Principles of Industrial

Pyschology
Work Environment & Engineering
Psychology
 Contents

• Introduction
• Environment for Work
• Engineering Psychology and Ergonomics
• Boredom & Fatigue
• Monotony
 Introduction

The most obvious reason is that everybody, whether a

senior manager or front line employee, would prefer to
work in good working environment Since most people
spend majority of their waking hours at work, the quality
of work experience has a big impact on their lives.
Everyone wants to look forward to going work in the
morning. And no one enjoys coming home from work
feeling frustrated discouraged from his or her experience
at work.
 Introduction

The demands made on engineering psychology are

more critical than ever before. Hence, based on the
needs of time initial concept of ‘ergonomics’ rested in
the area of work efficiency, and on impact of
‘fatigue’, ‘stress’ and ‘physical work‘.
 Environment for work

Man is probably the most adaptable of living

creature. Where physical structures fails, he has
intelligence to supplement its failur, and no other
creature is able to maintain life, as man can at the
equator and the pole,mile underground and up in
the air, in the Sahara and in humid spinning sheds.
Yet, everyone knows that working efficiency varies
greatly under such difficult conditios.
 Environment for work

• Mental Environment The mind of every man carries

desires, fears, anxieties, ambitions, hopes, friendships,
enmities, which react upon his happincss and efficiency.
His personal feelings also reflect the more general
feelings which pervade the group he is working with
there are mass fears, mass loyalties and mass anxieties.
These are what we call 'atmosphere' or ‘environment.
 Environment for Work

• Physical Environment The causes of industrial

accidents that pertain to unsafe conditions can
include insufficient workspace lighting, excessive
noise, slippery or unsafe flooring,extreme
temperature exposur, inadequate protection when
working with machinery or hazardous materials,
unstable structures, electrical problems, machine
malfunction or failure, and more.
 Environment for work

Workplace design is concerned with a variety of

physical conditions within work environments that
can be objectively observed or recorded or modified
through architectural, interior design.
The Role of industrial and Organizational
Psychology in the Workplace Anyone who has ever
held a job can tell you that the office can sometimes
be a stressful and even volatile environment.
 Environment for work

From entry-level to C-level, the interpersonal

relationships in the workplace and dynamics created by
organizational structure affect every single employee
within a company.Most business and organizations strive
to maintain a healthy work environment and ensure a
company is operating at peak productivity. Industrial and
organizational psychologists are oftentimes brought in a
help achieve these goals.
 Engineering Psychology
Increased mechanisation, has resulted in the awareness
that man and machine have to function in relation to one
another; which has resulted in the shift from time and
motion studies to studying human work performance.
Human factors Engineering and Ergonomics is the
scientific concerned with the understanding of interactions
among humans and other elements of a system , and the
profession that applies theory, principles , data , and other
methods to design in order to optimise human well being
and overall system performance.
 Engineering psychology

Engineering Psychology, also known as human factors

Engineering, is the science of behavior Human behavior and
capability, applied to the design and operations of system
and technology. As an applied field of Psychology and an
interdisciplinary part of ergonomics, it aims to improve the
relationship between people and machine by redesigning
equipment, interactions, or the environment in which they
take place. The work of an engineering psychologist is often
described as making the relationship more “user-friendly.”
 Ergonomics

Ergonomics word is derived from two Greek words:

"Nomoi" meaning natural laws "Ergon" meaning work
Hence, ergonomists study human capabilities in
relationship to work demand.
Ergonomics is the science and the art of fitting the job and
the workplace to worker’s needs.
• It is the study of work.
• It is a way to make jobs/tasks fit the employees better.
• It is a way to make work easier.
 Scope of Ergonomics

Recognition of the importance of designing equipment

and system with the user in mind can be traced back to
many countries (Marmaras, Poulakakis &
Papakostopoulos, 1990). The domain of human factors
and ergonomics includes:
• Human capabilities and Limitations
• Human machine interaction
• Teamwork
• Tools, Machines and material design
• Environmental factors
 Types of Ergonomics

• Physical ergonomics is the human body's

responses to physical and physiological work loads.
Repetitive strain injuries from repetition, vibration,
force, and posture fall into this category.

• Cognitive ergonomics deals with the mental

processes and capacities of humans when at work.
Mental strain from workload, decision m and
training fall into this category. aking, human error
and training fall into this category.
 Types of Ergonomics

• Organizational ergonomics deals with the

organizational structures, policies and processes
in the work environment, such as shift work,
scheduling, job satisfaction, motivation,
supervision, teamwork telecommuting, and
ethics.
 Step 2. Asses Existing
Step 1. Ergonomic
Methods against the
Problem
Ergonomic Problem See the
Efficacy
Apply the Process Process
Step 3. Select and Apply
the Method to produce a
Step 6. Validate the working process
process developed
Step 4. Decide on the
Step 5. Asses the Procedure to be followed
effectiveness of to produce solution to
Procedure Ergonomic Problem
 Boredom

• The Oxford English Dictionary (Simpson & Weinner,1989)

defines boring as tedious, wearying and dull.
• Boredom has been attributed to increasing amount of
free time due to technical advancements (Ragheb &
Merydith, 2001 ).
• Some authors claim that boredom is the result of lack of
environmental stimulation, most agree that boredom is
temporary and situation specific ( Kelly & Markos,2001).
 Boredom
Definition
It is an unpleasant transient state in which individuals feel an
extreme lack of interest in their current activity. Bored
individuals find it difficult to keep their attention focused on
work and may feel that time is passing very slowly.
Boredom is usually accompanied by feelings of restlessness,
irritability, and desire to escape or change the situation to a
more interesting activity. Boredom has been described as the
opposite of enthusiasm or flow.
 Causes of Boredom

Boredom can be caused by a number of factors, and is

particular problem in large production units. There are
few causes :
(a) Lack of Challenge and Variety:
Lack of Challenge due to short job cycle which keeps
number of operations to the minimum, Causes
boredom. The assembly line work, especially in auto
industry, highlights this problem.
 Causes of Boredom

(b) Lack of Skill and Independence:

Modern workers with high education and skill seek
opportunities to use their skills and want to exercise
control over their work. The lack of independence
causes boredom in an employee.
(c) Automation is another cause of boredom as the
speed at which machine operates determines the pace
of work.
 Fatigue

Industrial fatigue affects the worker‘s muscle,

nerves and mind. Fatigue was accepted as a fact of
common experience and was defined simply as ‘a
diminished capacity for work resulting from
previous work done’.
 Fatigue

Definition
Human capacity to work is limited. Every work requires
care, attention and concentration. A person cannot
work continuously for longer periods. The work output
will be more in the morning and it goes on decreasing
with passage of time as a worker will feel tried,
mentally and physically, in the evening. The decrease
in efficiency of working due to longer working periods
is known as fatigue.
 Fatigue

Fatigue can precisely be explained as follows:

1. It leads to loss of efficiency.

2. It results in more or less complete loss of
responsiveness of tissue
3. It may be termed as the reduced capacity of work
resulting from work itself.
4. It is considered as state of ‘lack or interest’ in not
only work but in other activities too.
 Work fatigue curve

If a worker is working eight hours in a day, his efficiency

in the first hour would be higher than the second hour.
In the second hour, skill of production would more third
hour. The increase in production and improvement the
second hour is possibly due to the time required for
work setting, initial warming up, attitude and mood to
work. Workers tends to work in spurts. Workers start in
with Considerable amount of Interest in a new gradually,
 Work fatigue curve
this initial enthusiasm tends to run its course and disappears.
After two to three hours, the worker's efficiency starts
reducing. In the last hour, that is, the eighth hour, their
efficiency would be very very low.
This is also referred to as 'The Law of Diminishing Marginal
Productivity of Labourer. When other conditions remain
constant, the efficiency of the labourer diminishes gradually.
His skill of producing would be less than the previous hour, he
worked. His productivity would become zero, there chances of
becoming negative.
 Work fatigue curve

The efficiency and production follows the

pattern as exhibited in the first session, but does
not attain the same efficiency probably due to
fatigue, and having not completely recovered.
Figure 1.2
Work fatigue curve
 Types of fatigue

1. Physical fatigue: Physical fatigue is caused either by

continuous work for long periods or the nature of work
like the work may be heavy and requiring lot of physical
excursion. The physical capacities of workers are limited
and they may feel tired after a continuous work for longer
periods.
2. Mental fatigue: A worker utilizes has brain for doing
a job for a longer period.The doing of same work again
and again will result in mental fatigue of the worker.
 Types of fatigue

3. Nervous fatigue: When work needs the use of

mental and physical capabilities for a continuous
period, it will result in nervous fatigue.

4. Industrial fatigue:When a worker continues to

work the job for longer periods, his efficiency and
productivity will result in nervous fatigue.
 Causes of Fatigue

Fatigue may be caused due to the following

reasons:
1. Longer hours of continuous work without rest pauses
may cause fatigue because muscles will be tired after
long work.
2. Unsatisfactory working environment like insufficient
light insanitation, congestion, noise elevated
temperatures etc.
 Causes of Fatigue

3. Fatigue may also be caused by personal reasons

such as family tension, bad health etc.

4. There may be faulty design of machines and

equipment which leads to wastage of energy of
workers on them.
 Monotony

• Sometimes it is also called boredom.

• It indicates psychologically undesirable effect of repetitive
work found in the factories and offices of industrial and
business organizations of today.
• It adversely affects the morale, motivation and
productivity of the employees.
• It is subjective in nature.
 Monotony

• It is related to personality factor Effects of

monotony/boredom.
• How to overcome monotony- use of
psychological tests, introducing change in the job,
making jobs meaningful, recreational activities,
reducing interruptions in job/work