INTRODUCTION:

The study of determining the human ergonomic comfort while doing any profile of work is purely an intangible factor. Direct measurement of such factor is not possible, there is not any device or an instrument which measures the comfort. The value of comfort or a degree of comfort can only be quantified in terms of personal opinion of the subject. The comfort is different for different person according to their own preferences and perceptions. The study is to be carried out by surveying such clerical workers and to extract their opinion perfectly. This paper reviews the existing literature and research works related to survey, scaling, opinion based researches, sample size, factors governing the work and many more. The study is done for providing the benchmark to the clerical worker.

Review of Survey Works:

John D. Malcolmson [1] conducted a study for women clerical employees by taking a survey of a mixed sample of employees. The author has considered many factors which are related and responsible for the various outcomes and uncertainties in a clerical work.

The statistical analysis of various factors is done within the sample and the population distribution is projected for various aspects such as age group distribution, gender profile, educational background, experience, etc. as an obvious factors. The author has surveyed the sample of employees and provided percentage distribution. Some circumstantial factors are also considered which affects the psychology of an employee such as employment status, working condition, hours of work, salary, job satisfaction, break time, leaves, etc. Apart from this, various ergonomic factors are considered in the survey to throw a light on the ergonomic status of an employee such as work related stress, pain, positions, etc. The data from the literature is referred as a basis for selection of factors for the study and to observe the hierarchy and priority of factors.

Shobhna Gupta et.al. [2] explains in her comparative study of public and private sector that the job satisfaction can be influenced by a variety of factors, e.g., the quality of one's relationship with their supervisor, the quality of the physical environment in which they work, degree of fulfillment in their work, etc.. Job satisfaction further implies enthusiasm and happiness with one's work Job satisfaction; describes how satisfied an individual is with his or her job. Job satisfaction is a very important attribute which is frequently measured by organizations. The most common way of measurement is the use of rating scales by conducting a survey where employees report their reactions to their jobs. Questions related to rate of pay, work responsibilities, variety of tasks, promotional opportunities the work itself and co –workers are asked and the opinion is quantified to study the degree and level of satisfaction.

Mark G. Resheske [3] conducted a descriptive research for job satisfaction of clerical employees. The author has suggested the various survey methods, the questionnaire design, and the method for data analysis. The author has discussed various factors which plays an important role in job satisfaction of an employee. The author has done the analysis of questionnaire data which is surveyed from subjects in SPSS (Statistical Packages for Social Sciences) software. The study provides appreciable results over various personal, situational and cognitive factors.

Ekta Sinha [4] This research work has been done to measure the satisfaction level of employees with special reference to KRIBHCO, Surat. The research is conducted with sample size of 150 employees based on systematic sampling. Data was collected based on structured questionnaire method on five point scale for 23 major variables which were reduced to five factors namely Empowerment & Work Environment, Working Relation, Salary & Future prospects, Training & work Involvement and Job Rotation. The author concluded that the employees to be satisfied on the basis of above said five factors. For the purpose of data analysis IBM SPSS 20 software is used. The influence of various factors are also calculated and the most influencing factors affecting the job satisfaction is identified.

Muhammad Rizwan et.al. [5] in his empirical study of employee job Satisfaction explains the key factors which are useful for the satisfaction of the employees such as workplace environment, reward and recognition, training and development and team work. The survey was conducted in 2012 and covered 200 employees. The data analysis is done with the help of chronbach value which indicated the reliability and internal consistency of variable which is selected for the study.

Christine A. Sprigg et.al. [6] explained in their study of psychosocial risk factors in call centers that the call center work profile is highly dynamic in nature. The work in call centers can be heavy or light according to various conflicting opinion of workers. In this paper, findings are presented from the larger scale quantitative (questionnaire-based) study conducted for 36 call centres and 1,141 call centre employees. More specifically, this report addresses four main questions:

a. Is working as a call handler more stressful than working in other jobs?

b. Is working as a call handler equally stressful for everyone who works as one?

c. What is it that makes working as a call handler stressful?

d. What can be done to reduce the psychosocial risks associated with working as a call handler?

Mark W. Friedberg et.al. [7] conducted a project sponsored by the American Medical Association (AMA), aimed to characterize factors that influence physician professional satisfaction. Various factors are selected such as demographic factors, ergonomic factors, etc. and the outcome as professional satisfaction. The model is developed to ensure the professionals to be more effective, efficient, sustainable, and conducive to professional satisfaction.

Melanie Hof [8] explains the design and evaluation of questionnaire for survey studies. The evaluated questionnaire seems reliable and construct valid. The result of the reliability measure was high: α=0.93. All items contribute to the reliability and construct validity of the questionnaire: the items correlate more than 0.4 with the factors that underlie them. This study concludes that a questionnaire is generally accepted as reliable when the Cronbach’s alpha is higher than 0.8.the analysis is done by using SPSS software.

Review of Ergonomic studies:

Linda M. Tapp [9] explains the role of pregnancy related problems which are suffered by women employees during work. The author explains that the pregnancy can affect reach distance, balance and lifting tasks. Author observed an increased risk of pre-term delivery among women whose jobs involve a combination of stressful factors, such as standing for long durations, repetitive lifting and working long hours.

OHCOW [10] Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers Inc. report explains the direct relationship between the pregnancy and ergonomic comfort. The author explains that during pregnancy the large abdomen causes the center of gravity to move forward. A curve in the spine results causing backache and strain. The pregnancy causes her to throw back her shoulders, lean backward on her heels, and place additional strain on her lower back. Several ergonomic risk factors are identified such as awkward postures, heavy lifting, less rest and repetitive work.

Alessandro Apostolico et.al. [11] introduces and describe a new concept in human-measurements operation that seems to be very useful for comfort evaluation: the Range of Rest Posture (RRP). The author’s study is focused on the identification of RRP inside the comfort range of motion (CROM) for neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist and ankle. Method used is based on a wide experimental work on 85 healthy individuals (43 males and 42 females) ranging in age from 20 to 30 year. The data is collected and has been processed by statistical methods for identifying the best statistical distribution in order to fit experimental data. Postural comfort is one of the aspect of comfort/discomfort perception and this paper helps to put a piece in the puzzle of posture evaluation. On the basis of papers results, a comfort evaluation method can be developed using RRP and CROM.

Marc L. Resnick [12] explains that the cognitive science assumed that rational actors would make objectively normative decisions given the time and information they had available. However, research has shown that emotion and value-based judgments can fundamentally change the way decisions are considered and evaluated. This is a greater challenge in the health care domain, particularly the emergency room where life and death decisions are made frequently and uncertainty makes optimal decision making impossible. The importance of human emotion in the work is explained in this paper. Nancy Gell et.al. [13] conducted the study of workers over an extended period of time to identify factors which may influence the onset of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). The purpose was to evaluate incidence of CTS and to create a predictive model of factors that play a role in the development of CTS. This prospective study followed 432 industrial and clerical workers over 5.4 years.

This longitudinal study supports findings from previous cross-sectional studies identifying both work related ergonomic stressors and physical factors as independent risk factors for CTS.

Laura Punnett et.al. [14] conducted a study related to work-related musculoskeletal disorders. The author has identified several attributable fractions for occupational physical risk factors and the occurrence of musculoskeletal disorders. The effect of various work profiles is studied such as repetition, force, repetition with force, vibration, etc.

REVIEW OF SAMPLE SIZE STUDIES:

James Bartlett et.al. [15] in his paper provides the formula for calculation of sample size for survey research. The author provides the sample size by considering the anticipated response rate of the subjects under survey. The author has calculated the sample size for survey research as 171 per thousand population. The methodology and the formula can be used to calculate size of sample for survey kind of research.

ShuoLi et.al. [16] investigate the factors for sample size requirements. A modified equation is presented to estimate the minimum sample sizes for field data collection. To estimate the sample size requirements, it is viable to use the standard deviation of the collected data. The test sample may be collected and the standard deviation can be calculated according to which the standard deviation for population is determined. The standard deviation for the population is calculated by taking the test sample readings from the field.

REFERENCES:

[1] John D. Malcolmson, “Spread too thin: Clerical work under pressure”, Report of CUPE BC’s clerical workers’ survey, October 2012, pp. 1-25.

[2] Shobhna Gupta, HarteshPannu, “A Comparative Study of Job Satisfaction in Public and Private Sector”, Indian Journal of Arts, Volume 1, Number 1, January 2013, ISSN 2320 – 6659, pp. 1-6.

[3] Mark G. Resheske, “A descriptive study of job satisfaction and its relationship with group cohesion”, University of Wisconsin-Stout May, 2001, pp. 1-48.

[4] Ekta Sinha, “A research work on Employee Satisfaction measurement with special reference to KRIBHCO, Surat”, International Journal of Modern Engineering Research (IJMER), Vol.3, Issue.1, Jan-Feb. 2013 ISSN: 2249-6645, pp-523-529.

[5] Muhammad Rizwan, Waqas Mehmood Khan, “Empirical study of Employee job Satisfaction”, IOSR Journal of Business and Management IOSR-JBM), e-ISSN: 2278-487X, p-ISSN: 2319-7668, pp. 29-35.

[6] Christine A. Sprigg, Phoebe R. Smith Paul. R. Jackson, “Psychosocial risk factors in call centres: An evaluation of work design and well-being”, Research report, University of Sheffield, Health and Safety Laboratory and UMIST for the Health and Safety Executive 2003, ISBN 0 7176 2774 8.

[7] Mark W. Friedberg, “Factors Affecting Physician Professional Satisfaction and Their Implications for Patient Care, Health Systems, and Health Policy”, Research Report, American Medical Association (AMA), ©Copyright 2013 RAND Corporation, ISBN 978-0-8330-8220-6.

[8] Melanie Hof, “Questionnaire Evaluation with Factor Analysis and Cronbach’s Alpha”, White paper, pp. 1-11.

[9] Linda M. Tapp, “Pregnancy and Ergonomics”, Human resource guidelines, Journal of Professional Safety, August 2000, pp. 1-5.

[10] Report, “Ergonomics and Pregnancy”, Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers Inc. pp. 1-6.

[11] Alessandro Apostolico, Nicola Cappetti, Carmine D’Oria, Alessandro Naddeo, Marco Sestri, “Postural comfort evaluation: experimental identification of Range of Rest Posture for human articular joints”, International Journal of Interactive Design and Manufacturing, © Springer-Verlag France 2013.

[12] Marc L. Resnick, “The effect of affect: decision making in the emotional context of health care”, Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care 2012, pp. 39-44.

[13] Nancy Gell, Robert A. Werner, Alfred Franzblau, Sheryl S. Ulin, Thomas J. Armstrong, “A Longitudinal Study of Industrial and Clerical Workers: Incidence of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Assessment of Risk Factors”, Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, Vol. 15, No. 1, March 2005, pp. 47-55.

[14] Laura Punnett, David H. Wegman, “Work-related musculoskeletal disorders: the epidemiologic evidence and the debate”, Elsevier Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology 14 (2004), pp. 13–23.

[15] James Bartlett et.al. “Determining Sample Size for Survey Research Cochran’s Formula”, Information Technology, Learning, and Performance Journal, Vol. 19, No. 1, Spring 2001, pp 43-50.

[16] Shuo Li, P.E. et.al. “Reconsideration of Sample Size Requirements for Field Traffic Data Collection Using GPS Devices”, TRB 2002 Annual Meeting, Paper No.02-2129, pp.1-18.

Received on 10.09.2014 Accepted on 30.09.2014

Research J. Engineering and Tech. 5(3): July-Sept. 2014 page 118-120