Effect of work conditions on VDT workers' health and productivity: A longitudinal intervention field study

This dissertation examines the effect of physical ergonomic work conditions on occupational health and worker productivity in automated offices. A longitudinal intervention field study in a catalog retail service organization in the Midwest is used to explore these relationships. Incremental ergonomic interventions were put in place at the workstations of 80 volunteers who participated in this study. Health data was gathered by administering a survey to study participants before (baseline), 6 months after and 12 months after the interventions. Individual productivity data was gathered from the company and analyzed by time periods (baseline, 6 months post intervention). This dissertation proposes that occupational health and worker productivity should be looked at as integral and complementary outcomes, which together, define organizational effectiveness, which in turn serves as an indicator of quality of work life and a quality and productive organization. The findings show that productivity and health are affected by physical ergonomic interventions. The findings in terms of the relationship between productivity and health were inconclusive and further research is recommended in this area. The results should be interpreted with caution due to the small sample size, considering the number of study groups and relationships investigated. However, the theoretical and practical implications of these findings are important in that a conceptual framework is proposed to look at occupational health and worker productivity jointly in assessing and improving organizational effectiveness. From a practical and methodological standpoint, the findings are important in the effective implementation of ergonomic interventions and the successful completion of longitudinal field studies. These theoretical and methodological contributions are applicable and transferable to contexts beyond those of customer service organizations and human computer interaction work settings.