ABSTRACT
A major impetus to formal consideration of organizational design and management factors in ergonomics-and its application to the design of the overall work system-was the work of the U.S. Human Factors Society (HFS) Select Committee on the Future of Human Factors, 1980-2000. This committee was organized by former HFS president and distinguished ergonomist, Arnold Small, to look at trends in all aspects of life and project how they were likely to impact on the discipline of human factors or ergonomics over the next 20 years. At the 1980 annual meeting of the Human Factors Society (now known as the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society), the committee presented its findings, including the following anticipated developments in the areas of management and technology:
1. Breakthroughs in technology that would fundamentally change the nature of work, particularly microelectronics, automation, and development of the desktop computer
2. The “graying” of the workforce-with a related increase in education, experience, and maturity-and the need for organizations to adapt to the expectations and needs of this more experienced and mature workforce
3. Fundamental differences between the post-World War II baby boomers and their older colleagues in industrialized nations regarding their expectations about the nature of the workplace, with the baby boomers expecting to participate in decision making about their work, to have meaningful jobs, and to have satisfying social relationships at work (Yenkelovich, 1979)
4. The inability of purely microergonomic interventions to fully achieve expected reductions in lost-time accidents and injuries and increases in productivity
5. Increasing workplace and product liability litigation based on ergonomic safety design deficiencies.
