Where Have We Been and Where are We Going? A Founder's View from Britain and Australia

Abstract

The origins of ergonomics in the collaboration of human scientists with engineers, and the formation of the Ergonomics Research Society and the International Ergonomics Association, are briefly surveyed. It is suggested that the success of the movement is due largely to its leading ideas: the concept of human capacity, both instantaneous and over periods of time, both in physical activity and mental information processing; the need to express human capacities and the demands of tasks in the same terms; and the operation of both capacities and demands in complex, dynamic systems. These ideas have had profound effects upon developments of theory within the human biological disciplines of anatomy, physiology and especially psychology, as well as on practical applications.

Membership of the Ergonomics Society of Australia and New Zealand indicates a keen interest in ergonomics in Australia but with less orientation towards research than in Britain or the U.S.A. The reason appears to be an indirect result of the fact that Australia is a large country with a small population. Present developments suggest that emphasis on research may increase before very long.

As regards the future both in Australia and in other countries, there appears to be a need for consolidation of a body of proved examples of the effectiveness and value of ergonomic measures. This in turn indicates a need for improved methods of making field trials, the formulation of cost-benefit analyses which include both productivity and human values in a common metric, and the study of willingness as well as capacity. Some important lines for expansion of the ergonomic approach appear to lie in the treatment of social interaction in ergonomic terms. This leads not only to the concept of social skill, but has bearings upon several other areas of research. Examples briefly discussed are: environmental psychology, mental handicap, delinquency, vandalism, criminality, and certain current world problems of boredom and dissatisfaction with life.

Ergonomics, it is suggested, owes much of its past success to the quality of observation displayed by some of its pioneers, and a plea is made for the continued fostering of this quality.