Synonyms
Definition
There is no one widely accepted definition of workload. Hart and Staveland (1988) describe workload as “the perceived relationship between the amount of mental processing capability or resources and the amount required by the task.” Another definition is that it represents the relationship between a group or individual human operator and task demands. In simpler terms, it is the volume of work expected of a person. According to Wickens (1984), “the main objective of assessing and predicting workload is to achieve evenly distributed, manageable workload and to avoid overload or underload.”
It can be measured in terms of many factors such as the amount of work accomplished over a period of time (number of hours worked or the number of assignments in a course), level of production, or the physical or cognitive demands of the work being performed (working with a person who speaks a different language than your own). There can be constraints to reaching one’s...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References and Readings
Hart, S. G., & Staveland, L. E. (1988). Development of NASA-TLX (Task Load Index): Results of empirical and theoretical research. In P. A. Hancock & N. Meshkati (Eds.), Human mental workload (pp. 77–106). New York: Elsevier Science Publishers B.V (North Holland).
Spector, P., & Jex, S. (1998). Development of four self-report measures of job stressors and strain: Interpersonal conflict at work scale, organizational constraints scale, quantitative workload inventory, and physical symptoms inventory. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 3(4), 4356–4367.
Wickens, C. D. (1984). Processing resources in attention. In R. Parasuraman & D. R. Davies (Eds.), Varieties of attention (pp. 63–102). New York: Academic Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media, New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Jacobs, K., Hellman, M., Markowitz, J., Wuest, E. (2013). Workload. In: Gellman, M.D., Turner, J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_934
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_934
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-1004-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-1005-9
eBook Packages: MedicineReference Module Medicine