Introduction and organizations as a soci-technical system - Essay Example

Socio- Technical System For Socio-Technical System (STS), Society and Technology are to be defined separately first. The one half part “socio-“is referred to as regarding the social characteristics of people and society, and the other half “-technical” refers to as technology. The combination of both results in the term socio-technical system first introduced by Eric Trist, Kem Bamforth and Fred Emery somewhere around 20th century as indicated by Susan Long (2013). This was a result of a confusion that aroused between the impact of technology and productivity on business efficiency.

Technology has often to be found as associated with implementation problems, examples of which are found from past and therefore STS has gained its importance in IT arena for quite a time. A number of establishments have summarized the way socio-technical principles can be put into practice (Lamb, Sawyer, & Kling, 2000). From personal experience it can be inferred that socio-technical system encompasses the technical issues that are at the same time associated with behavioral approaches. A linkage between technological elements and social interactions has found to be extremely important and accommodating.

Bhatt (2001) indicated that “…knowledge management is best carried out through the optimization of technological and social subsystems”. Scacchi (2005) uses STINs (Socio-technical Interaction Networks) to understand Free and Open Source Software Development (F/OSSD) as discussed by Meyer E.T (2006). The weakness of socio-technical system described by Meyer E.T (2006) is that “whether a system that embodies both people and technology can be demonstrated not be in STIN”.References:Meyer E.T (2006). “Socio Technical interaction Networks: A discussion of strength, weaknesses and future of Kling’s STIN Model”.

Susan Long (2013) “Socioanalytic Methods: Discovering the Hidden in Organisations and Social Systems”Lamb, Sawyer & Kling (2000) on “Socio Technical System Approach”Eric Trist & K. Bamforth (1951). “Some social and psychological consequences of the longwall method of coal getting, in: Human Relations”