Defining stakeholder involvement in participatory design processes.

A participatory approach could be used to implement work place or organizational improvements. However, the question is which participants should be involved and how. In this paper the theoretical involvement in different steps of a linear stepwise approach is described and compared with the latest projects of 300 practitioners. From a theoretical point of view ergonomists and employees play an essential role in the improvement process and are involved in most stages of a change process. Designers play an important role in idea generation and prototyping. Top management and middle management are important in the first step to set goals that are consistent with the strategy of the enterprise. Middle management is also needed in the steps where improvements are selected. This theoretical prediction is affirmed. However, middle management appeared to be also involved in implementation. The role of ergonomists is in practice limited in later stages in implementation, which is not preferred by the ergonomists.

From industrial safety to corporate health management.

Occupational health and safety is one of the most important topics of ergonomics. In many countries the practical issues are addressed in worker protection laws or rules and most companies have some sort of occupational health and safety system. As with many other ergonomics approaches, such activities are often necessary because of legal requirements. Such efforts are often viewed by management as primarily cost intensive. To change this image, it would be helpful to have a more positive, management-oriented approach. Corporate health management as a module of an integrated management system can fulfil this goal.

Ergonomics in the past and the future: from a German perspective to an international one.

Looking at the past there are more or less fragmented approaches in ergonomics as well as in management. Especially in Germany, the 'Lean Management wave' weakened ergonomics in industry. On the other hand, there is a growing demand for holistic concepts--and ergonomics can by definition be understood as holistic. Many of the newer approaches in management include ODAM or macro-ergonomics elements. In building up a stronger relationship between macro- and micro-ergonomics, the whole discipline could be promoted. This also requires the fulfillment of some preconditions like systematically gathering and presenting 'best practices', which show that ergonomics pays off.

Safety and quality issues as part of a holistic (i.e., sociotechnological) approach.

In the past, many so-called management concepts were not very successful because of their fragmented approach. This is also true for topics like safety and quality. Here, technical aspects often predominated while disregarding the equally important need for a change of attitude. On the other hand, awareness was created by timely limited programmes. The paper deals with integrating quality and safety in holistic (management) concepts, which are described first before being discussed in detail.