ABSTRACT

By ergonomics, an organization is perceived as a complex socio-technical system in which technical and social factors that are related to material and nonmaterial working environments constitute a system of interdependency. Ergonomics deals with a thorough analysis of the socio-technical system of an organization, and its fundamental objective is to adjust the working environment, along with various technical and organizational conditions to the physical and psychological potentials of a human being. Currently, ergonomics tends to put more emphasis on social elements within the working environment. The fact that an organization’s effectiveness depends not only on the technical and economic conditions but also equally on social factors is more and more clearly expressed. Over the past 20 years, quite large disproportionate changes between the area of technology of an organization and the social aspects have been noticed. It seems that advancement in the social sciences cannot keep up with the development within science technology; therefore shaping a nonmaterial working environment becomes particularly important, considering on the one hand the potentials, needs and limitations of employees in contemporary organizations, and on the other the changing tendencies and environmental conditions.