The relationship between ergonomics and health problems: a study on hotel room attendants in three-star hotels

A room attendant position is considered one of the most physically demanding hotel jobs that include many repetitive and tiring tasks such as mopping, dusting, buffing, vacuuming, making beds, emptying garbage, tidying, and sweeping floors. this work profile leads not only to exhaustion but also to a high incidence of occupational hazards, pain and injuries. managerial sciences have recently established new methods, tools, and approaches for workplaces organizations to minimize the consumption of energy, avoid fatigue, eliminate occupational hazard among the employees in addition to increase their efficiency and productivity. one of these recent approaches is ergonomics that is focused on the adaptation of work environment to suit the employees‟ capabilities, talents, and limits. the major objectives of this study were to assess the room attendants‟ awareness about ergonomics in the investigated hotels, and to study the relationship between the three types of ergonomics (physical / cognitive / organizational) and health problems among them. a face-to face interview was conducted to collect data from 30 room attendants working in three-star hotels in greater Cairo. based on the analysis conducted using SPSS version (24), the results supported the first research hypothesis and found a significant relationship between physical ergonomics and health problems among room attendants as workload & work conditions (1.652*) and equipment & supplies (0.478*). the results also showed a significant relationship between cognitive ergonomics and the health problems (0.893*). the third hypothesis related to the relationship between organizational ergonomics and health problems of the room attendants was rejected. the study recommends that on-the-job training should be provided to room attendants in three-star hotels to make them aware about ergonomics practices.