ABSTRACT
Professionals in Improving Workers’ Health .......................................................34 References ....................................................................................................................................... 37
We live in a world where numerous societies face inhumane working conditions. People are being treated with rudeness and disrespect, making the concept of “decent jobs” have no meaning at all (ILO, 2001). During the last decades, the majority of the world’s working population has been confronting the lack of adequate and satisfactory work systems. Taking part in such a fragile working environment constitutes one of the major causes for workers to become frustrated and dissatisfi ed, with consequences of low productivity levels, poor product/process quality, and poor quality of working life (QWL). This is a discouraging reality considering that work, as a human activity, “constitutes one of the ends of the economic system and a basic need for man in order to give meaning and content to his/her life” (Hofstede, 1982). In this chapter we discuss how the scientifi c discipline of ergonomics (human factors) and the occupational safety and health (OSH) fi eld jointly contribute to the improvement of the QWL at various levels (a multilevel approach) and most importantly, attempt to illustrate the needed “symbiotic” relationship (close and often long-term interactions between two bodies) between the two of them within the context of industrially developing countries (IDCs).
