1. Introduction to Work and Organizational Psychology Gerhard Ohrband 10 th lecture The design and use of work technology

2. Course structure Part I Introduction 1Managing diversity 2History and context for Work and Organizational Psychology / Roles and methods Part II People at work 3 Job Analysis and Design 4Personal Selection 5 Training

3. Course structure 6Performance Appraisal: Assessing and Developing Performance and Potential 7 Job Stress and Health Part III Human Factors at Work 8Workload and Task Allocation 9Work Environments and Performance 10The Design and Use of Work Technology 11 Safety at Work

4. Course structure Part IV Organizations at Work 12Leadership and management 13Work motivation 14Teams: the challenges of cooperative work 15Organizational development (OD)

5. Part III – Human Factors at work 10The Design and Use of Work Technology Outline: 1. The growth of technology in the workplace 2. Approaches to the study of work technology

6. 1. The growth of technology in the workplace Computer typeApproximate growth era Main usersUsers issues Purpose-built research machines 1950sMathematicians and scientists Machine reliability; users must learn programming Mainframe computers1960s/1970sData processing, professionals supplying a service Users of the output (e.g. managers); system response and flexibility Minicomputers1970sEngineering and other non-computer professionals Users still do much of the programming; usability starts to be recognized as a problem Microcomputers1980sAlmost everyoneUsability most pressing problem Laptops, notebooks, PDAs (Personal digital assistants), the Internet 1990sAlmost everyoneUsability Information appliance2000 -Everyone?Usability? Security and privacy?

7. Examples of manufacturing technologies and their primary domain of application Type of manufacturing technologyPrimary domain of application Computer-aided design and engineering, e.g. computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools Design and production Electronic data exchange systems (EDI), e.g. on-line computerized links to customer stock levels to enable planning and distribution Inventory and stock control Computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW), e.g. the use of computers to aid communication and cooperation between different manufacturing departments Work organization Manufacturing resource planning (MRP), e.g. computer-based systems which control the planning and allocation of work among employees Work organization

8. 2. Approaches to the study of work technology – different types of interfaces with technology and example issues which are studied Technology interfaceExample issue Human-technology interfacePhysical characteristics of the user Workload issues Display design Health and safety User-technology interfaceJob and workspace design User satisfaction Usability Allocation of tasks Organization-technology interfaceCommunication and coordination Distribution of power and responsibility Knowledge sharing Participation in design Management of change

9. Stages and activities in the system development cycle StageActivities RequirementsWhere the design problem is initially defined, often in an explicit requirements document DesignWhere the design is shaped and which culminates in the detailed specification of the artefact BuildingWhere the system is implemented, constructed or manufactured DeploymentWhere the system is marketed sold and put into user settings MaintenanceWhere the system is serviced for repairs and enhanced as needed Redesign (optional)Where the system is used as the basis of a design effort to produce a new system

10. Socio-technical systems approaches (STS)  Trist and Bamforth, 1951; Emery, 1959  Recognition that organizations should consider the joint optimization and parallel design of both social and technical systems when designing new technology  Guidelines when introducing new technology: 1.methods of working should be minimally specified 2.variances in the work processes (e.g., production breakdowns, changes in product) should be handled at source (i.e. as near as possible to location of breakdown or change-over) 3.those who need resources should have access to and authority over them 4.roles should be multifunctional and multi-skilled 5.redesign should be continuous, not ‘one and for all’ change

11. Human factors (ergonomics) and human-computer interaction  HF: wider range of issues (e.g. anatomical and anthropometric characteristics of the user)  HCI: design of the user interface and overall functionality 1. Cognitive models of the user: Formalization of the types of knowledge that an individual needs to make use of when operating a machine or system (e.g. a word processor or a graphics package); examples of cognitive models: TAG (task-action grammar; Payne and Green, 1986), GOMS (goals, operators, methods and selection rules; Card et. al., 1983)

12. Ergonomics 2. Task allocation: assigning functions to human and machine agents. Which to tasks to be automated or manually operated. 3. Usability: formative vs. summative evaluation of the usability of a system. Methods: qualitative (e.g. user questionnaires, interviews and focus groups) and quantitative (e.g., lab-based experiments)

13. Organizational approaches PerspectiveCentral issues RationalistEmployment (job loss, levels of hierarchy) Centralization/decentralization Formalization Information processingPatterns of communication Social context cues MotivationalIndividual motivations (skill variety, autonomy) Interpersonal motivations PoliticalPower (vertical, horizontal distribution)

15. Kitchen timer  This is a nice little kitchen timer unless you want to set a time less than 15 minutes. To do so you must first turn the indicator to a time greater than 15 minutes and then turn it back to the time you actually want! There is no indication of this on the front of the timer. What ends up happening is that you set times less than 15 minutes without first turning the indicator past 15 minutes. Then the timer doesn't go off.  Design suggestion  This design violates your expectations by having one rule for setting times greater than 15 minutes (turn the indicator to the desired time) and a different rule for setting times less than 15 minutes (turn the indicator to a time greater than 15 minutes and then to the desired time). A device like this should follow a consistent rule. There is nothing in the appearance of the timer that would lead you to believe that it works like this.

17. Mop sink  This picture is from a restaurant in Santa Barbara. There is no urinal in the men's restroom. The fixture in the corner affords a certain activity. To try to discourage this activity someone taped a small sign to the wall above the fixture. The sign says "This is a mop sink."

19. That's not a handle!  The lids on oatmeal containers were recently redesigned. The new-style lid fits down into the top of the oatmeal container. There's a lip all the way around the inside of the lid (arrow). The lip, which looks like it could work as a handle, affords sliding one's fingers underneath to pick up the oatmeal container. The other day I reached into the pantry to grab the oatmeal. I put my fingers under the lip of the lid using my thumb to hold the side of the container. I got just a few steps from the pantry before the lid came off dumping oatmeal all over the floor! The problem is that it looks like you can pick up the container by the lid, but you can't. Maybe the purpose of this new lid is to get people to buy more oatmeal, since half of it ends up on the floor!  The old-style lid doesn't look like you could use it as a handle to pick up the oatmeal container, so people probably aren't inclined try it. People are probably more apt to use two hands to pick up containers with these old-style lids.  Design suggestion  The lid on the new-style container should not look like it could work as a "handle" to pick up the container. This might be done by:  Not making the center of the lid set down in the top of the container so deeply.  Removing the "handle" from the inside of the lid by curving the lip outward rather than inward

21. How do you open the toothpaste?  I recently took a vacation that involved flying across the ocean. Since it was a long overnight flight, passengers were provided with little "kits" including a toothbrush and a tiny tube of toothpaste, slippers and so on. I tried to get some sleep on the flight, and when I awoke, I went to the lavatory to freshen up. When I unscrewed the cap from the tiny tube of toothpaste, I discovered the tube was sealed. Since I didn't have anything with me to pierce the seal, I tried to pop out the seal by squeezing the tube. This resulted in the side of the tube splitting open and sending toothpaste all over my trousers!  When I got back to my seat, I told my wife about my experience. She showed me how the seal could be broken by using the small piercing tool in the top of the toothpaste cap. (See arrow.) Many people might blame themselves for not knowing how to open the toothpaste tube, but I opt to blame the designers of this tube for not making it more obvious how to open it. After all, I am no different than many people who have never seen a tiny toothpaste tube that opens in this way. And perhaps they, like me, will have to figure out how to open the tube while still half asleep.  Design suggestion  A more obvious design might be to provide the type of sealed cap used on many soft-drink bottles, where unscrewing the cap breaks the seal. At the very least it would be helpful to include directions on the tube for piercing the seal. The directions should be illustrated graphically so they could be understood by speakers of any language.

23. Trapped between the doors! This picture shows a short walkway connecting two buildings. There are a set of doors at each end of the walkway. A friend told me a funny story about the first time she used this walkway. She was walking from one building to the other with a co-worker. They pulled the handles that opened the doors and went down the walkway. Upon reaching the other end they again pulled the handles, but the doors wouldn't budge. Assuming the doors were locked, they returned to the doors they originally opened to enter the walkway. But when they tried to pull open these doors, they wouldn't open either. They were trapped in the walkway between the two buildings! My friend and her co-worker spent the next few minutes trying to signal to people though the windows in the buildings, but the people they signaled seemed strangely reluctant to come to the rescue. Finally, after trying the doors again, they discovered they needed to push the doors rather than pull them. There are two problems with these doors. The first problem is that the handles are designed for pulling rather than pushing. Doors designed for pushing usually have handles with flat surfaces that look easy to push and hard to pull. The second problem is that the two sets of doors work in opposite ways. To pass through the walkway you must first PULL open one set of doors and then PUSH open the second set of doors. My friend has observed many other people getting "trapped" in this walkway. While it makes for a funny story, imagine if people unfamiliar with these doors had to cross from one building to the other in an emergency, like a fire. Then it could turn from a comedy to a tragedy. Design suggestion One way to solve this problem would be to install (swinging) doors that can be opened by both pushing and pulling. Another solution would be to install appropriate door handles. Flat push-bar handles would be installed on the sides of the doors to be pushed; the pull-type handles like those shown here would be installed on the sides of the doors to be pulled. Finally, PUSH and PULL labels could be added to the doors, but this would not be an ideal solution. Labels would only work for people who could read the language. They would only work under adequate lighting conditions. In practice, many people do not read such labels.

25. Out of order? We were late for the recital. We quickly parked the car in the college parking lot, and then saw a sign saying we had to buy a parking permit. Dashing over to the parking permit machine, I took a dollar from my wallet and tried to insert it into the bill reader (See white arrow). It would not go into the bill reader! I turned the dollar one way and then the other way, trying to get the bill reader to respond, but it would not respond at all. It was getting late. "It's out of order!", I told my friend, "Let's just skip the parking permit and go to the recital!" As we started walking to the recital hall, we saw a man walk up to the same parking permit machine. I told him, "It doesn't work!", but he just walked up anyway and proceeded to buy a permit! He was a student at the college. Seeing that the machine was not out of order, we returned, and after reading the instructions, bought our permit. What was the problem? As it turned out, to buy a permit, you first have to push a button (any button) on the parking permit machine. This activates the bill reader. It clearly says this on the machine in large print. Why didn't I initially read it? I believe there were two reasons: First, I was in a hurry. Second, vending machines usually don't work this way. Typically, you first insert money and then you make a choice. If you try to insert money and the machine doesn't respond to it, the most likely reason is that the machine is out of order. I told another friend at the recital about this problem, and she said she couldn't figure out how to use it either. Design suggestion The parking permit machine should be designed to accept bills prior to making a ticket selection. People expect vending machines to work that way. Printed instructions, even obvious ones, aren't going to be read by some people, especially people in a hurry. People skip reading operating instructions for devices they believe they already know how to use. After all, what's the point? They already know how to use the device.

39. Literature  Caroll, J.M. (1997). Human-computer interaction: psychology as a science of design. International Journal of Human- Computer Studies, 46, 501-22.  Norman, D.A. (1998). The Invisible Computer. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.  Parker, S.K. and Wall, T.D. (1998). Job and Work Design. London: Sage.  Wilson, J.R. and Corlett, E.N. (eds) (1995). Evaluation of Human Work, 2 nd edn. London: Taylor and Francis.