SOCIOTECHNICAL SYSTEMS IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

RIRI SATRIA

What is Sociotechnical systems? (1)

• Sociotechnical systems (STS) in organizational development is an approach to complex organizational work design that recognizes the interaction between people and technology in workplaces.

• Sociotechnical theory therefore is about joint optimization, with a shared emphasis on achievement of both excellence in technical performance and quality in people's work lives.

What is Sociotechnical systems? (2)

• Sociotechnical theory is about joint optimization, that is designing the social system and technical system in tandem so that they work smoothly together.

• Sociotechnical theory, as distinct from sociotechnical systems, proposes a number of different ways of achieving joint optimization.

Components of Sociotechnical Systems

• Technology• People (behavior)• Business process• Management practice• Organization culture

Sociotechnical Systems Framework

(Ian Sommerville, 2012)

Sociotechnical Systems Stack

Some Research Topics in Sociotechnical Systems

• User experience and technology acceptance• User-centered systems development• IT and business process management• IT and workload analysis • IT and performance management• Organization culture and IT• Social media impact to organization or society• IT and organization change management

Some Basic Requirements

• General systems theory• Soft systems methodology (SSM)• Systems dynamics• Statistics (regression, SEM, etc)• Text / qualitative analysis• Analytics hierarchy process (AHP)

Some Useful Readings