Iranian Journal of Ergonomics
Year:2018 | Volume:6 | Issue:1 |Papers Count:11

Background: The lack of fit between tools and human hand could result in musculoskeletal disorders and decrease efficiency. Designing hand tools, anthropometric data of target population is necessary. A few studies have reported the hand anthropometric dimensions of Iranians. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to measure the most important anthropometric dimensions of hand in a population of office staffs in Urmia.Methods: In this study, 20 dimensions of dominant hand were measured in 345 participants (217 males and 128 females) using a digital caliper and a plastic tape. The important percentiles were reported by gender. Independent t-test was used to compare the mean of male and female hand dimensions. The length and width of hand were compared with the corresponding data from published literature.Results: The values of 5th, 50th, and 95th percentiles were calculated and tabulated by gender. The hand dimensions of men were larger than those of women. The mean of hand dimensions of men was statistically different from those of women (P=0.001). In contrast to women, the hand length and breadth of the men of this study were significantly different from those of the most of the other communities.Conclusion: The results of this study could be used by designers or importers of hand tools and gloves. Considering the significant differences of hand dimensions between men and women, it is recommended to use hand dimensions of each gender for designing their related products.

Background: Considering human resources, their potentials and capabilities, will play an important role in promoting quality and productivity. This has been discussed in the macrovascular discussions with the aim of enhancing the organization› s performance. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between Personal Mastery and the consequences of quality improvement and productivity in Hamadan University of medical sciences.Methods: This is a descriptive/ analytical study.295 managers and university’s staff were selected through random sampling. Data was collected by two questionnaires: «Peter Senge Learning Organization» and «Resourceful Total Quality Management» questionnaires. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA at 95% confidence level, Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis using SPSS16.Results: The results showed a mean of Personal Mastery of 23.1 and a positive and significant correlation between Personal Mastery and the consequences of improving quality and productivity (P<0.001). Also, there was a significant difference in Personal Mastery in both sexes (P<0.005). But this difference was not evident in terms of degree and field of study.Conclusion: Productivity in the service sector depends rather on human resources and factors affecting it than on technology and other factors. Therefore, paying attention to capabilities and empowerment of human resources is very important and it can be achieved through a macroergnomic approach and development of infrastructure related to the empowerment of employees in the organization, to increase efficiency, productivity and quality improvement.

Background: The purpose of this article was to study the relationship between anthropometrical domain and upper body’s abnormalities in primary school girl students in Mashhad.Methods: In this study, 14225 girl students were selected as the statistical population, and then 375 subjects were selected as samples of the study using cluster randomized technic. Some anthropometrical parameters as popliteal height, popliteal- buttock length, elbow height from 90° angle, and shoulder height from setting position along with some educational dimensions of equipment used such as bench height, bench depth, desk height and width were measured. Moreover, upper body’s extremity abnormalities including lumbar lordosis and thorax kyphosis were evaluated by flexible ruler. The related anthropometrical measures along with desk and bench dimensions also were determined in range of accepted limit (AL), over range of accepted limit and below range of accepted limit for each of benches and desks’ dimension. For statistical analysis the Chi-Square test in contingency tables, Cramer’s phi were used by SPSS16 (P<0.05).Results: The result indicated that the 81.8 percent of benches were higher than max accepted limit of the popliteal height. Also 76.8 percent of students used desks that were higher than max accepted limit (P<0.05). Bench depth was inappropriate for %100 of students and smaller than min accepted limit. Furthermore significant relationship was observed between adequate bench height with popliteal height and abnormalities lordosis and kyphosis (P£0.05).Conclusion: The result of present study indicated that educational equipment of Mashhad schools had no minimum ergonomic standard. Some suggestions should be considered to improve the ergonomics of school equipment according to anthropometrical parameters of students.

Background: The aim of present study was to investigate the mediator role of occupational self-efficacy in the relationship between professional development and job commitment and satisfaction among staff of sports and the youth department of east Azerbaijan province in 2016-2017.Methods: This descriptive correlation study is a structural equation model. The statistical population included 322 employees of Sports and the Youth Department of East Azerbaijan province.203 of them were selected using stratified random sampling; which was used to determine the sample size from the Morgan table. For data collection, standard questionnaires were used. Data analysis was performed using descriptive indexes and structural equation modeling method.Results: Statistical analysis of the data indicated that there is a significant and positive relationship between professional development and job satisfaction and commitment (P<0.01, r=0.67, r=0.43). Moreover, the results of the study indicated that there is a significant and positive relationship between self-efficacy and job commitment and satisfaction (P<0.01, r=0.21, r=0.36). The highest level of significant correlation was obtained for the relationship between professional development and job satisfaction (r=0.67) and the lowest significant correlation was obtained for the relationship between professional development and self-efficacy (r=0.19). In addition, the results showed that the mediator role of job self-efficacy in the relationship between professional development and job satisfaction and commitment (b=0.05, b=0.06) was confirmed.Conclusion: According to the findings, it can be concluded that any increase in professional development is accompanied by an increase in satisfaction, job commitment and self-efficacy from the staff. In this regard, attention to professional development among the staff of sports and the youth department can be of great importance in increasing job satisfaction and commitment as well as promoting self-efficacy among employees.

Background: Exposure to hand-arm vibration is one of the most common physical harmful factors. The purpose of this study was Experimental study of the level of manual performance disability caused by exposure to hand-arm vibration among automobile casting workers.Methods: This study was performed on 53 casting workers as case group and 28 controls as control group. The measurement of the vibration of the worker's arms and hands was carried out in accordance with the ISO 5349 standard. The level of manual performance disability was evaluated using skeletal-muscular, sensory-neural and vascular tests. Also, a questionnaire was used for the level of disability of the arm, shoulder and hand DASH. Data were analyzed using SPSS16.Results: The 8-hour vibration exposure was 8.33 m / s2 (4.49), which exceeded the permissible level. Skill and dexterity, fingers and grip strength of the dominant hand in the case group were decreased by 4%, 13.3% and 11%, respectively (P<0.05). The regeneration time of the dominant hand in the case group was 41.2% higher than the control group (P<0.05). Sensory-neurological complications increased in the case group compared to the control group, however, it was not statistically significant. The DASH score in the case group was 10.7 (13.4) and the control group was 4.1 (5.1).Conclusion: Hand-arm manual performance disability in workers exposed to vibration decreased from 4% to 14%, which confirmed the DASH score. In addition, workers showed a higher level of vascular complications compared with sensory- neurological complications.

Background: The majority of research have led to interventions such as stress management design and have neglected the role of psychosocial factors in occupational stress. The aim of current research was to the relationship between occupational stress and health consequences among the workers in regards with the perceived organizational support.Methods: 211 individuals of Isfahan Steel Company were selected according to the stratified random sampling method and completed questionnaires about demography characteristics, Occupational stress, incident reporting rate and perceived organizational support. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive index and multiple regression analysis using SPSS18.Results: Results showed that there were significant relationships among perceived organizational support, Occupational stress and incident reporting rate (P<0.05). Also, hierarchy regression analysis showed that the relationship between Occupational stress and incident reporting rate was partially mediated by perceived organizational support (P<0.05).Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that perceived organizational support can modify the relationship between occupational stress and involvement in work accidents, and as a result, employees are less involved in risk behaviors and accidents are less caused by occupational stress.

Background: Management efforts have always aimed at reducing the issues that cuase the employees to quit. Many factors affect the quitting, one of which is job stress in work environment. Regarding the importance of the issue, the present study was conducted to study the occupational stress as predictors of nurses’ intention to quit their jobs.Methods: This research is a correlation study. The target population in this study was all nurses working in Hamadan hospitals. Based on simple random sampling, 300 individuals were selected as the sample of this study. The tools used in this research were effort-reward imbalance questionnaire, Job Content questionnaire, and intention to quit a job questionnaire. The Collected data were analyzed using correlation and regression analysis using SPSS18.Results: The results showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between the amount of effort, job demands and the intention to quit (P£0.01). But there was a negative and significant relationship between reward, job control and social support with the intention to quit (P£0.01).Conclusion: Based on the results, it can be concluded that job stress is an important factor in creating the intention to quit a job among the personnel, and the components of both models used in this research can be used to reduce the intention of quitting.

Introduction: Safety and safety behaviors are one of the most critical issues ahead manufacturing industries in developing countries, especially in hard and harmful jobs. This research has been conducted to investigate the affecting elements on safety behaviors of workers in hard and harmful jobs in manufacturing industries of Guilan province.Methods: The method of this research is descriptive and its purpose is practical. The statistical population of the research includes workers in hard and harmful jobs in casting and pressing department of manufacturing industries of Guilan province. 384 workers were chosen as sample through non-random sampling and using Morgan table due to the unavailability of the people. Required data were collected using the questionnaire. The questions of safety management system practices are from Chen and Chen, the questions of ethical leadership are from Cheng et al., the questions of self-efficacy are from Schwarzer and Jerusalem and the questions of safety motivation, safety compliance and safety participation are from Neal and Griffin. After the validity (content) and reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed, and the research variables were described using SPSS 21, the hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling method and based on LISREL 8.5.Results: Findings verified the effect of safety management system practices on safety compliance and motivation; ethical leadership on safety acceptance and participation; self-efficacy on safety motivation and acceptance; and safety compliance on safety acceptance and participation; however the effect of safety management system practice on safety compliance, self-efficacy on safety participation and ethical leadership on safety acceptance were not. The results indicate that the model variables explains 68.8% of safety behavior variations.Conclusions: Self-efficacy has the highest indirect effect on safety behavior (safety acceptance and participation); this happens due to safety motivation. Thus, empowering the self-efficacy will increase safety behaviors.