Human Factors Specialists'Education and Utilization Results of a Survey (1992) / Chapter Skim
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3 Characteristics and Utilization of Human Factors Specialists
3 Characteristics and Utilization of Human Factors Specialists
Pages 25-47
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From page 25... ...
Only 1 percent reported a place of work in other than one of the three employer categories. This distribution of employment settings existed among those who thought of themselves principally as human factors specialists as well as those who did human factors work but thought of themselves as something else, such 25
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From page 26... ...
Almost as many psychologists were employed in government agencies, 41 percent, as in private business, 47 percent. As one would expect, the type of systems addressed by the human factors specialists was related somewhat to type of employer.
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From page 27... ...
There were, however, notable differences between those with supervisory responsibilities and those without them in the number of hours worked. For purposes of the study, supervisors were defined as those who reported that they supervised human factors specialists and either had a current job title of supervisor, manager, etc., or reported that they supervised three or more people.
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From page 28... ...
In their previous job, 63 percent had a position that was primarily concerned with human factors, and in 44 percent of the cases that position was with the same organization. The distribution across types of employersprivate business, government agency, or education institution was about the same for previous as for current employment.
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In response, 66 percent of nonsupervisors and 56 percent of supervisors said they considered themselves to be human factors specialists. Those who considered themselves as something else mainly said they were industrial engineers, engineers other than industrial, psychologists, computer scientists, or industrial designers.
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In viewing these findings, it must be kept in mind that nearly half of the sample of specialists had some Behaviora/ Science 16% Engineering _ 34% Something Else 6% Business 13% Human Factors 9% Industrial Design 1 1 onto Other Sciences 11% FIGURE 3.2 Training and experience of supervisors reported by human factors personnel.
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From page 31... ...
As shown in the table, the span of direct supervision for most who had supervisory responsibilities was relatively narrow. More than half supervised only one or two other human factors specialists; 82 percent directly supervised five or fewer other human factors specialists; and about threefourths supervised 10 or fewer total personnel.
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From page 32... ...
The importance measure for each task was the percentage who rated the task in one of the too three points of a seven-point rating scale of importance. - r Nearly all those with supervisory responsibility were performing those tasks required in the direct supervision of subordinates selecting, assigning, TABLE 3.5 Profile of Supervisory Tasks Performed by Human Factors Specialists With Supervisory Responsibilities Task Description Percentage Performing Task Percentage Rating Task Important Select, assign, or train subordinates 9 ]
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From page 33... ...
Interactions With Others Work was conducted by human factors specialists with a relatively high level of interaction with other human factors specialists; professionals in other fields; and with the ultimate users of the systems, operations, or devices developed. Interaction with other professionals occurred mainly with engineers, systems analysts, computer programmers, marketing specialists, health professionals, and industrial designers.
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From page 34... ...
THE NATURE OF THE WORK The deployment of human factors specialists in private business, government agencies, and other work settings was defined by the tasks that specialists perform. Building on unpublished task analyses completed by the Human Factors Society, 52 tasks of human factors specialists were identi
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35 En co .
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From page 36... ...
As the table shows, the task "analyze tasks" is performed by 81 percent of all surveyed human factors specialists. "Health and safety," which is one of the seven main subdomains of human factors work, is performed by 67 percent of all specialists surveyed.
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From page 41... ...
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From page 43... ...
Thus, the task profile for any area of work must be obtained by inspecting the tables directly. CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMAN FACTORS SPECIALISTS Highest Academic Degree Advanced degrees predominate the academic backgrounds of human factors specialists, with 37 percent having received doctorates and 34 percent having received master's degrees.
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From page 44... ...
44 CQ Cal ._ Ct ~ ._ o ~ 1 V)
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From page 45... ...
The relatively wide spectrum that exists in the total sample also exists in the specific areas of work. A relatively even distribution existed among human factors specialists in the number of years since receipt of the highest academic degree.
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From page 46... ...
ad e o a o E .~ ._ o to to ._ o c o ._ ._ a 1~ ~S~S~S~SSSS~S~SSS~S~ ~S~S~S IS SASS IS ~S~SS~S~S~S~S~S~S~S~S~S~.
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From page 47... ...
Age Distribution of Human Factors Specialists Total Private Government Education Sample Business Agency Institution 55 and over 15.2 13.2 18.0 23.7 45 - 54 23.8 22.2 20.9 40.0 35 - 44 38.0 38.2 45.5 27.0 Under 35 23.0 26.4 15.6 9.3 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 47 Among those working on computers, the predominance of males was not quite so great: 70 percent were male, 30 percent female; and among those working on communications systems, 74 percent were male, 26 percent female. With this characterization and description of human factors specialists and their work, we turn now to where they were educated, how that education is viewed by employee and employer, and how employees receive continuing education.
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