Evaluate video

Answer

Video Evaluation     

1.0 Impact of the current job design on the worker’s efficiency, safety, and morale

The Job under review involving manual lifting of hollow concrete blocks is repetitive, mundane, and disengaging intellectually. Additionally, the workers are compelled to assume uncomfortable postures in which bending and twisting of the body is the norm. The environment is also noisy, dusty,  and in disarray, effectively elevating stress levels in the worker. Consequently, owing to the preceding factors, it is expected that the job design will produce negative outcomes on important employee-related factors such as employee safety, efficiency, and morale.

1.1 Impact on safety

Threats to safety are likely to arise from physical injuries from interaction with objects, slips, and long periods of physical activity.  The job design under consideration is a likely antecedent to physical injury and “somatic health problems” (Van den Broeck & Parker, 2017). Again, the rudimentary mode of operation where work is manually done may imply that the workers habitually contravene safety regulations. Extant research on individuals working manual tasks are believed to possess higher proclivity for stroke and cardiovascular disease (Van den Broeck & Parker, 2017). Similarly, the workers are at greater risk of suffering discomfort in the lower back shoulders, knee, and weight gain (Kim & Han, 2015).

1.2 Impact on Morale

Significant focus of modern scholarship has seen growth of significance of job design on employee morale as an active research area. Available literature delineates social parameters such as “attitudes toward work, managerial involvement in employee welfare, and job satisfaction as important predictors of employee morale (Van den Broeck & Parker, 2017).

1.3 Impact on Efficiency

Notwithstanding the disproportionate focus on employee safety and morale in antique studies, recent findings suggest that poor job design could yield negative outcomes on employee efficiency (Van den Broeck & Parker, 2017).  The video under review contains physically exerting tasks involving manual lifting and is deficient of intellectual stimulation.  Boring tasks have been positively correlated with negative outcomes such as intellectual deterioration and senility in older workers. Correspondingly, the “work pressure” will likely hamper development of instinctual managerial capabilities (Van den Broeck & Parker, 2017; Gordon, Demerouti, Bipp, & Le Blanc, 2015) and reduce opportunities for cognitive learning. For instance, findings from Van den Broeck & Parker (2017) revealed that unskilled employees in motor manufacturing settings experienced intellectual growth from when accorded “job control, while solving complex problems” (Van den Broeck & Parker, 2017).

2.0 Recommendations for improving Job design using Hierarchy of controls

It has been pointed out that that much of the work in the video involves significant degree of “manual lifting” and elevated risk of physical injury. In such situations, the hierarchy of controls has gained extensive popularity as the ideal tool for managing ergonomic hazards in the work place. Specifically, this paper recommends three interventions for the case under consideration: engineering control, administrative control, and personal protective equipment.

2.1 Engineering controls

In the current situation, the job design could be altered through replacement of “manual lifting” with new innovative technologies (Young 2017). The job design could also be changed by repairing the stalled tractor in the yard and fitting it with a lifting equipment to protect workers from repetitive mundane lifting. Additionally, engineering controls could be effected through automation. While automation remains the most plausible solution to problems associated with mechanical lifting, such interventions are costly and will require proper financial planning to achieve. Correspondingly, engineering controls could necessitate the alteration of dimensions of the concrete hollow blocks or adjusting the “work surface heights” for easy lifting (Young, 2017; NIOSH, 2016).

2.2 Administrative Controls

In actual management of ergonomic hazards, engineering controls may fail to yield desirable results. At this point, administrative controls are recommended for entrenchment of effective job design practices (NIOSH, 2016). For instance, mechanical lifting could be improved through policy formulations and company-wide managerial decisions. A possible option the company could pursue is to introduce a policy requiring two individuals to work together asks involving heavier blocks or odd-shaped blocks. Administrative controls could also be implemented through job rotation as a way of reducing periods of sustained physical activity, monotonous movements, and uncomfortable position. 

2.3 Personal Protective Equipment

Personal protective equipment (PPE), defined as dedicated outfit or other clothing that reduce contact to causes of sickness or injury, are mostly appropriate for risks emanating from Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) (NIOSH, 2016). MSDs are an aggregate of physical injuries and conditions that impair the musculoskeletal system (NIOSH, 2016; Young, 2017). However, they are fairly restricted insofar as ergonomic hazards are concerned. In the example, PPEs could include “hard hats, safety shoes, respirators, earplugs, safety goggles, and chemical aprons” (Young, 2017). In contemporary practice, PPEs have included “wrist supports” and “back braces”.

In proposing the 3 controls, the foregoing discussion acknowledges the overriding need to control a hazard by eliminating it. it also proposes measures to limit exposure of the hazard to the worker in case it cannot be eliminated.  All things considered, the three form a hierarchy of hazard controls, idealizing engineering, administrative, and personal protective equipment as crucial elements for influencing the “content, structure, and organization of tasks” (NIOSH, 2016).