The effect of cognitive demands and perceived quality of work life on human performance in manufacturing environments

    Authors

    J. K. Layer; W. Karwowski;A. Furr

    Abstract

    The main objective of this study was to test the research question that human performance in manufacturing environments depends on the cognitive demands of the operator and the perceived quality of work life attributes. The second research question was that this relationship is related to the operator's specific task and time exposure. Two manufacturing companies, with a combined population of seventy-four (74) multi-skilled, cross-trained workers who fabricated and assembled mechanical and electrical equipment, participated in an eight month, four-wave pseudopanel study. Structural equation modeling and invariance analysis techniques were conducted on the data collected during cognitive task analysis and the administration of questionnaires. Human performance was indicated to be a causal result of the combined, and uncorrelated, effect of cognitive demands and quality of work attributes experienced by workers. This causal relationship was found to be dependent on the context of, but not necessarily the time exposed to, the particular task the operator was involved with. Relevance to industry: An implication of this study is that an human operator's perceived quality of work life attributes may be effectively paired with the cognitive demand associated with a particular manufacturing task in order to optimize the operator's human performance. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

    Journal Title

    International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics

    Volume

    39

    Issue/Number

    2

    Publication Date

    1-1-2009

    Document Type

    Article

    First Page

    413

    Last Page

    421

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000264417800016

    ISSN

    0169-8141

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