Sociotechnical Systems Design
12 important questions on Sociotechnical Systems Design
What was the idea behind the longwall method of mining?
What were the consequences of the longwall method of mining?
- bad work
- magnification of local disturbances
- strain of cycle control
What other solution was suitable?
- Higher grades + faster learning
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What were the effects of autonomous work groups?
- output was increased by 25%
- costs went down
- absenteeism decreased
What is an organisation according to system theory?
- a set of element
- between which relations exist
- and the behaviour of the system relates to these relations
What are the key concepts of STSD?
- difference between technical and social sub-system
- joint optimalisation: best fit between technical and social sub-system
- organisational choice
- composite work group
What are the characteristics for the australian approach?
- participative design
- find solutions by means of workshops
- and create design solutions together
- is able to improve quality of work
- weak theoretical basis
What are the characteristics of the Dutch approach?
- integral organisational renewal
- strong relationship between theory and design strategies
- focus on integral redesign of the entire organisation; both performance and control parts of the organisation
- lack of implementation advice
What are the characteristics of the Scandinavian approach?
- democratic dialogue
- creating interorganisational networks (quality of working relations)
- democratic communication strategies
- case studies conducted in a scientific way
- no design consequences; division of labour remains similar
What are the characteristics of the American approach (consultancy)?
- aimed at hearing the voice of employees
- starting change in organisations, start a motion
- weak on the level of design theory, no integral approach
Why is the dutch approach important?
- quality of work is improved; commitment increases
- quality of working relations is improved: decline in miscommunication and delays
- quality of the organisation is improved; cost go down, flexibility goes up and innovation goes with it
What are the main premises of IOR?
- ways in which activities are divided over workstations, the organisational structure, influences behaviour of the social system to a great extent
- autonomy
- process oversight
- degree of structural complexity
This impacts:
- the way disturbances can be solved at workstations
- the way people feel committed to their work and the degree of stress they experience
- the degree of flexibility, reliability and innovation at the organisational level
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