Sociotechnical Aspects of Policy Simulation

Policy Decision-Making Support Environment: A Sociotechnical System

The concept of sociotechnical systems has been around since the 1950ties (Trist & Bamforth, 1951), when the sociotechnical principles were formulated. One of the first real applications was the implementation of changes in the organisational structure of textile mills in Ahmedabad, India (Rice, 1958), whereas one of the most known examples is the theory application at Volvo’s Kalmar and Uddevalla car plants (Hammarström & Lansbury, 1991; Knights & McCabe, 2000; Sandberg, 1995). Despite its venerable history, there is no generally accepted definition. Admittedly, that is correct, because each definition is valid only under certain circumstances and only for as long as the length of its existence corresponds to the possible number of applications and limitations of newfound knowledge. One possible description (Walker et.al., 2007) explains that a sociotechnical system is a set of explicit concepts, inspired by general systems theory, aimed at jointly optimizing people, technology, organisations and all manner of other systemic elements. Conversely, some of the sociotechnical principles that determine a system are responsible autonomy, adaptability and meaningfulness of tasks. It is mentioned (Walker et al, 2007) that those principles create shared awareness (through peer-to-peer interaction) and agility (through effects based operations, semi-autonomous groups and increased tempo), and self-synchronization (joint optimisation and synergy).