STS Principles (Essay Sample)

Socio-Technical Systems
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Socio-technical systems (STS) refers to the organizational approach to the inter-relationships between the employees and the technology used in the work environment. Socio-technical systems consider the social dimensions of the employees and the technical aspects of the organization’s processes or even structures. The theory tries to merge these two so as to uncover the best optimizable conditions that can produce the best possible results. In understanding the STS, the organization will be considered as the system. A system is defined as a set of entities and the relationships between these entities; the relationships between the different entities is described by functions (ComputingCases.org, 2011). The system has set boundary limits and conditions. Moreover, the system may be viewed as one whole element (superstructure) and the entities as sub-systems. The entities are arranged in the degree of functionality. In this way, we get the hierarchy of the system. The functionality of the system is based on several principles for the success of the STS. These principles include:
The structural aspect determines the functionality of the system.
Different structures can produce the same functionality (equifunctionality)
One hierarchal level cannot wholly describe a system (excluded reductionism)
The system goes beyond the set of elements it is composed of.
These principles will have different results when applied to a variety of genres like scientific applications or social aspects.
Technical specialists tend to ignore the social aspects of their work, but also social scientists lack the technological know-how behind the functionality of the technical objects. Systems theory tries to merge both sides (Zha, 2006). Therefore, a systems model would include both the social and the technical circumstances, people and the machines alike, the society’s technization and the socialization of this technology. Though we have described the socio-technical system, it is a much more complex combination due their very close inter-relations. The socio-technical systems usually include:
The hardware: these usually include the workstations and the physical aspects of the machines alike.
The software: they usually incorporate the social rules and the laid out organizational standards and procedures. From a technological aspect, the software includes the operating systems and the specialized programs.
People: these include the individuals, specialized persons, and even the agencies themselves.
Physical surrounding: the environment of the workplace also influences the social relationships between the different elements in the system, for example, the architectural design of a building can determine what type and how technology will be applied.
Procedures: They determine the organization’s implementation process. It encompasses management models, documentation requirements, rules and the norms of the organization.
Data and the data structures: from this aspect, you consider the type of data being collected, how they would be collected and stored, and the person(s) who will access them and in what format they would be stored.
Laws and regulations: they are similar to the procedures only that they carry with them penalties if broken.
The STS is dynamic; it can take different forms over an entire period since it is configurable in all its entities or subsystems (being configurable means distinct entities in an STS may change and also even among those entities the configuration of one entity can change). The change can occur at one level or might be multi-level. The interaction between the entities or the levels may be partly linear and partly non-linear (Scacchi). Therefore, the optimization of one will tend to increase the unpredictability affecting the overall system performance. As such, socio-technical theory constitutes majorly joint optimization (designing the social entities and the technical entities to work in sync for better results).
Consider an organization that is involved in system change; it is implementing a new computer-based information processing system dubbed as the E-File. The E-File system started out as a technological innovation meant to improve the overall organization performance as physical handling of files would be subtle. Moreover, the new system was to remove the bottlenecks experienced with the old system, for example, inability to access a file by different employees at the same time (Painter). The system had Local Area Network (LAN) communication protocols and included imaging software, but was majorly data-driven and the workflow was automated with the data being integrated on real-time basis.
In the Painter’s case, the organization’s social system was critical in shaping the end results. Earlier imaging technology had been implemented in the service-conscious organization but was not successful. Technically, the imaging technology was better than the manual system but considered less of the social aspects. Stakeholders complained more of the increasing costs for Short-Term Disability (STD) benefits; this affected the overall productivity of the organization. The accumulating problems experienced by the employers was critical in identifying the bottlenecks of the imaging technology; this led to the development of a better system, the E-File system with the consideration of socio-technical aspects. Consideration of social aspects in the development of the E-File system led to:
Better working environment
Financial saving
Improved customer service due to automated workflow
STS principles in this case that can be generalized to any system included
Responsible autonomy: STS applauds the consideration of teams as the primary focus and not the individual entities. It considers more the leadership at a given level and that the group effectiveness is determined by team cohesion. Employment protection impacted more on the successful implementation of the E-File system
Adaptability: the rate of increase in uncertainty in an organization is dependent more on the internal entities than the environmental or surrounding entities. The success of the electronic claim file system in this case, was dependent more on the employees’ willingness and ability to acquire newer skills and practices. The organization gave time and support to the employees to line the new system.
Whole tasks: It considers placing a particular task or responsibility on a select group or team. In the upgrading of the imaging technology to the electronic claims File system, the task was accorded to the Information Services (ISD) system and the Compensa...