Quality and Continuous Improvement in Knowledge Management

What is a Socio-Technical System?

A socio-technical system is a collection of people, projects, processes and products that engage in an exchange relationship with one another:

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  People translate, transform and communicate within the system, and between the system and its environment

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  Projects and Processes discover, interpret, constrain or transform aspects of the system (e.g. software, physical surroundings, laws, regulations, standards, and quality management systems)

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  Products result from projects and processes, and provide a snapshot of the state of understanding at a particular time (e.g. documents, artifacts, software, hardware, and data)

People clearly provide the “social” part of the socio-technical system. Projects, processes and products are the mechanisms that people use to construct material objects and promote progress in general. As a result, they form the “technical” part of the socio-technical system.