Defining the meaning of "sustainable work" from activity-centered ergonomics and psychodynamics of Work's perspectives.

INTRODUCTION: Work-related issues are already part of the theoretical framework and the historical rationale that underpin corporate sustainability. However, the relationship between work and sustainability is still little known in company practices. Based on the concepts of activity-centered ergonomics (ACE) and psychodynamics of work (PDW), this paper investigates the meaning of "sustainable work" in Brazilian companies. Thus, two research questions guided this study: How the concept of "sustainable work" can be defined in the perception of companies based on the perspective of ACE and PDW? How the concepts provided by these approaches can help companies in developing practices towards sustainable work? METHOD: Case studies conducted in ten Brazilian companies engaged in corporate sustainability practices involving document analysis, interviews, and content analysis. RESULTS: Companies recognize the importance of human action in organizational processes, by considering people as the cornerstone for ensuring corporate sustainability, and seeking to build a work with meaning and significance. However, i) Improvement actions are usually mitigatory or compensatory, acting on the effects while the root causes remain untouched; ii) Sustainability initiatives focus on individual issues, in most cases on the leader (individual), narrowing its scope and neglecting broader, important topics such as work organization and work content; iii) Both work overload and work for sustainability agenda are usually disregarded; iv) A comprehensive view of health should not be limited to the workplace. CONCLUSIONS: According to companies' perceptions, sustainable work includes but is not limited to integrating work to corporate sustainability guidelines, respecting labor laws and human rights, developing synergy between areas/departments towards sustainability, providing possibilities for constructing health in its multidimensionality with the worker as protagonist, and creating work that is meaningful, pleasurable and leads to happiness and recognition. ACE and PDW offer valuable concepts to support companies in bridging the gap between their corporate sustainability vision and practices, i.e., transforming guidelines into actions towards sustainable work. In this sense, sustainable work is believed to be that which improves the organization's performance and promotes professional development as well as workers' health broadly and positively (not limited to the absence of illness, but in the sense of building health) and well-being. Thus, it fosters respect for and the development of intelligence and creativity (as opposed to alienating work) by performing work that has meaning and significance, understanding the profound importance of physical, cognitive and organizational issues, and above all, the importance of work to the development of culture (Bolis et al., 2014).

Work for sustainability: Case studies of Brazilian companies.

The introduction of strategic corporate sustainability policies is expected to result in the improvement of several issues in companies. One of these issues is work, which should involve greater well-being for workers. Within the context of production engineering, this research connects sustainability and work-related issues, the latter seen in light of the discipline of ergonomics. Based on case studies conducted at four companies considered sustainability benchmarks, we examined how the introduction of the theme of sustainability has influenced work-related issues. The elements analyzed here were the corporate sustainability strategy, organizational practices for deploying the strategy, and the work design phase. The last element is the moment in which work is prescribed in the organization. The results show that, despite the announcement of the inclusion of changes in work, there is not any explicit evidence confirming that such changes are considered as a requirement for corporate sustainability projects.

Mapping the relationships between work and sustainability and the opportunities for ergonomic action.

A map was drawn up of the relationships between work (in its multiple interpretations) and sustainability (sustainable development and corporate sustainability) based on a bibliographic analysis of articles that discuss these themes jointly in the current academic literature. The position of the discipline of ergonomics focused on work was identified from this map and, based on its specific academic literature, it was possible to identify where this discipline could contribute so that work and workers can be included in the discourse of sustainable development and considered in corporate sustainability policies. Ergonomics can be actively influential within the organization on issues relating to work improvements; it may boost integrated increases in the organization's performance and in workers' well-being; it can provide support for changes and new (environmental) sustainability-related work requirements to be considered; and it can contribute to the definition of the concept of work in a context of sustainable development.