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.peer-reviewe
