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PREMUS 2025: 12th International Scientific Conference on the Prevention of Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders


09.-12.09.2025
Tübingen


Meeting Abstract

Ergonomic interventions and change management – a scoping review

Annamari Mäki-Ullakko 1
Arto Reiman 1
Päivi Kekkonen 1
1University of Oulu, Pentti Kaiteran katu, Oulu, Finland

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The nature of work and ways of working are continuously changing. Digitalization, hybrid work, the ageing of the population and the decline in the working age population are prevalent global trends that have impacted our working life. Musculoskeletal and mental health disorders are the primary causes of work-related disabilities. Adaptation to above changes in work requires broad understanding of the characteristics of work and related human factors. Ergonomics, the aim of which is to develop work by simultaneously optimizing well-being at work and productivity at work, forms the scientific frame of reference for this abstract. A scoping review was conducted using four scientific databases (Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, Journal.fi), to identify what kinds of broader organisational ergonomic interventions have been reported being implemented in workplaces, their effects on well-being and productivity, and the ways in which they had been implemented. Interventions included are discussed from the perspective of change management using John P. Kotter’s classical 8-step process model for change management (1996; Leading Change), seeking a vision of how their implementation could be developed from the management perspective. In the interventions included in the analysis (n=26), several ways of participation were described highlighting especially the importance of the involvement of the foremen and management in the implementation of the intervention. It was not, however, possible to identify the most effective ways of participation suitable for all kinds of interventions. The impacts of these interventions were mainly described from the perspectives of health, work ability and/or safety prevention particularly focusing on describing reductions in musculoskeletal symptoms or accidents at work, or improvements in work ability and in a sense of work management. Interventions’ impacts on productivity were monitored in only three articles and four studies reported mainly a reduction in various adverse costs. When examined from the perspectives of change management, the articles only seldomly took stand on issues considered important in Kotter’s model. Especially the articles failed to describe “urgency and necessity of development”, “how short-term wins can be generated”, and how new practices can be institutionalized in organization’s processes. When designing and implementing ergonomics interventions, means of change management would serve a strategic framework. Interventions should be assessed and reported in scientific literature more often not only in terms of the development of well-being at work, but also from a business perspective in terms of productivity.