar en genusordning. Den innebär av att män och kvinnor hålls isär och skillnader görs mellan manligt och kvinnligt. Dessutom innebär den att kvinnan är underordnad mannen och mannen ses som norm. Detta är kulturellt betingat och uppfattas därför som något naturligt. Det begränsar både män och kvinnors val och villkor och de får även konsekvenser på arbetsmarknaden i form av bland annat segregering. Arbetsmarknaden präglas av både en horisontell och en vertikal segregering. Det innebär att män och kvinnor befinner sig på olika yrkesområden, avdelningar och branscher samt att de intar olika hierarkiska positioner. Arbetsvillkoren ser därmed olika ut för män och kvinnor och det är framförallt kvinnors villkor och förutsättningar som är begränsade. Jämställdhetslagen syftar till att främja män och kvinnors lika rätt när det gäller arbete anställnings- och arbetsvillkor samt möjligheter till utveckling i arbetet. Enligt lagen är arbetsgivare skyldiga att bedriva ett aktivt arbete för att främja jämställdhet på arbetsplatsen. Trots aktivt jämställdhetsarbete får det inte alltid det genomslag det önskar. Studier visar att det kan finnas ett motstånd mot ökad jämställdhet. Många av dessa studier är gjorda på personer i arbetsledande befattning. Vi har gjort en kvantitativ enkätundersökning där vi har studerat attityder till jämställdhet och jämställdhetsarbete hos de anställda på ett mansdominerat industriföretag. Vi har dessutom försökt urskilja ett eventuellt motstånd i de anställdas attityder. Utifrån vår undersökning kan vi konstatera att respondenterna har en positiv inställning till både jämställdhet och jämställdhetsarbete. De värderar jämställdhet högt och anser att det är självklart att män och kvinnor ska ha samma rättigheter, skyldigheter och möjligheter på arbetsplatsen samt att de ska ha lika lön för lika arbete. Intressant är att de inte värderar jämställdhetsarbete lika högt och viktigt som jämställdhet. De anser därför inte att det är lika viktigt att arbeta för att främja jämställdheten på arbetsplatsen. Framträdande i studien är att män och kvinnors attityder skiljer sig mycket åt. I vissa påståenden och frågor är det mer tydligt än i andra. Överlag tenderar kvinnorna att vara mycket mer positiva till såväl jämställdhet som jämställdhetsarbete än män. Det är en liten andel respondenter som har ett mindre positivt förhållningssätt till jämställdhet och jämställdhetsarbete, de skulle möjligtvis kunna utgör ett motstånd. Om de inte betraktar arbetet som särskilt viktigt kan de eventuellt utgöra ett hinder mot det arbete som bedrivs för att främja jämställdheten på arbetsplatsen.

Introduction: Researchers traditionally present the results of their research in academic journals and through conference presentations. Typically, individuals working outside of academia do not have access to traditional journal indexes; the use of electronic archives has been shown to assist in disseminating research findings to potential users outside of the research community. Typically the results of participatory ergonomics research are published in peer reviewed articles or presented at conferences. Some health and safety associations have developed and published (in print or on their website) participatory ergonomics literature reviews and participatory ergonomics program implementation manuals with industry specific examples for their members. The Participative Ergonomics Blueprint and Ontario’s MSD Prevention Guideline are non-industry specific documents that can be used as resources for a participative ergonomics program. Currently, there is not an all-in-one resource for workplace parties containing all of the information to consider when determining if a participatory approach to ergonomics is appropriate for a specific workplace, or when implementing a participatory ergonomics program. Workplace parties would have to consult several sources (such as health and safety association publications, academic literature, books, magazines, corporate resources, safety groups, newsgroups, etc.) to gather and synthesize the information and resources required to develop and implement a participatory ergonomics program. The purpose of this thesis was to evaluate the responses to and effectiveness of an interactive website for knowledge dissemination to industry stakeholders. Methods: I developed an interactive wiki-style website with content based on my lay language synthesis of the participatory ergonomics literature. Relevant case-study examples, drawn from participatory ergonomics intervention studies, were used to illustrate concepts from the literature review. Website visitors were asked to complete a short questionnaire and were encouraged to contribute experiences, tools, links and comments on each web page in the “visitor contributed content” area. The purpose of the questionnaire was to learn more about website visitors and to gather feedback about the effectiveness of using an interactive website to disseminate participatory ergonomics research findings to industry stakeholders. Data were collected to allow computation of total duration of website visit, page order, total number of pages viewed, and the average time spent viewing each page. A qualitative analysis of all visitor contributed content and questionnaire responses was completed. The data were reviewed, grouped into themes and key messages were summarized. Ttests and chi-square analyses were completed to analyze the quantitative questionnaire responses. Results: During the data collection period (October 23, 2006 to May 31, 2007), there were 2214 website visits. With “short duration” and search engine indexing software visitors removed, 256 people came to the website, who browsed the content for more than one minute and viewed more than one page. During this time 54 questionnaires were submitted. All questionnaire respondents reported that the website content did not contradict their previous knowledge of participatory ergonomics. Several respondents stated they would need additional resources in order to determine if a participatory approach to ergonomics was right for their workplace or to implement a participatory ergonomics program. Suggested topics for a participatory ergonomics “tool box” included: timeline for program implementation, a timeline to demonstrate improvements in measurable outcomes of success, guidelines for ergonomics training, guidelines for assessment tools, methods and equipment, and an ergonomics policy/procedure template. Overall, with the exception of the expert’s rating of the visitor contributed content, the respondents found the case study examples and the visitor contributed content helpful. The source credibility of the literature review, visitor contributed and ergonomics content on the Internet were rated the same on all dimensions of credibility by questionnaire respondents. Eight unique website visitors made 13 contributions to the website. Website visitors were more likely to contribute to the website content if they visited the website for more than 10 minutes (chisquare 20.9038, df=1, prob <0.0001). The majority of contributions were added to the “successful and sustainable participatory ergonomics programs” and “participatory ergonomics” pages. Most of the comments were sharing “tips, tricks, and traps” from past experiences with participatory ergonomics (or similar) programs and sharing links to additional participatory ergonomics resources. The most common reason for not contributing to the website content was lack of time and not realizing that it was possible to contribute to the website. In addition to “not realizing that it is possible to contribute”, three people reported they were unable to figure out how to contribute to the website. This implies that prior to expanding this approach to knowledge transfer; there are user interface issues that should be addressed. Conclusions: The most significant limitation of this project was the small number of questionnaire respondents and the sparse visitor contributions to the website content which is likely due to not allowing a sufficiently long data collection period. Feedback from website visitors suggests that additional case study examples and a participatory ergonomics “toolbox” should be added to future iterations of the website. It was surprising that there were no statistically significant differences for the source credibility of the website content based on the literature review, the visitor contributed content and other health, safety and ergonomics information on the Internet. Most website visitors did not share their experiences due to a reported lack of time and user interface issues. To increase the number and frequency of visitor contributions, the user interface issues need to be resolved. An alternative method to engage website visitors (e.g. moderated commenting system) may be more successful than the wiki website created for this project. I believe that it is worthwhile to continue to invest time and resources to further develop this interactive participatory ergonomics resource. With additional time, continued recruitment and promotion efforts and changes to address user’s concerns (moderated commenting system, authority of contributions, addition of a ‘tool box’, etc.) there is the potential to fill an information niche that is currently missing online.

Redundancy and variation are characteristics of humans. Many muscles contribute to producing a movement at a joint, allowing different strategies for task performance. Further, the shoulders and back are involved in many tasks, including manual materials handling, but flexibility as to their relative roles in performing a task exists. In nursing, where manual patient handling (MPH) occurs daily, a risk of injury exists resulting from interactions with patients that may require awkward postures or sudden shifts in hand forces. Although some recommended MPH techniques have been advocated, many focus on lowering the risk of low back injury, without considering the effect of these techniques on other body regions. This study aimed to identify differences in shoulder and back physical exposures between performing self-selected and recommended patient handling techniques designed to reduce low back exposures. Twenty female participants performed three repetitions of five manual patient handling tasks using a self selected technique, followed by three repetitions of the same tasks using techniques learned in an interposed training session. Peak, mean and cumulative muscle activity, peak resultant moment, and ratings of perceived exertion were compared for each of the tasks before and after training, as well as identifying meaningful changes between the joints in mean population strength using a static strength prediction program. Significant decreases occurred at both the left and right shoulders and the low back for most measures, generally supporting the recommended techniques. Important exceptions existed, however, for the Sit-to-Chair tasks and Turn Toward tasks, where increases in several individual shoulder muscle activities, along with peak resultant moment, existed. Future recommendations for patient handling techniques should take into account potential negative exposures at the shoulders that may result from a back-centric injury avoidance paradigm.

This study applies the Washington State Ergonomics Tool to waste industry jobs in Texas. Exposure data were collected by on-site observation of fourteen different multi-task jobs in a major national solid waste management company employing more than 26,000 employees. This company has nationwide operations, and these jobs represent the majority of workers involved in the collection and processing of solid waste. The WSET uses observational checklist methodology to evaluate generic risk factors in the following six major categories: awkward posture, highly repetitive motion, high hand force, repeated impact, lifting, and hand-arm vibration. The assessment tool incorporates these risk factors and combinations of risk factors into checklists for identifying three levels of potential exposure: safe, -caution zone" and -hazard zone" jobs. The tool was developed for employers to use in determining whether a job was likely to increase the risk of workplace musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) to their employees. OSHA 200 logs were used as the main source of morbidity data. If there was one recorded WMSD, the job was classified as -positive. "If there was no recorded WMSD, the job was classified as -negative. "-Safe"jobs were those predicted not to expose workers to increased risk of WMSDs. Those that possessed one or more -caution zone"criteria but still fell below the -hazard zone" threshold required the employer to provide -awareness education" for employees and to further analyze the job for the presence of -hazard zone" risk factors. If hazard zone risk factors were not present, no further action was required. Jobs that upon further analysis possessed one or more of the -hazard zone"criteria were labeled -hazardous" jobs. If the further analysis shows the presence of risk factors established in the hazard zone criteria (Appendix B), the employer would be required to take corrective action to reduce exposures to below the hazardous level. Of the three jobs predicted to be -safe"by -caution zone" criteria, two did not have injuries and one did. Of the eleven jobs predicted by -caution zone"criteria to increase the risk of WMSDs, six resulted in injuries and five did not. Of the four jobs predicted by -hazard zone"criteria to be -problem"jobs, two jobs did result in injury and two did not. This study found that the WSET -caution zone"criteria were more effective at predicting which jobs were likely to increase the risk of WMSDs than was the -hazard zone"checklist. The caution zone had high sensitivity and low specificity. The hazard zone criteria reflect a low sensitivity and a low specificity. Further analysis revealed the WSET was helpful in predicting back injuries associated with lifting but not effective at predicting jobs with the potential for upper extremity injuries.

This research investigated the need, design, and evaluation of a product capable of providing support to forward-leaning postures. Due to the high occurrence of low-back pain in industry potentially due to workers performing their tasks while assuming forward-leaning postures, along with the biological plausibility of these postures causing low-back pain, the need was established for a product that provides forward-leaning support. An envelope was quantified, ranging from the 5th percentile female to the 95th percentile male, to establish the range of potential forward-leaning postures. The design of a Support-Arm for use with current ergonomic chairs was discussed and design feature specifications were then provided. A Latin Square statistical design was employed to evaluate a Support-Arm model alongside 8 other commonly used chairs over 3 different postures. Subjects, overall, had lower peak pressures for the buttock-thigh region, increased productivity, higher comfort levels, and higher buttock-thigh contact areas when seated in the Support-Arm model chair as compared to the other chairs. Subjects, overall, also ranked this chair first over the other chairs for preferred use after having sitting experience in all 9 chairs. In an additional part of the evaluation, subjects chose their own set-up of the Support-Arm model chair. Eleven of the 18 subjects chose to use the Support-Arm when their workstation was located 36” above the floor. Subjects confirmed the need to design a Support-Arm capable of providing forward leaning support to the entire envelope of forward-leaning postures. Statistical evaluation revealed several significant differences between the chairs. The results gave no indication that the use of a Support-Arm for forward-leaning support may cause detrimental effects to users or overall chair ergonomics. Future research could track workers’ use of a Support-Arm in industry and compare their occurrence of low-back pain to a control group.