Week 4: Beyond the organizational ‘container’ – Winter et al.
Two areas where the conceptualization of STS-systems must be updated:
The STS-approach encapsulates work and the infrastructure used to do it within organizations
leading to a “container” view. As context of work and a venue for joint optimization of the
social and technical.
Work is generally as encapsulated within super ordinated systems elements of that wrok
are inherited from those systems.
STS-approach had its roots in the second World War:
Focused on work within organizations that had designed both the tasks to be performed and
the infrastructure used to perform them.
Two foundational systems:
o Systems approach
o An emphasis on the interplay between social and technical.
General systems worldview: a system is a collection of interrelated systems that work together in the
service of the whole. Any system is both part of a larger system and contains subsystems.
Consider two levels of system hierarchy:
- System
- Parts
STS-systems: systems that are nested and multilevel. The hierarchies are typically characterized in
terms of system levels within an organisation an organisation can be considered as a purposeful
system, with work systems as parts supporting the organizations formal purpose.
A key insight of the STS-approach: treating “social” elements together with technical systems these
elements are intertwined in a complex of mutual causality.
Dynamic and mutual interplay between people and technology jointly generates outcomes.
Development of STS involves joint optimization of social and technical elements of work systems
within some boundary.
20th century: STS literature provided a conceptual basis for recognizing the importance of avoiding
dehumaning work and building work systems that aligned with individual and social factors.
The core elements of STS-systems theory: sociotechnical systems comprise the work systems that
are encapsulated within or bridge across organizations, those work systems inherit their formal
purpose, meaning, and relationship with other systems from the overall organization, and the social
and technical elements should be jointly optimized in accordance with these organizational goals.
Four ‘interacting variable classes’ (Bostrom and Heinen):
Two social:
o Structure
o People
Two technical:
o Technology
o Tasks
Attending to all four elements results in the best outcomes from a managerial perspective.
, SCOT and ANT: consider the mutual interplay between the material properties of technologies and
social contexts and how they relate to each other.
These examples show how studies have often used the following assumptions of the STS approach:
1. Work systems have social and technical elements (sociotechnical) that together form a
coherent whole
2. Work systems are nested within organizational containers (encapsulation)
3. Work systems get their purpose, meaning, and structure from the organizational context
(inheritance/ downward causation)
4. Improvement to work systems involves improvement with respect to the combined human
and organizational goals (joint optimization).
Both the IS and STS approach developed when information technology was prohibitively expensive
computerization as an organisational phenomenon became default IS and STS embraced a view
that balanced agency and action (joint optimization) and inherent complexity (interrelated parts and
emergent whole) with an implicit assumption of hierarchy and control that is consistent with a
managerial mindset.
Though much work is still performed within an organization, work can be coordinated through formal
institutional arrangements, through informal communities of practice or interest, and through multi-
systems that cross or even exists outside of the boundaries of a single organization. the shift away
from organizations as the primary container of the work system is enabled by changes in the nature
of the technical and information infrastructures upon which work systems rely.
Digitalization: certain components that have led to the increased capabilities of infrastructure. These
capabilities combine with the increased sourcing of IT outside end-user organisations.
The combinations of inexpensive, ubiquitous, persistent and broadly available software, networking
and servers can support work outside of a traditional organisation, reducing the need for work
systems to be encapsulated within an organisation.
Two areas where the conceptualization of STS-systems must be updated:
The STS-approach encapsulates work and the infrastructure used to do it within organizations
leading to a “container” view. As context of work and a venue for joint optimization of the
social and technical.
Work is generally as encapsulated within super ordinated systems elements of that wrok
are inherited from those systems.
STS-approach had its roots in the second World War:
Focused on work within organizations that had designed both the tasks to be performed and
the infrastructure used to perform them.
Two foundational systems:
o Systems approach
o An emphasis on the interplay between social and technical.
General systems worldview: a system is a collection of interrelated systems that work together in the
service of the whole. Any system is both part of a larger system and contains subsystems.
Consider two levels of system hierarchy:
- System
- Parts
STS-systems: systems that are nested and multilevel. The hierarchies are typically characterized in
terms of system levels within an organisation an organisation can be considered as a purposeful
system, with work systems as parts supporting the organizations formal purpose.
A key insight of the STS-approach: treating “social” elements together with technical systems these
elements are intertwined in a complex of mutual causality.
Dynamic and mutual interplay between people and technology jointly generates outcomes.
Development of STS involves joint optimization of social and technical elements of work systems
within some boundary.
20th century: STS literature provided a conceptual basis for recognizing the importance of avoiding
dehumaning work and building work systems that aligned with individual and social factors.
The core elements of STS-systems theory: sociotechnical systems comprise the work systems that
are encapsulated within or bridge across organizations, those work systems inherit their formal
purpose, meaning, and relationship with other systems from the overall organization, and the social
and technical elements should be jointly optimized in accordance with these organizational goals.
Four ‘interacting variable classes’ (Bostrom and Heinen):
Two social:
o Structure
o People
Two technical:
o Technology
o Tasks
Attending to all four elements results in the best outcomes from a managerial perspective.
, SCOT and ANT: consider the mutual interplay between the material properties of technologies and
social contexts and how they relate to each other.
These examples show how studies have often used the following assumptions of the STS approach:
1. Work systems have social and technical elements (sociotechnical) that together form a
coherent whole
2. Work systems are nested within organizational containers (encapsulation)
3. Work systems get their purpose, meaning, and structure from the organizational context
(inheritance/ downward causation)
4. Improvement to work systems involves improvement with respect to the combined human
and organizational goals (joint optimization).
Both the IS and STS approach developed when information technology was prohibitively expensive
computerization as an organisational phenomenon became default IS and STS embraced a view
that balanced agency and action (joint optimization) and inherent complexity (interrelated parts and
emergent whole) with an implicit assumption of hierarchy and control that is consistent with a
managerial mindset.
Though much work is still performed within an organization, work can be coordinated through formal
institutional arrangements, through informal communities of practice or interest, and through multi-
systems that cross or even exists outside of the boundaries of a single organization. the shift away
from organizations as the primary container of the work system is enabled by changes in the nature
of the technical and information infrastructures upon which work systems rely.
Digitalization: certain components that have led to the increased capabilities of infrastructure. These
capabilities combine with the increased sourcing of IT outside end-user organisations.
The combinations of inexpensive, ubiquitous, persistent and broadly available software, networking
and servers can support work outside of a traditional organisation, reducing the need for work
systems to be encapsulated within an organisation.
