Socio-Technical Perspective
Running head: Socio-technical perspective: help for managing information overload
TUI University Brocton Begley Mod 1-Session Long Project ITM501-Mgmt Info. Systems & Business Strategy Sam Biragbara April 14, 2011
Introduction Information overload is a big problem in most if not all organizations. As business, technology and education expand so does the data, information and knowledge backgrounds. In order to go forward, information retention is necessary. Because of this, a socio-technical perspective is needed within each organization to better organize the communication between the personal and technical sub-systems and manage the information overload. The purpose of this paper is to establish how taking a socio-technical perspective can be more productive in helping organizations manage information overload than either technical solutions or organizational solutions alone. Establishing this perspective and approach can be done in a few different ways. First, an understanding of the two systems and their interactions is critical. Secondly, that understanding must be applied so as to minimize overuse (confusion) and underuse (loss of information). Finally, it needs to be continually evaluated so as not to fall into a trap where an organization is operating barely above collapse; or worse- failure.
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Before we can understand this perspective, we need to understand the concepts, terminology and their usefulness. The Socio-Technical theory “hypothesizes the presence of two subsystems in every organization or corporate; they are the technical sub-system and the social sub-system.” (Cartelli 2007). Another way to explain it is it “considers that every organisation is made up of people (the social system) using tools, techniques and knowledge (the technical system) to produce goods and services valued by customers (who are part of the organisation’s external environment)” (Liu & Errey 2006). To further
TUI University Brocton Begley Mod 1-Session Long Project ITM501-Mgmt Info. Systems & Business Strategy Sam Biragbara April 14, 2011
Introduction Information overload is a big problem in most if not all organizations. As business, technology and education expand so does the data, information and knowledge backgrounds. In order to go forward, information retention is necessary. Because of this, a socio-technical perspective is needed within each organization to better organize the communication between the personal and technical sub-systems and manage the information overload. The purpose of this paper is to establish how taking a socio-technical perspective can be more productive in helping organizations manage information overload than either technical solutions or organizational solutions alone. Establishing this perspective and approach can be done in a few different ways. First, an understanding of the two systems and their interactions is critical. Secondly, that understanding must be applied so as to minimize overuse (confusion) and underuse (loss of information). Finally, it needs to be continually evaluated so as not to fall into a trap where an organization is operating barely above collapse; or worse- failure.
Body
Before we can understand this perspective, we need to understand the concepts, terminology and their usefulness. The Socio-Technical theory “hypothesizes the presence of two subsystems in every organization or corporate; they are the technical sub-system and the social sub-system.” (Cartelli 2007). Another way to explain it is it “considers that every organisation is made up of people (the social system) using tools, techniques and knowledge (the technical system) to produce goods and services valued by customers (who are part of the organisation’s external environment)” (Liu & Errey 2006). To further
References: Bellinger, G., Castro, D., & Mills, A. (2004) Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom. The Way of Systems. April 14, 2011 from http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm Blair, A. (2010) Information Overload, Then and Now. The Chronicle of Higher Education Review. November 28. Retrieved April 14, 2011 from http://chronicle.com/article/Information-Overload-Then-and/125479/?sid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en Cartelli, A., (2007), Socio-Technical Theory and Knowledge Construction: Towards New Pedagogical Paradigms? Retrieved April 14, 2011 from http://proceedings.informingscience.org/InSITE2007/IISITv4p001-014Cart339.pdf Green, P. (2010 ) Social Media Is Challenging Notions of the Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom (DIKW) Hierarchy. CMS Wire. August 16. April 14, 2011 from http://www.cmswire.com/cms/enterprise-20/social-media-is-challenging-notions-of-the-data-information-knowledge-wisdom-dikw-hierarchy--008320.php Levinson, M. (2010) Knowledge Management Definition and Solutions. CIO,com. Retrieved April 14, 2011 from http://www.cio.com/article/40343/Knowledge_Management_Definition_and_Solutions Liu, X. and Errey, C. (2006) Socio-technical systems - there 's more to performance than new technology. PTG Global. April 14, 2011, from http://www.ptg-global.com/PDFArticles/Socio%20technical%20systems%20-%20There 's%20more%20to%20performance%20than%20new%20technology%20v1.0.pdf Marks, O. (2010) Information Clutter Busting & Organization. ZDNet: Collaboration 2.0. August 1. April 14, 2011 from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/collaboration/information-clutter-busting-organization/1532 Scacchi, W.. (2003) Socio-Technical-Design. Institute for Software Research, Univ. of California, Irvine. Retrieved April 14, 2011, from http://www.ics.uci.edu/~wscacchi/Papers/SE-Encyc/Socio-Technical-Design.pdf