Ergonomic Analysis of Work Activity and Training: Basic Paradigm, Evolutions and Challenges

Abstract

This chapter presents an ergonomic analysis of work activity and training and the basic paradigms, evolutions, and challenges related to this ergonomic analysis. The use of ergonomic analysis of work activity (EAWA) has constantly evolved during the past 15 years. For researchers adopting the ergonomic approach, 'object training' has also greatly evolved, raising epistemological, ethical, and pragmatic questions. The reflections concluding the symposium EAWA and training of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA) 2006 Congress are prompted, in most cases, by the mid-term and long-term effects of ergonomics-related interventions in the context of technical and organizational changes. The focus is on how to accomplish transforming actions and how to merge description with intervention. From this perspective, training is a constitutive element of the EAWA, both directly and indirectly. EAWA is one of the few methods that never leave the research subject anonymous. On the contrary, it postulates an active and controlled relationship, on a methodological level, between the 'research object' and the subject. The chapter discusses the prospects and challenges of the related subject. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.