Amberlight's Hierarchy HCI Briefings Library Amberlight Whitepapers

Sociotechnical Systems

What is a socio-technical system?

Technology does not exist and operate in isolation from the rest of the world. Computing technology that we might think of as 'a system' is actually part of wider, 'socio-technical' systems comprising humans, human activity, spaces, artefacts, tools and communications media. A socio-technical system is characterised by interactions between its components, and its satisfactory performance depends on the synergy of those interactions. Some systems are more explicitly 'social' than others. Consider the following examples:

• An email application or mobile phone may be a technology with which a user has an individual relationship, but both have had a radical impact on the wider context of how people interact with each other, and both are component parts of huge socio-technical systems of communication.
• A networked data-storage system in a large organisation may seem like a stand-alone technical system where people just save their files. However, the way that the system is organised, maintained and understood depends on the culture and the practices, including IT training, of the organisation.

Socio-Technical Systems Theory (STST) is an approach to the design and management of systems that aims to satisfy four closely related objectives: user satisfaction, system efficiency, successful system implementation and effective change management. The approach is most often used in managing organisational change, or in IT projects where business process re-engineering may be involved.

What is the message of Socio-Technical Systems Theory?

STST and its associated research and design methods draw on a wide range of sources, some examples being fieldwork, longitudinal surveys and both academic and popular literature. Socio-technical approaches are most frequently used in the context of system design and in the management of organisational change. STST has two goals that might sometimes be seen as contradictory: to design systems that improve the welfare and quality of users’ lives, and to improve the performance of the organisation by adding shareholder value, increasing productivity and competitiveness.

The principal message of STST is that new technologies or systems should never be designed or introduced without considering the 'softer' issues. If the context within which the technology will be used is overlooked or not properly understood, the technology may fail to be useful to its users; it may be ignored, actively rejected or even sabotaged.

Socio-technical systems design and research approaches place as much weight on the social system of the organisation or context of use as on the technical system. The continuous, active participation of stakeholders and the preparation of a system implementation plan are core components. STST also assesses whether a planned technology satisfies a fundamental, previously unmet, need in the users, and whether it allows users to achieve something they were previously unable to do.

History

The socio-technical systems approach is widely used around the world in both information systems and organisational design. It has its origins in the work of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in London. The early, pioneering work of the Tavistock took place in the 1940s, examining the effect of mechanised, mass-production systems on workers in the coal mining industry. Since then, the Tavistock Group has influenced the technology-centred science and practice of information systems design by advocating the consideration of users, work quality and skill development. Key authors of the Tavistock school are Ken Eason of Loughborough University and Enid Mumford of Manchester University.

STST and other related concepts

There are many concepts, methods and theories that are concerned with similar issues. As outlined below, they are closely related but constitute complements rather than alternatives to socio-technical research and design.

Participatory Design
An approach to the assessment, design and development of technological and organisational systems that capitalises on having deep user and stakeholder involvement throughout all stages of system development, including planning, testing and implementation. Also called the Scandinavian school of design, because it originated in the Scandinavian trade unions of the 60s and 70s. Participatory design methods are a tool for designing sound socio-technical systems.

Social Informatics (SI)
An umbrella term referring to the entire body of research that examines the social aspects of computerisation. Encompasses the design, uses and consequences of information technologies (IT). In addition to furthering and advocating socio-technical theories and methods, SI takes a meta-view of society and technology by considering how the presence, use and nature of technology affects society.

Market Research
The collection, analysis and interpretation of quantitative and qualitative data to gain knowledge about consumers, market niches and the effectiveness of marketing programmes. In the context of system or device development, it can be used to establish the size of a market, and what users may want from a device. Market research is ideal for investigating the role of a planned product, and to predict how the intended market will respond to its introduction. Socio-technical research is instrumental in producing creative and useful ideas for new technologies, and in making decisions about which design concepts to take further.

Usability
Theory, research and methods aimed at optimising the "effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction with which a specified set of users can achieve a specified set of tasks in a particular environment. Capitalises on the users’ abilities and the interactions between users and technology at the user interface level. Usability deals with explicit instances of design, and the experiences of individuals when trying to perform tasks using those designs. Socio-technical approaches are more concerned with whether a planned technology satisfies a fundamental, previously unmet, need in the users, and whether it allows users to achieve something they were previously unable to do. It is also concerned with underlying drives and motivations to use tools that supersede concerns with effectiveness and efficiency alone.

The Future

With its focus on “soft” issues, it has taken STST a long time and a lot of convincing of the more traditional, “hard” disciplines to achieve its current status. Still, the majority of systems designers have hardly heard of STST, or tend, out of ignorance, to equate social issues and usability with market research.

However, two trends in the design of technology working in favour of STST. Firstly, the appreciation of usability in systems design is increasing. Secondly, as 'traditional' usability is expanding in scope from the original individual-and-device to include organisations-and-systems, STST is likely to become applied much more widely.

Further reading

Classic texts:
Cherns, A. (1976). The Principles of Socio-technical Design. Human Relations, 29(8), 783-792.
Eason, K. D. (1988), Information Technology and Organisational Change. Taylor & Francis.
Mumford, E. (1983). Designing Participatively, Manchester Business School.

Contemporary texts:
Coakes, E., Willis, D. & Lloyd-Jones, R. (2000). The New Socio Tech: Graffiti on the Long Wall. London: Springer-Verlag.