Two approaches to conceptualizing workload in airport baggage handling
The purpose of this paper is to study how the concept of disturbance load (M鋕italo, 2005) broadens our view of workload analysis and the development of work. We will compare two studies based on two different theoretical approaches concerning the same work (baggage handling) in the same company at an airport. The first study was based on the traditional epidemiological model of evaluating workload as risk factors, and was carried out by a multidisciplinary research group in 2004 (Freund et. al, 2004). The second case was our own project (Launis, Virtanen, & Ruotsala, 2009) concerning the evaluation of the disturbance load. The purpose of the project was to develop work activities and study the transition of work and wellbeing. The concept of disturbance load introduces new dimensions of work and wellbeing for the analysis and development of work. In traditional workload evaluation, the work is considered rather stable and the context is a detached work site, whereas in disturbance load analysis the work is changing and developing, and is a network of many activities. The traditional methods are observation and questionnaires. The analysis of disturbance load requires historical and ethnographic approaches and interventions. The unit of analysis in the traditional method is the identification of immediate sources of excessive load, whereas in disturbance analysis it is a question of the identification of systemic contradictions up to the level of corporative strategy. The results in the first case are analysis and recommendations, whereas the second approach opens up developmental design and experimentation.
Tuija Virtanen Kirsti Launis
Finnish Institute of Occupational Health
国际会议
17th World Congress on Ergonomics(第十七届国际人类工效学大会)
北京
英文
1-8
2009-08-09（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）