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Sociotechnical Research Groups, Individuals & Organisations
Research Groups
BPRC Focus The Relevance and Contribution of Sociotechnical Systems
Address: University of Warwick, UK
Website: http://bprc.warwick.ac.uk/focus4.html
The radical surgery associated with business process re-engineering, although
attractive to macho management who want quick results has not turned out
to be the success that was claimed for it. And yet restructuring is not
new, it was for many years called work study and claimed to cut costs
by rationalising the work process. It worked well for mass production
but the nature of the work became repetitive and boring for employees.
If the business process re-engineering (BPR) and sociotechnical systems
are compared with it is clear that the restructuring design principles
are quite similar but the approaches differ greatly in their values and
visions. BPR is about speeding up the work flow whereas sociotechnical
systems is based on the belief that employees play a significant part
in redesigning processes. A focus on process redesign improves work integration
but may also produce new and difficult problems that are costly to resolve.
As the learning from BPR experiences point to human and organisational
factors underlying successful implementation is there now a convergence
of the two approaches and if the 'learning stopped' then is it now time
to collect the results of experiences in both camps? The BPRC focus group
will consider these aspects and identify where sociotechnical systems
made a contribution to and have a role in business process change.
British Computer Society Sociotechnical e-Democracy Research Group
Address:
Website: http://www.sociotechnical.org/
The Sociotechnical e-Democracy Research Group is carrying out sociotechnical
explorations of e-democracy in the UK. The UK Government, in common with
many others across the globe, is seeking to enhance service delivery and
to increase the participation of citizens in society through the use of
digital technologies. E-government systems and their associated processes,
like many systems and processes are inherently "sociotechnical"
in nature, i.e. they involve people interacting with technology to deliver
outcomes not achievable by either the technology or the people working
alone. However, established custom and practice in projects involving
technological change is to focus on the development and implementation
of the technology, rather than on designing, in an holistic way, the composite
sociotechnical system of which the technology is just one component -
albeit a major one. To realise the vision of e-government requires a significant
shift towards a sociotechnical systems paradigm for major change programmes.
To progress towards this goal, each local government body is required
to produce its own strategic planning document entitled 'Implementing
Electronic Government' (IEG). The Sociotechnical e-Democracy Research
Group are investigating perceptions of the IEG development process, while
the website examinations investigate the impact or influence on website
content of the guidance from the ODPM. A particular focus of interest
is the diversity in interpretation of the guidance, as evidenced by the
content of the websites. The Group is considering the potential benefits
to be derived from applying sociotechnical design principles to the design
and implementation process, and recommends actions to promote the effective
realisation of the vision of e-government.
Distributed Collaborative Engineering
Address: University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden
Website: http://www.cad.luth.se/ding.asp
The Distributed Collaborative Engineering Group research area involves
a multidisciplinary approach to the investigation of collaboration, learning
and product development in geographically distributed environments. Collaboration
in product development projects include all parts of the product development
process such as brainstorming, concept generation, embodiment design,
sharing of CAD models and detailed design. Sharing and transfer of information
between the collaborating sites and physical environments are of great
interest, but there is also a need to investigate aspects related to learning
and competence development in product development projects. Also, it is
important to pay attention to the interaction between humans and technology.
Even if technology works per definition, i.e. according to technical specifications,
it does not automatically satisfy the needs of the users. In order to
increase the possibilities for successful collaboration across distances
the Distributed Collaborative Engineering Group are researching into creating
a deeper understanding of not only enabling technology, but also the work
practice and the highly social activities that the technology is supposed
to support.
Information Systems Group
Address: Griffith University, Queensland, Australia
Website: http://bprc.warwick.ac.uk/focus4.html
The Information Systems group within the School of Computing & IT
at Griffith University, undertake sociotechnical research into the improvement
of understanding of how and why organisational commitment affects the
adoption of software process innovations (SPI). The study takes a cultural
perspective and focuses on two SPI's: software quality initiatives (SQI)
and systems development methodologies (SDMs). The group's work focuses
on the Australian financial services industry providing a basis for similar
studies of other IT sectors and provides supporting strategies to improve
the innovativeness and success of the Australian IT industry. The research
aims to gain are a better understanding of the factors that influence
the relationship between organisational commitment and successful SPI
adoption, and make recommendations to improve SPI adoption.
International Teledemocracy Centre
Address: Napier University, Edinburgh, UK
Website: www.teledemocracy.org
The International Teledemocracy Centre aims to develop and apply advanced
information and communication technology to enhance and support the democratic
decision-making process. They promote the application of Information and
Communications Technologies (ICT) by governments and parliaments worldwide
in order that elected members and supporting staff can conduct their business
more effectively and efficiently. The centre also demonstrates how technology
can contribute to more openness and accessibility in government. Moreover,
they aim to encourage and assist the public, voluntary organisations and
business to participate in government through the use of technology. The
ITC is working towards achieving these objectives by establishing an innovative
research environment where the multidisciplinary skills of computer scientists,
information scientists and social scientists can work collaboratively
to advance e-democracy research.
Open Systems Research Group
Address: Open University, Walton Hall, UK
Website: http://systems.open.ac.uk/
The Open Systems Research Group at the Open University has a long tradition
of work with a sociotechnical orientation (implicit if not explicit).
We're based in the Faculty of Technology but orient ourselves around systems
thinking techniques of various kinds, and have a particular focus on information
systems and on environmental decision-making. The Open Systems Research
Group Our research activities extend from addressing significant social,
ecological, and environmental issues to understanding the implications
of computing and networking technology. From its inception the role of
the Systems Group was to encourage specialist disciplines to take a more
systemic approach to themselves and to the effects of their activities
through interdisciplinary activity. Systems staff carry out their research
in a number of research groups. Our departmental website has some pertinent
information. However, the site is in the process of reorganisation, so
it's a bit out of date in its research emphases, but might be useful to
give a flavour of what we do.
PEA Pod: Processes, Events and Activity Collaborative Research Programme
Address: University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Website: http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project/plan/peapod/
PEA Pod is an Informatics Collaborative Research Programme in the representation
and reasoning about plans, processes, events and activity. The representation
and reasoning with and about plans, processes, events, activity and behaviour
is a common theme that is being explored by almost every Institute within
Informatics and in related areas within the University. A wide range of
approaches and techniques are being employed. This collaboration is to
help exchange experience between the various groups and approaches. This
collaborative research programme is intended to provide an informal platform
for Edinburgh researchers and their friends to exchange their research
work and experiences in plan, process, event and activity representation,
modelling, reasoning and experiences of using them in a range of applications.
The group plan to have a series of mini-workshops as a framework for encouraging
the activities of the group, and to invite members to attend relevant
seminars and discussions across the various Institutes with research interests
in the area. The group will encourage joint work, joint student supervision,
seek collaborative research opportunities, engage together in internal
and external workshops and conferences, and encourage joint industrial
links and consultancy opportunities.
SBI - The Newcastle Centre for Social and Business Informatics[PARA]
Address: Newcastle University, UK[PARA]
Website: http://www.campus.ncl.ac.uk/unbs/sbi/
Newcastle Centre for Social and Business Informatics (SBI) is a collaboration between researchers in Newcastle University focusing on the social, economic, managerial, organisational and cultural aspects of the design, development, deployment and use of information and communication technologies and their social consequences. The Centre draws on researchers in the University of Newcastle upon Tyne Business School, the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, School of [PARA]Computing Science and the School of Population and Health Sciences. The Group is also linked to a number of the University's Key Research Centres and groups including the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS), the Centre for Software Reliability (CSR) and the Centre for Health Service Research (CHSR)
SEGSUN Software Engineering
Address: University of Sunderland, Tyne & Wear, UK
Website: http://www.cet.sunderland.ac.uk/seis/
SEGSUN is performing research into sociotechnical software engineering
management investigation (particularly from a risk management perspective),
selection and choice of SE teams - based both on cognitive processes and
skills as well as personality traits and team roles. In addition we have
expertise in quality assurance and standards. And, in a recent venture,
the concept of metrics is being applied to web-sites to derive a metric
for "web half-life": to provide a measurement tool for the degradation
of a web page's links and content. SEGSUN's holistic approach is a particularly
strong feature of the group, where the themes of research reach-out and
teaching are seen to be mutually supportive. The group is founded upon
a participatory approach with a teamwork ethos encouraging creative working
meetings in addition to the traditional seminars on research and teaching
projects, and social events.
Social Computing
Address: Napier University, Edinburgh, UK
Website: http://www.soc.napier.ac.uk/researchgroup/researchgroupid/256826/op/displayonegroup
Social Computing is concerned with concepts of navigation, ideas of the
nature of information, the impact of people working in new environments,
with communities of practice and how we can understand these and with
new media and design ideas coming from architecture, anthropology and
social theories of interaction. Computers are becoming increasingly ubiquitous;
they are 'disappearing' into everyday objects. They are becoming increasingly
small, so much so that they are now wearable. They are increasingly able
to communicate with each other. These changes have had a major impact
on our understanding of how computer systems should be designed and on
what people can and want to do with them. Computers were being used in
different contexts such as households and communities of people existed
solely or primarily through computer-mediated communications. People were
not simply interacting with a computer they were interacting with people
using various combinations of computers. Alongside this came the recognition
that using computers needed to become a more enjoyable, social activity.
The Social Computing project is an on-going collaboration between members
of the Social Informatics and Human-Computer Interaction groups taking
a wide ranging approach to the development of novel, people-focused systems.
Social Informatics Group
Address: Napier University, Edinburgh, UK
Website: http://www.bim.napier.ac.uk/esis/about_us/about_us.html
Social informatics is the interdisciplinary study of the design and uses
of information and communication technologies (ICTs) that takes account
of their interaction with institutional and cultural contexts. Social
Informatics refers to the body of knowledge about, and the use of information
technologies as influenced by institutional arrangements, social forces
and organisational practices. As Social Informatics is an interdisciplinary
area, one of the wider aims of this Social Informatics website is to act
as a focus, bringing together people in disparate subjects and locations,
not only those in academia, but also business and the wider community,
who have an interest in the area, or its related disciplines. This offers
a showcase for the Organisational and Social Informatics concept to potential
academic, community and business partners and an on-line gateway, to provide
links with other sites and groups in the area
Systems Research Network (SRN)
Address: An Inter-Faculty Research Network, Loughborough University, UK
Website: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/bs/research/resnet.html
The Systems Research Network at Loughborough University, it is a cross-faculty
research group using systems methods and sociotechnical approaches in
the field of Information Systems Design and Development. The Systems Research
Network (SRN) is committed to the development and promotion of systems
theory and practice, and the development of systems methods, models and
concepts for bringing improvement to problem identification and problem-solving
approaches. SRN brings together systems researchers from across Loughborough
University, each of whom is expert in a different domain but uses systems
ideas in his or her research. The purpose of the Network is to provide
a space for systems researchers to exchange ideas, integrate research
knowledge and work collaboratively on trans-disciplinary research. SRN
researchers have expertise in the management of change; participative
IS design approaches; entrepreneurship; the development of alternative
research methods such as action research; Natural Language Modelling;
simulation; social impacts of IT; cultural and gender issues and evaluation
and measurement of success -- all underpinned by the principles of systems
theory. SRN's main objective is to apply this expertise to complex social
problems within different sectors, such as healthcare, public services
and complex work environments. The Network is also committed to spreading
skills in systems theory and practice amongst a wide community both within
the University and to other associated groups.
Sociotechnical Activity Research (STAR)
Address: University of Wollongong, Australia
Website: http://infosys.uow.edu.au/
The STAR group was founded in 2001 by a collaborative group of Australian
researchers working in Knowledge Management and the related areas of organisational
learning, communities of practice, information systems and human-computer
interaction. The purpose of the group is to act as a focal point for knowledge
management researchers throughout Australia and the world and to develop
networks to promote collaboration and advance understanding. There is
a sociotechnical emphasis in the work with particular reference to the
Cultural-Historical Activity Theory. A Discovery Grant from the Australian
Research Council funds the group until 2005.
Virtual Groups
Hard & Soft Systems Approach for Complex Systems Understanding
Members: Osvei Gelman, (ogelman@servidor.unam.mx)
(UNAM, Mexico)
Manuel Mora, (mmorauaa@securenym.net)
(UAA, Mexico)
Francisco Cervantes, (cervante@itam.mx)
(ITAM, Mexico)
Guisseppi Forgionne, (forgionne@umbc.edu)
(UMBC, USA)
The Hard & Soft Systems Approach for Complex Systems Understanding
research group is presently in process of development. The research focus
are Integration of Hard and Soft Systems Approaches, Foundations of Systems
Theory (formal definitions) and Philosophical Assumptions for Systems
Approach.
Individuals at Loughborough University
Members: Malcolm King, (M.King@lboro.ac.uk)
Neil Doherty, (N.F.Doherty@lboro.ac.uk)
Crispin Coombs, (C.R.Coombs@lboro.ac.uk)
Doherty & King have been conducting an on-going, quantitative study
to explore the importance of organisational issues to the successful outcome
of systems development projects and the ways by which project teams typically
address such issues. Doherty & Coombs have undertaken a number of
qualitative studies into the ways in which information systems, within
the NHS, impact upon the culture, working practices and structure of healthcare
trusts. The broad aim of these studies is to identify new insights into
how the management of organisational change, that typically accompanies
IT implementations, can be improved.
Individual Researchers
Christopher Atkinson
Address: UMIST, Manchester, UK (from i June 2004))
Christopher's research, theory development and consultancy work is essentially on how to create or change sociotechnical systems, centred around IS&T, in particular in healthcare and based on a StructurANTion Theoretical Framework (with Laurence Brooks see AMCIS 2003+2004 & IFIP 8.2 2002+2004) and the Soft Information Systems and Technologies Methodology, (SISTeM).
Michel Avital
Address: Case Western Reserve University, Ohio, USA
Website: http://info.cwru.edu/avital
Michel's research focuses on the social and relational aspects of information
and communication technologies. He believes that a human-centric orientation,
in which people are seen as the core and the main driving force, is not
only an ethical choice but also a practical approach to the study and
design of technology-enabled human activity systems. Combining both soft
and hard methods, his research applies sociotechnical thinking to explore
information systems project success, knowledge management, ubiquitous
computing, social networks, virtual communities, positive modalities and
appreciative inquiry.
Bill Bonner
Address: University of Regina, Canada
Website: http://www.uregina.ca/admin/
Bill is using Latour's Actor Network Theory to study the constitution and construction of modern issues of privacy. My specific focus is on examining the interplay between unexamined history, constantly changing scenarios, actors and technologies, and an increasingly narrow, rigid and questionably effect discourse framing the topic.
Elayne Coakes
Address: Westminster University, London, UK
Website: http://users.wmin.ac.uk/~coakese/
Elayne Introduces sociotechnical aspects to all research being carried
out, especially that of knowledge management.
Vladimir Diatlov
Address: University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
Website: http://www.management.soton.ac.uk/PhDStudents/VladimirDiatlov.htm
Vladimir draws upon structuration theory, actor-network theory, some works
of Bruno Latour, and some others from organisation studies for research
into links between information technology and the organisation. Vladimir
look into (1) sociotechnical structuration of coordination means and (2)
formation of practice of technology use.
John D. Haynes
Address: University of Central Florida, Orlando, USA
Website: http://www.bus.ucf.edu/jhaynes/
John's information systems research work largely focuses on the impact
of information technology on humans and the major way of 'seeing' that
impact and designing systems accordingly is through phenomenology which
is connected with sociotechnical systems.
Kalle Lyytinen
Address: Case Western Researve University, Ohio, USA
Website: http://home.cwru.edu/~kjl13/
Kalle is interested in how to theoretically capture the role of mediating
communication and information technology artifacts in the context of cooperatively
organized work practices. Research emphasis lies in knowledge distribution
and sharing in globally managed complex projects that rely on IT systems
and artifacts as important boundary objects and the design and impacts
of pervasive computing environments for distributed organizational work.
Yogesh Malhotra
Address: Syracuse University, New York, USA
Website: http://www.som.syr.edu/facstaff/yogesh/
Yogesh's applied research and teaching focus on technology and innovation
management, corporate strategy, and business performance issues related
to information systems, e-business, knowledge management, decision modelling,
and, new business models. Yogesh's fundamental research focus is on understanding
how to create self-adaptive human, organizational, technological, and
societal systems that can withstand radical discontinuous change. An additional
research focus is on understanding the socio-psychological and strategic
factors affecting the adoption, acceptance, use and performance of information
and communication systems and knowledge management systems.
Manuel Mora
Address: Universidad Autonoma de Aguascalientes, Mexico
Website: www.uaa.mx
The work being carried out by Manuel has developed a research method that
takes advantage of the strengths of Checkland's SSM and Forrester's SD
approaches, where social and technical complex systems are studied with
similar methods under the Bhaskar's Critical Realism Philosophy assumptions
of ontological assumptions, epistemological assumprions, and axiological
assumptions.
Wanda Orlikowski
Address: MIT School of Management, Massachusetts, USA
Website: http://ccs.mit.edu/Wanda.html
In examining the organizational changes associated with the use of information
technology, Wanda investigates the ongoing relationship between information
technologies and organizing structures, work practices, communication,
culture, and control mechanisms. Wanda has conducted extensive studies
on the use of groupware technologies and electronic media in organizations,
and has explored the social and technological aspects of working virtually
Rafael Ramirez
Address: University of Oxford, UK
Website: http://www.templeton.ox.ac.uk/rafaelramirez/
Rafael has studied sociotechnical systems design from the point of view
of work safety -and to a lesser extent health. Rafael has also written
extensively on the role of literacy in terms of safety (it is not the
illiteracy of the worker that counts, but the job design that matters).
More recently, with one of my doctoral students, I have worked on the
relationship between sociotechnical systems theory and practice and software
design.
Frans M. Van Eijnatten
Address: Eindhoven, University of Technology, the Netherlands
Website: http://www.tm.tue.nl/beta/staff/members/pe030e.htm
Frans' main research activities are development and application of the
sociotechnical approach of Integral Organisational Renewal (IOR), in industrial
and service organisations. This work has been carried out tthrough documenting
the field, (action) research and teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate
levels.
Andrew Wenn
Address: Victoria University, Melbourne Australia
Website: http://www.business.vu.edu.au/fobaldata/DisplayStaff.asp?person=15&dept=1
Andrew is currently researching the way the internet is used in libraries.
His research takes a sociotechnical viewpoint where he shows that not
only are the technologies changing the way libraries are being used but
users and librarians are also involved in the configuration of the technologies.
One of main benefits of this research will be that information practitioners
will have new insights into technology adoption and use, and the way users
can better benefit from technologies.
Teaching
Copenhagen Business School
Address: Frederiksberg, Denmark
Website: http://old.cbs.dk/staff/kautz/
At the Copenhagen Business School's BSc/MSc programme in Computer Science
and Business Administration has a strong sociotechnical element embedded
in its final course on definition of information systems where the students'
learn about sociotechnical principles and have to apply them in a project
in the Danish industry or public sector.
Organisations
The Bayswater Institute
Address: London, UK
Website: http://www.bayswaterinst.org/
A major part of the work of the Bayswater Institute is sociotechnical
in character. It is most often undertaken within an action research frame
of reference where we are helping a client organisation with some form
of diagnosis, evaluation, design or change process. Projects include working
with the Estates Department of a Mental Health Trust to help them review
the sociotechnical system by which they deal with thousands of requests
for maintenance, working with MIMAS at Manchester University on the evaluation
of digital library services they provide to British Universities and looking
at the consequences for the working practices of academics and students
and for the services provided by local libraries and working with a large
construction company on the implications for sharing knowledge and for
teamwork of the use of document management systems and internal knowledge-based
search engines. In addition to project based work we pursue sociotechnical
objectives in other ways. Lisl Klein, for example, is currently editing
two books which summarise the large number of sociotechnical studies she
has conducted during her career. The Bayswater Institute is also planning
a sociotechnical course.
Chimera: institute for sociotechnical innovation and research
Address: Ipswich, Suffolk, UK
Website: http://www.essex.ac.uk/chimera/
Chimera is a post-disciplinary institute employing social scientists,
computer scientists, engineers, anthropologists, psychologists, HCI practitioners
and interface designers specialising in 'sociotechnical' research and
consulting. Chimera believe that placing users at the centre of the early
concept stage of the innovation process reduces the risk in development
decisions and have seen that involving users can guide development teams
to create innovative products and services, which people will actually
pay for and use. Their experience has been that this process increases
the chances of real and valuable innovation rather than technological
incrementalism. Chimera's approach to this is holistic and iterative.
They start from an in-depth analysis of existing and new social science
data on user behaviour. From these insights we develop ideas for new and
innovative products and services. The prototypes are built, evaluated
and new data on usage behaviour is collected to reflect both on the 'social
value' of the technology but also on the social science knowledge embedded
within it. Whilst their approach is consistent, our applications areas
or domains vary.
Tavistock Institute
Address: Tavistock Institute, London, UK
Website: http://www.tavinstitute.org/index.php
The Tavistock Institute purpose is to contribute to human wellbeing and
development by advancing the theory, methodology and evaluation of change
within and between groups, communities, organisations and wider society.
We do this by carrying out research and consultancy, running professional
development activities, and producing publications. The Institute use
ideas and methods from across the social sciences to help their clients
understand, engage with, and take action in complex situations. These
situations include managing change and innovation; problems of policy
and practice; and organisational behaviour and design. Work includes projects
with government, industry, and non-government organisations in Britain,
Europe and further afield. The Tavistock Institute work in education and
training, health, work organisation, partnerships and supply chains; employment
and social inclusion; regional and rural development; and social care
and focus on social, organisational and policy dynamics through action
research, organisational analysis and formative evaluation.
If you know of any site that should be listed here please send details to Mike Cushman.
