Impact of Ergonomic Changes on Office Employee Productivity

Abstract

While human beings have been interested in principles of ergonomics for ages, the discipline actually started to evolve rapidly with increasing technology advancement. Empirical reports exist about how certain working conditions cause physiological trauma, and to some extent affect productivity, though the environment in context has generally been the factory. Office conditions and productivity, and in particular computer work and accuracy have not received much focus, yet. This paper reports findings of a study on the impact of various ergonomic workplace settings (intensity of light, noise reduction, temperature control, etc.) on performance of computer operators. It was observed that these ergonomic interventions significantly enhanced job accuracy although merely simulating ergonomic actions will not bring in the desired effect.

Keywords: Ergonomics, Performance, Productivity

JEL Classification: M5, J0, J8