Sociotechnical Systems: Issues in Work System Redesign

摘要

This paper presents sociotechnical systems (STS) design principles and identifies criticisms of traditional approaches to STS based redesign. Sociotechnical systems (Trist and Banforth 1951; Pasmore 1988; Hanna 1988; Taylor and Felten 1993) offers a methodology to facilitate redesign of work systems. Since its introduction by Trist and Bamforth (1951) STS has flourished and evolved over almost five decades and has become recognized as an effective system based methodology for process redesign (Jackson, 1991). However, there have been recent criticisms concerning the continued legitimacy of STS as an approach to work system redesign. Since all STS redesign initiatives stem from a commonly held set of principles, we havestated the STS dilemma as: Are STS design principles still appropriate for guiding work system redesign methodologies? This paper is organized to present traditional STS design principles, discuss current criticisms of STS based methodologies, and suggest future directions necessary for STS to continue as an effective approach to work system redesign.