ABSTRACT
As with most new subdisciplines, one can identify a number of precursors within the larger discipline, or related disciplines, and this is the case with macroergonomics. However, the most direct link leading to the formal development of macroer gonomics as a distinct subdiscipline can be traced back to the U.S. Human Factors Society’s Select Committee on Human Factors Futures, 1980-2000. In the late 1970s, many dramatic changes were occurring in all aspects of industrialized societies and their built environments. Arnold Small, Professor Emeritus of the University of Southern California (USC) and former president of The Human Factors Society, noted these changes and believed that traditional human factors/ergonomics would not be adequate to effectively respond to these trends. At Professor Small’s urging, in 1978 the Human Factors Society (now, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society) formed a Select Committee on Human Factors Futures, 1980-2000 to study these trends and determine their implica tions for the human factors discipline. Arnold was appointed chair of this Select Committee. He, in turn, appointed me to that committee and specifi cally charged me to research trends related to the management and organization of work systems.
