The July 2009 issue of Applied Ergonomics includes an article entitled, “Ergonomics Contributions to Company Strategies,” by Jan Dul and W. Patrick Neumann.
The authors contend that one of the reasons why human factors and ergonomics hasn’t seen greater acceptance within the business community stems from a failure to explicitly demonstrate how interventions support company strategies and business goals. Moreover, they state:
- “…if ergonomics contributes directly to the company’s strategy, and in the language of the company, it will be more accepted by business managers; it will be better embedded (internalized) in the organization; and its full potential as described in the IEA definition [5] will be better actualized.” (p. 746)
- “…attention to ergonomics can be an important element of how a company realizes its competitive advantage.” (p. 749)
- “Capturing the full benefits of ergonomics therefore will require the deliberate integration of ergonomics into core strategy arenas of the organization.” (p. 749)
- “…we believe that explicit linking of ergonomics to the strategy and desired business outcomes is a promising way to realize sustainable growth for firms without the high social costs due to work-related ill health.” (p. 749)
The authors divide the concept of strategy into three areas where human factors and ergonomics can add value, including:
Business Function Strategies and Ergonomics
- Product design and innovation – “…ergonomics can be linked to strategies for product design and innovation by assuring that the products fit with the end-users and are easy to produce.” (p. 747)
- Operations engineering and process innovation – “…ergonomics can be linked to strategies for operations engineering and process innovation in order to assure that both production goals and worker well-being are safeguarded.” (p. 748)
- Marketing and communication – “…ergonomics can be linked to marketing and communication strategies by providing reasons for positive (well-being) consumer associations with the company’s products and production processes.” (p. 748)
- Human resource management – “…ergonomics can be linked to HRM strategies by assuring good working conditions and by engaging in participatory and job design approaches.” (p. 748)
Cross-Functional Strategies and Ergonomics
- Downsizing, lean production, business process re-engineering – “…ergonomics may help companies to control the negative human effects of the downsizing, lean production and business process re-engineering strategy in order to obtain the real benefits from this strategy.” (p. 748)
- Total quality management – “…ergonomics may contribute to TQM by ensuring that people contribute to quality.” (p. 749)
Corporate Strategies and Ergonomics
- Differentiation strategy – “…ergonomics could be linked to a company’s differentiation strategy by adding user-friendly and affective features to products and services.” (p. 749)
- Cost strategy – “…ergonomics could be linked to a company’s cost strategy by increasing labor productivity and reducing labor costs.” (p. 749)
- Resource-based view of the firm – “…ergonomics, with its ability to support employee retention, can help provide firms with a sustainable competitive advantage in the form of experienced, skilled employees who can perform their best for the company.” (p. 749)
- Service profit chain – “…by increasing employee wellbeing, ergonomics can be linked to a service profit chain strategy.” (p. 749)
The authors also address a couple key points to human factors and ergonomics researchers, educators, and practitioners, including:
- “We believe that ergonomists in research, education and practice (both internal ergonomists that are part of the organization and external consultants), who accept the broad definition of ergonomics presented in the introduction have a crucial role in: (a) developing the possible links between ergonomics and company’s strategies; (b) finding evidence for these links; and (c) communicating the links to the business stakeholders who are involved in strategy formulation and implementation.” (p. 750)
- “The successful ergonomist in research, education or practice is aware of business strategies and desired business outcomes; knows who are main stakeholders; knows what the benefits of ergonomics may be for these stakeholders; knows how ergonomics can be implemented to realize these benefits; and can communicate with the stakeholders in their own language and networks.” (p. 750)
References
Dul, J. & Neumann, W.P. (2009). Ergonomic contributions to company strategies. Applied Ergonomics, 40, 745-752.