Towards handling worker emotions for improved product development

Abstract

Product development is a process in which important decisions pertaining to the artefact and its interaction with other life-phase systems are made. The consequences of these interactions influence in a direct manner the degree of success of product development in terms of cost, time and quality. One type of consequence which emanates from the interaction involving the human worker and other lifephase systems is the elicitation of human emotions. The investigation presented in this paper indicates that the elicitation of negative emotions from human workers can have significant ramifications on the product development process. The main contribution of this paper is the development of a support means which enables product development stakeholders to foresee the type of emotions elicited from human workers as a consequence of decisions made.