International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) |Volume IX, Issue XII, December 2022|ISSN 2321-2705
Organisational Ergonomics and Academic Staff Performance in Lagos State University.
Segun Oluwaseun OLABODE, Atinuke Regina ADESANYA, Foluso Ilesanmi JAYEOBA, Ibukun Olorunsola KOLAWOLE
Lagos State University, Nigeria
Abstract: The study examined the relationship between Organisational Ergonomics (OE) and academic staff performance at Lagos State University. The study is a shift from the conventional examination of organizational ergonomics as a direct variable within the production/manufacturing or construction system that has been the focus of past researchers to the use of indicators of OE within an academic environment. The study population is five hundred and fifty-seven (557) academic staff of Lagos State University, Ojo campus. While a sample size of two hundred and thirty-four (234) was drawn from the population. The reliability of the research instrument was assessed using Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient (with 0.884 reliability statistics) while the validity was assessed using content and face validities. The study found that; in the two hypotheses tested there were moderate positive relationships between the two indicators of OE (teamwork and participatory design) and the indicators of performance (level of innovativeness and flow of work with R = 0.540 and 0.535 respectively) based on the academic environment tested. This implies that there is a relationship between organisational ergonomics and the performance of the academic staff of LASU. The study concluded that; the use of such indicators as teamwork, participatory design, and level of innovativeness, the flow of work to study the relationship, especially within academic work environments give a new insight into how these factors can also improve the success of an organisation effectively and employee performance. The study recommends among others that; management in an academic system would need to develop a policy that enhances participatory design in workplace to improve the teamwork of the system, and invariably the level of innovativeness in a knowledge-based environment.
I. INTRODUCTION
Sharad and Irfan (2020), believe that an improvement in the physical ergonomics design of workplace in organisation is essential. But it was not enough for ergonomics to improve employees’ well-being. This may be connected to its focus on micro ergonomics design; the immediate workstations. To make a real difference, Sharad and Irfan (2020) think that, “the discipline must consider the context of that change and forces which facilitate and inhibit ergonomic improvements”. This is done with consideration from the OE domain of ergonomics which addresses more subjective aspects of the workplace (Kramer, 2009). He further identifies some elements of the OE domain such as Communication, Crew Resources and Management, Work Schedule Design, Teamwork, Participatory Design, Cooperative Work, New Work Paradigms, Quality Management, Virtual Organisations, and Community Ergonomics. But most literature on OE had failed to examine most of the elements of this domain as indicators to