Prospective Ergonomics

3Ergonomic Interventions on Management Frameworks

In this chapter, selected theoretical frameworks and methods from business strategizing, innovation and design will be discussed and aligned with different ergonomic domains, interventions and specializations. Prior to this alignment, comparisons were made among ergonomic interventions, strategic design and management perspectives.

The alignment is built upon a main frame, where rationalist–historicist and empirical–idealistic dimensions are contextualized according to different technology-push and market-pull approaches. Moreover, the connectivity among generic strategies, worldviews and models of design reasoning is positioned according to a framework of deliberate versus emergent processes and singular versus plural outcomes. To mark the human factor in the strategy and management frameworks, different ergonomic interventions and specializations will be positioned according to strategic perspectives and other positioning maps.

3.1. A comparison of ergonomic interventions with strategic design and management perspectives

When discussing PE from a broader management and ergonomic perspective, the concept of “development” or “construction” plays a central role in positioning this type of ergonomic intervention within the processual and systemic quadrants of Whittington’s matrix [WHI 01] as well as making the connection with constructive ergonomics (CE). According to Falzon [FAL 15], CE aims to highlight the fact that individuals ...