What makes age diverse teams effective? Results from a six-year research program

Based on a new model of productivity in age diverse tams, findings from a six-year research program are reported in which data from more than 745 natural teams with 8,848 employees in three different fields (car production, administrative work, financial services) were collected. Moreover, central assumptions of this model were tested with a representative survey of the German workforce (N = 2,000). Results support both significant advantages and disadvantages for age-mixed teams. Based on the findings, the following preconditions for the effectiveness of age diverse teams are identified: high task complexity, low salience and high appreciation of age diversity, a positive team climate, low age-discrimination, ergonomic design of work places, and the use of age differentiated leadership. Based on these insights, we developed a new training for supervisors, which addresses the aforementioned aspects and seeks to improve team performance and health of team members. It was found that the training reduces age stereotypes, team conflicts and enhances innovation. Thus, we can conclude that effective interventions for a successful integration of elderly employees in work groups are available and that combinations of measures that address ergonomic design issues, team composition and leadership are to be strongly recommended for practice.     

Different roles in the quest for system resilience

Into dangerous and complex systems with high degree of interactivity between its components, the variability is present at all time, demanding a high degree of control of its operation. Maintaining or recovering the normality, when the system is under some stress (instability) is a function of Resilience. To cope with prevention, forecast, recovery and with memory of experiences from learned lessons requires some features from the companies. This paper purposes a structure that enables the Total Resilience of a system production that defines the assignments for Workers, Designers and Management Team, according to its features and possibilities. During one year and a half developing studies on ergonomics area of a Brazilian Oil Refinery, several situations were observed and studied using Work Ergonomic Analysis. These situations show actions and strategies that workers use to maintain the system stability. Furthermore, they revealed the importance that these actions are stored in a database of learned lessons from the Company. The research resulted in a broad scheme. It places each of these groups in the process of Total Resilience. It also shows the human like a center of actions that ensure the continuity of the system, main element at Resilience (Anthropocentric View).     

Proper manual handling techniques to prevent low back pain, a Cochrane systematic review

Training and provision of assistive devices are considered major interventions to prevent and treat low back pain (LBP) among workers exposed to manual material handling (MMH). To establish the effectiveness of training and provision of assistive devices in preventing and treating LBP an update of a Cochrane literature review was performed to November 2010. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and cohort studies with a concurrent control group (CCTs) were included. Nine RCTs (20.101 employees) and nine CCTs (1280 employees) were included for prevention: six more than in the previous version. No study on treatment was found. None of the included RCTs and CCTs provided evidence that training and provision of assistive devices prevented LBP when compared to no intervention or another intervention.     

Interventions to prevent needle stick injuries among health care workers

Needle stick injuries (NSIs) are frequently reported as occupational injuries among health care workers. The health effects of a NSI can be significant when blood-to-blood contact occurs from patient to health care worker. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether the number of NSIs decreased among health care workers at risk in one Dutch academic hospital after introduction of injection needles with safety devices in combination with an interactive workshop. In a cluster three-armed randomized controlled trial, 23 hospital divisions (n=796 health care workers) were randomly assigned to a group that was subjected to the use of a 'safety device plus workshop', to a group that was subjected to a 'workshop only' or to a control group with no intervention. The combined intervention of the introduction of needle safety devices and an interactive workshop led to the highest reduction in the number of self-reported NSIs compared to a workshop alone or no intervention. For practice, the use of relatively simple protective needle safety devices and interactive communication are effective measures for reducing NSI's.     

Designing dynamic distributed cooperative Human-Machine Systems

The paper presents a new approach to the development of cooperative human-machine systems in the Transportation domain which is currently researched in the European project D3CoS. A necessary precondition for the acceptance of cooperative human-machine systems with shared control is the confidence and trust of the user into the system. D3CoS tackles this important issue by addressing the cooperative system as the object and the target of the system development process. This new perspective, along with corresponding innovative methods, techniques and tools, shall allow the identification of optimal task and authority sharing approaches supported by intuitive human-machine interaction and user interfaces at an early stage of system development. This will support powerful teamwork between humans and machines or between machines and machines that is transparent, intuitive and easy to understand. The paper describes the research dimensions for the development of the methods, techniques and tools as well as first results.     

Activity analysis: contributions to the innovation of projects for aircrafts cabins

This article presents results obtained from some ergonomics intervention in the project for the conception of aircraft's cabins. The study's aim is to analyze the contribution of the method adopted in the passengers' activities analysis in reference situations, real-use situations in aircraft's cabins, applied to analyze typical activities performed by people in their own environment. Within this perspective, the study shows two analyses which highlight the use of electronic device. The first analysis has been registered through a shooting filming in a real commercial flight. In the second one, the use is developed within the domestic environment. The same method has been applied in both contexts and it is based on activity analysis. Starting with the filming activity, postures and actions analysis, self-confrontation interviews, action course reconstruction and elaboration of postures envelopes. The results point out that the developed method might be applied to different contexts, evincing different ways of space occupation to meet human personal needs while performing an activity, which can help us with the anticipation of the users' needs, as well as indicate some innovation possibilities.     

Contributions from the activity analysis to the products development project: case study based on a project of innovation and comfort in aircraft's cabins

Comfort is an issue that has gained relevance within the aeronautical industry due to the necessity of manufacturers and airline companies of differentiating themselves in a market that has become more and more competitive each day. This study's aim is to analyze the comfort/discomfort of passengers, based on the analysis of the activities performed in the aircrafts' cabin during real flights, in order to create ergonomics requirements and a methodology of comfort analysis. The study has been performed during domestic commercial flights, and the adopted data collection techniques have been: the application of 219 questionnaires to passengers, 44 registrations of postures and actions through filmings and 12 semistructured interviews. The method has made possible the reconstruction of the user's action course in performing activities in real flight situations, and the calculation of the area occupied by the passenger during his or her actions. The integrated analysis of the results corroborates data from previous studies in which both the space made available to each passenger and the activity performed interfere in their perception of comfort. From this study it has been concluded that the method constitutes itself as an innovative tool within the process of aircrafts' cabins project enabling the calculation of the action space based on the reconstructed course.     

The Nagorno Karabakh Conflict through the Prism of the Image of the Enemy

The post-Soviet space is fraught with multiple problems, risks and threats caused by unresolved conflicts. The vast majority of these conflicts possess a strong ethno-political component that complicates all the conflict resolution attempts: neglect of the role of ethnicity in interstate and intrastate conflicts can lead to overt conflict on the one hand and a deadlocked situation in respect to all mediation on the other hand. This article focuses upon the role and impact of ethnicity factor and the ways in which it is exploited and manipulated. The Nagorno Karabakh conflict serves as the major empirical case.     

Economic,Financial and Geopolitical Governance: USA,European Union and China

The paper examines the policies, choices, structural reforms, regulatory rules, corporate and public administration matching the world standards, openness, innovation, competitiveness, fulfillment of multilateral obligations, integration and regional approach achievements and international relations conditionality in the “Global Governance and Geopolitics” of the main economic, financial and policy issues, with special focus on the new regional approaches pursued by America, the European Union and Asia and the role of the emerging and transition countries. After the US Dollar, now the Eurozone is under pressure and the main Asian countries fear a contagion effect. While somebody proposes a slow devaluation of the Euro in order to soften the public deficits of the group of most exposed countries and restore more competitiveness to the real economy, political leaders are thinking to adopt indirectly the Euro two speeds operative monetary strategy, through the introduction of the majority vote, instead of the full Members consensus, for the most important decisions at the ECB in Frankfurt. Aside these monetary and institutional measures, the binding of the single national fiscal policy to more strict EU parameters of compatibility with the Eurozone sustainability appear unavoidable. This paper represents the background of my lecture given on November 4 at the Beijing Forum 2011 “The Harmony of Civilizations and Prosperity for All: Tradition and Modernity, Transition and Transformation” () at the PEK University.