The French-speaking ergonomists' approach to work activity: cross-influences of field intervention and conceptual models

Abstract

French-speaking ergonomists generally consider the concept of activity to be central in their approach to work and to changing it. However, their understanding of the term developed in a specific context, combining the influence of Soviet psychology with that of other forms of thinking already developed in France. Since then, the notion has received considerable input. The concept of activity as it has been developed in French-speaking countries (and thereafter in others like Brazil as it has spread) is not exactly identical to that developed by Engeström, even if there are obviously many common points. The aim of this article is not to make a systematic international comparison of approaches all referring to the concept of activity. Rather, the author's objective is limited to explaining the emergence of the concept as it is taught in France with its theoretical and methodological consequences. The reader should, therefore, not be unduly surprised by the focus on French-speaking ergonomists; this is not testimony to ignorance of the international literature, but constitutes the specific nature of this essay. If other authors attempt a similar clarification of thought at a later date, it will be easier for the international ergonomic community to distinguish the resemblances and differences between the approaches on an international level.

Keywords:

• French-speaking ergonomics
• Activity analysis
• History of ergonomics

Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges the comments made notably by P. Béguin, Y. Clot, J. Escouteloup, M. Jackson, C. Martin, P. Rabardel, Y. Schwartz and L. Sznelwar on a preliminary version of this paper. These researchers are of course not responsible for the opinions expressed here.

About the author

François Daniellou, born 1955, has a basic education as a mechanical engineer. After 13 years in the Ergonomics laboratory of CNAM in Paris, directed by Alain Wisner, he has been Professor of Ergonomics in the University of Bordeaux since 1993.

Notes

 The aim of this article is not to make as full an account as possible of the history of work psychology in France: for such an account see Clot (1996).

 The term ‘prescribed work' has long been opposed to ‘real work'. The notion that prescription was not only part of the imagination of the organizers but was also a tangible reality of the work of operators and that prescribed work was one of the components of real work was fully developed only much later (e.g. Grall and Lhospital 2000).

 In the first issue of the Journal Le Travail Humain, Lahy and Laugier (1933, p. 2) write ‘The rational organization of human activity raises theoretical and practical problems of an extreme complexity. (…) We have entitled this Journal “Le Travail Humain” (Human Work), there could be a sub-title: “knowledge of the Human with a view to a judicious utilisation of his activity” (…). We hope that original papers that we will publish will contribute to establishing an efficient collaboration between laboratory researches and applications they entail for the organization of human activity.

 It seems that the work of Vygotsky was largely unknown to researchers in ergonomics and in ergonomic psychology at this time. Nowadays, Vygotsky's work has gained a growing interest (Clot 1999b).

 Surprisingly, while in the original 1977 edition it is the word ‘activity' which is at the centre of this diagram, it is the word ‘conduct' which has returned to the centre in the 1984 edition. Moreover, the arrows indicated here are those of the 1977 edition (one which was inversed has been corrrected). In 1984, the diagram only had five component parts: ‘internal conditions', ‘external conditions', ‘conduct', ‘effects on man' and ‘effects on the system', with arrows running from ‘effects on man' to ‘internal conditions' and from ‘effects on the system' to ‘external conditions'.

 Autoconfrontation is the fact of presenting to the worker the recording of his/her own activity, in order to get his/her comments on the causes.