Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Organizations are open, dynamic, and goal-oriented systems, which consist of a social and a technical
subsystem. The social subsystem of an organization contains the employees with their knowledge and
abilities, as well as their individual and group-specific needs. The technical subsystem contains the
entirety of the technical and spatial conditions of work (Figure 5.2).
In order to avoid suboptimal results of system design, technical and social subsystems have to be opti-
mized together. The socio-technical system approach acts on the assumption that technology has a crucial
influence on the organization. However, the organization is not completely determined by the technology.
Also with a given technical system organizational options exist. This clearance of system design, obviously,
increases, if the technical system and the work organization are planned together. When planning, the needs
and requirements of the coworkers in reference to their work are to be considered.
The system “enterprise” is subject to fluctuations. These are caused, on the one hand, by the system
environment (e.g., changes of demand). On the other hand, system fluctuations also have internal
causes (e.g., disturbance at a machine; necessary reworking measures due to errors during the work
execution). A central thesis of the socio-technical system approach proves that enterprises with small
decentralized, self-regulating organizational units are more able to adapt to changes and fluctuations
than central-controlled systems.
With the design of self-regulating organizational units there are three principles to consider (Ulich,
2001): (1) The formation of organizational units, which are relatively independent from each other
should prevent the fluctuations and disturbances propagating uncontrollably. (2) An internal task coherent
of an organizational unit makes it possible for the coworkers to determine their operational procedure on
their own. This design principle stresses the motivational aspects of holistic tasks. (3) The design of the
organization should be product-orientated, if possible. Thus, the formation of independent organizational
units is supported. Furthermore, the work task shows a stronger connection with the product.
The socio-technical system approach raises the claim to provide a theoretical reference framework for
the analysis of practical problems in organizations. Sydow (1985) shows that the socio-technical system
approach only partly comes up to its claim. He justifies his animadversion on the approach among other
things with the fact that central constructs like the one of the technical and that of the social system, their
connection to the task system and to the feeling-orientated system are formulated imprecisely. Beyond
that he shows that, many a time, technology is accepted as fixed although the necessity for a common
optimization of the technical and social system is continually stressed.
The idea of man based on the socio-technical system approach refers particularly to the motive struc-
ture of humans (Sydow, 1985). The focus of attention is the effect of the work task on humans and their
motivation. The socio-technical system approach focuses on intrinsic motives of humans. It shows that
socio-technical system
technical sub-system
working equipment
technical conditions
spatial conditions
social sub-system
employees with their know-
ledge, abilities and their
individual and group-specific
needs
task of the system
FIGURE 5.2 Elements of the socio-technical system (in modification of Ulich, E., Arbeitspsychologie, 5th ed.,
Sch¨effer-Poeschel, Stuttgart, 2001. With Permission).
Search WWH ::
Custom Search