Chapter 03

Macroergonomic Methods
Assessing Work System
Structure

Prepared By: Eng. Sabreen Hassan Mohammed

Effective design of a work system's structure…….
Sociotechnical system elements
(1) The technological subsystem,
(2) Personnel subsystem, and
(3) Relevant external environment

3 organizational design dimensions

• Complexity
• Formalization
• Centralization (Hendrick, 1988)
 Technological Subsystem Analysis

production technology Woodward: Production Technology

knowledge-based technology Perrow: Knowledge-Based Technology

strategy for reducing uncertainty Thompson: Technological Uncertainty

degrees of automation (workflow integration) Aston Studies: Workflow Integration

 Woodward: Production Technology
(Manufacturing firms only)
Modes of technology (technological complexity )
(1) unit (least complexity)
(2) mass, and
(3) process production (highest).
 Optimal Design
1. Technological complexity increased ,the degree of vertical differentiation also
increased
2. Technological complexity increased, the optimal ratio of administrative/employees
staff increased
3. Technological complexity increased, the span of control of the top-line managers
increased

Woodward Suggests:
unit (3), mass (4),process (6)
• Unit production firms had low complexity with little line and staff differentia
tion and widely defined role responsibilities. Both formalization and centralization were low.
High formalization and centralization apparently were not feasible
because of the custom-made, nonroutine nature of the work.

• Mass production units had high complexity with clear line and staff differentiation and
narrowly defined role responsibilities. Formalization and centralization both were high. Low
skilled workers.

• Process production units had high vertical differentiation with little line and
staff differentiation and widely defined role responsibilities. Formalization and
centralization both were low. High formalization and centralized control were
not needed because of the heavily automated, inherently tightly controlled nature
of process technology.

‫سؤال‬
 Perrow: Knowledge-Based Technology
“Technology as the action one performs on an object in order to change the object”
• task variability: ‘exceptions’
• task analyzability: the ‘how’ of searching
– "well defined“ (logic) to "ill defined (experience)
 Perrow: Knowledge-Based Technology
Routine technologies Few exceptions mass high formalization and
+ defined procedures production centralization
(arepetitive)

Nonroutine many exceptions + Combat Flexibility:highly

technologies difficult -to - erospace decentralized and have
analyze problems operations low formalization.

Engineering many exceptions + moderate centralization

technologies well-defined + flexibility : low
rational-logical formalization.
processes

Craft technologies routine tasks+ decentralization and low

solving relies formalization
on the experience
 Thompson: Technological Uncertainty
• structural arrangements uncertainty reduction.
• long-linked, 2.mediating, and 3. intensive.
Long-linked automobile assembly line Uncertainty: input & Planning ….
sequential interdependence output moderately
of its units complexity +
formalization

Mediating banks, post offices, and rules, regulations, and low complexity and
utility ompanies, standard operating high formalization
procedures

Intensive a hospital, (patient ) condition of the patient Flexibility + High

(major uncertainty) and responses to complexity +low
previously used formalization
techniques.
‫سؤال‬
 Aston Studies: Workflow Integration

1.automation of equipment 2. workflow rigidity 3. specificity of evaluation

• Finding: technology affects organizational structure, it appears to have
significantly less impact than the other two sociotechnical system
elements
smaller organizations workflow integration XXXX workflow integration ,
organizational structure:
Specialization + formalization, +
decentralization increase

For larger organizations, this

relationship was not as
apparent.
 Personnel Subsystem Analysis
(1) professionalism,
(2) demographic characteristics
(3) psychosocial aspects of the workforce
 Degree of Professionalism

• Formalization: rules, low skills

• Professionalism: internal formalization
(education and training)

• Formalization & professionalism (trade-off)

 Demographic Factors

1. The "graying" of the workforce,

2. demographic shifts in psychosocial
characteristics,
3. the broadening of the cultural diversity of the
workforce, and
4. the recent large increase in the number of
women in the workforce.
 Graying
• Graying: Professionalized workforcw….fully utilized and remain motivated…..low

formalization and decentralization

• new breed : leisure, paid job, and the depersonalized job and more
meaningful, ‘Work with pleasant people ,
a work system design standpoint:
(1) a need for less hierarchical, less formalized, and more decentralized organizational structures;
(2) for an attendant greater level of professionalism to be designed into individual jobs and
human-system interfaces
(3) for work systems and job designs that encourage group interaction and participatory decision
making
 Cultural Diversity and Women

Cultural Diversity
• decentralizing decision making to allow greater employee control over their work
environment and related policies and procedures.
• participatory ergonomics in designing or modifying work systems
Women
• Women tend to modify work systems and jobs so as to allow for greater social interaction.
• Encourage work system changes that enable more flexible work hours
 Personnel Subsystem Implications

• a need for work systems to be as vertically

undifferentiated, decentralized, and lacking in
formalization as their technology and external
environments will permit.
 EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS

• The adaptation to the external environment is

necessary.
• Types of External Environments
– Socioeconomic: stability, competition, and availability of
materials and qualified workers.
– Educational: programs, and the educational level and
aspirations of workers.
– Political: Governmental considerations
– Cultural: values and attitudes toward work,
– Legal. The degree of legal controls, restrictions, and
compliance requirements
 INTEGRATING THE RESULTS
OF THE SEPARATE ASSESSMENTS
Conflicts between outcome of the analysis of
one sociotechnical system elements
• weighting them approximately as follows:
– The technological subsystem analysis is "1"
– The personnel subsystem analysis "2,“
– The specific task environment analysis "3."

let's assume that the technological subsystem falls into Perrow's "routine" category, the
personnel subsystem jobs call for a high level of professionalism, and the external environment
has moderately low complexity. Weighting these three

• The result: a moderately formalized