ABSTRACT
The education, training and career domains of ergonomics in general, and industrial ergonomics in particular, have a long and diverse history. Different countries, cultures, and economies still view the science and technology of work systems from a variety of perspectives. These sometimes divergent perspectives have made it difficult until recently to achieve a consensus on what the scope of ergonomics is, how people should be educated and trained to conduct ergonomics research and practice ergonomics, and how to measure the competencies of those claiming to be ergonomists. It is rather ironic that while ergonomists routinely do job/task analyses, performance/technology assessments, and work-system designs for career fields ranging from astronauts to warehouse workers, they rarely apply these methods to their own career field. A true case of “The cobbler’s children have no shoes”! The goal of this chapter is to summarize the current status of professional issues in ergonomics as portrayed in the literature published by the International Ergonomics Association (IEA) and its Federated Societies. This literature also forms the foundation for certification criteria development by the Board of Certification in Professional Ergonomics (BCPE) in the U.S. and by the Center for Registration of European Ergonomists (CREE) in Europe. Readers wanting a broader and deeper survey of the evolutionary development of ergonomics into a transdisciplinary, unique career field should consult the resources listed in “For Further Information.” Particularly useful for achieving an awareness of what ergonomics is all about are the books by Chapanis (1996), Booher (1990), Klemmer (1989), MacLeod (1995), Meister (1997), and Salvendy (1987).
