Participatory Ergonomics (PE)

Participation and participatory practices are the principal methodologies in the design and analysis of work systems (Brown, 2002), and they are also important methodologies for product design (see Hendrick, 1996). There are several closely related concepts and terms that appear throughout the literature in the fields of ergonomics, psychology, and management. Such terms as participation, employee involvement, participatory ergonomics, participative management, and other participatory approaches are often used interchangeably. For example, Cotton (1993, p.3) defines the term “employee involvement” as “a participative process to use the entire capacity of workers, designed to encourage employee commitment to organizational success.” He points out that it is not a true unitary scientific concept, but rather a useful catchall term for a variety of approaches, all of which employ participation. Thus, participatory ergonomics (PE) can be considered as an approach to employee involvement that is concerned with ergonomics design and analysis. From this point of view, PE is an approach or scheme that belongs in the catchall category noted above and fits the definition given by Cotton. One can thus infer that participatory ergonomics is the involvement approach unique to the field of ergonomics (Brown, 1994, 2002).