The Consonance of Organizational Ergonomics in Indian Construction

Piyush Sharma, M.Tech Student, Sakshi Gupta, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, ASET, Amity University, Haryana, India

---

Ergonomics, also known as human factor, is a deductive discipline perturbed with the correlation among human beings and other elements of workplace. It is a field that administers principles, methods and techniques to design a workplace or system in order to ameliorate the productivity of humans. This discipline subsists of physical ergonomics, organizational ergonomics, and cognitive ergonomics as the main three spheres. The work presents exhaustive inquisition on organizational or corporate ergonomics in construction industry of India. Organizational ergonomics is mainly exercised with the augmentation of organizational structure, products, policies and processes. This paper analyzes the various ergonomics principles such as effective task design, complexity, interaction systems, labor productiveness and stakeholders act. These principles are very vital for a construction firm so as to create a sturdy work environment.

Introduction

In India, nearly 45% of the investment has accounted for construction/infrastructure during the past 5 decades. Around 16-18% of the country's working population directly or indirectly depends on construction for its alimentation. Over 30 million people are engaged in Indian construction industry that generates capital worth over ₹200 billion.

Organizational culture can be expressed as a set of inferences shared by the personnel in an organization that directs perception and action by defining pertinent behavior for various situations [1, 4]. In 1985, many companies in US started enforcing ergonomics for work safety [2]. Red Wing shoe manufacturer was one among that; they slashed work related musculoskeletal disorders by macro-ergonomics [3]. The company executed ergonomics standards and processes for greater resilience, eradication of incorrect postures, and greater serenity of operation to reduce strain. As a result, workers allowance insurance premium dropped by 70% from 1989 to 1995, thus, giving savings of 3.1 million dollars.

In western countries, workforce productivity is generally higher as compared to Indian workforce. Small things make a lot of disparity in this regard like timing schedules, work break, etc. On the other hand; safety standards have always been a great issue in the Indian construction industry. The number of accidents and work related injuries are also increasing day by day due to poor safety measures and inappropriate working environment. In today's epoch, one of the biggest concerns for any management is to enhance their labors and equipment's productivity for efficacious conversion of resources into sellable products and sprouting business profitability [1, 2].