7.1    OOS in New Zealand

The literature has shown that OOS is a real and debilitating disease. OOS has been in existence for centuries, but is now becoming increasingly prominent in the IT industry. The causes of this disease are widely understood, as are effective methods for its prevention. The costs of OOS are high - both for the individual and for the organisation; hence both the organisation and the individual benefit from prevention schemes. Prevention schemes, although involving an initial financial outlay have been shown to be cost-effective.

Despite the wide publicity OOS has been given in recent years, the survey revealed that there are still organisations in New Zealand who believe OOS is not a real disease. This is despite the fact that New Zealanders in the IT industry are suffering from OOS today (as revealed by the survey). Although most organisations had taken some measures to prevent OOS, many organisations failed to perceive the prevention of OOS as an holistic issue, OOS is not just prevented by ergonomic equipment or OOS policies.  The prevention of OOS requires both the employer and employee to be aware of the risks of OOS, and to possess the desire to avoid it.  The avoidance of OOS requires a cornucopia of approaches including ergonomic equipment, education, OOS polices, healthy working environments, OOS software and relaxation.

In conclusion, organisations have a moral and legal obligation to prevent OOS.  To not fulfil this obligation will result in human suffering and increased costs to the organisation.  To fulfil this obligation, the organisation requires an attitude of belief and a structured approach to the prevention of OOS.  A structured approach will ensure that OOS is not being ignored, and the benefits of the prevention actions can be analyses quantitatively.  OOS is real.  It can be prevented.  It is both the employer's and the employee's responsibility to ensure that it is.
 
 

7.2    Details of further work that could be done in the area

Due to the limitations in depth and size inherent in a dissertation, there are many aspects of OOS in New Zealand that have either been only touched on, or completely ignored in this dissertation.  Some future avenues of study include the following:

• Interviewing IT managers of New Zealand organisations to gain a better perception of their attitudes towards OOS (existing literature describes the results of such interviews, see for example Khilji and Smithson [1994]).
• Interviewing/surveying of actual employees of the IT managers.  This would offer a different perspective of OOS in New Zealand organisations.
• Further investigate the use of OOS policies in New Zealand organisations.  For example, the efficacy of the policies could be determined.
• The carrying out of a similar survey as to that carried out for this dissertation.  Except, to increase the statistical significance of the results, it could be:
• decreased in size (to increase the response rate)
• sent to a larger an more diverse sample of IT organisations and companies in New Zealand
• offered to organisations with an incentive for its completion (for example, we could promise the respondents a copy of the results)
• The existing data from the current survey could be further analysed for potential correlations between answers.
• Attempts could be made to discover the true incidence of OOS in the IT industry in New Zealand (as yet, the figures relating to OOS in New Zealand are only estimates).  If such data could be gleaned from previous years, it could ascertained if the actual density of OOS in the IT industry is increasing, decreasing or staying the same.
• The use and usefulness of different types of OOS exercise-software and break software could be further investigated.