The story of socio‐technical design: reflections on its successes, failures and potential

TLDR

Socio‑technical design is framed as a humanistic approach that seeks to humanize technology’s impact on work, with future scenarios exploring its potential resurgence amid ongoing organizational and economic change. The paper traces the history of socio‑technical design, highlighting its values, proponents, and practitioners, and its link to action research aimed at enhancing human knowledge and workplace practice. It examines how socio‑technical design influences computer system implementation and its effects across multiple countries. The study finds that socio‑technical design improved workplace practices in the.

Abstract

Abstract. This paper traces the history of socio‐technical design, emphasizing the set of values it embraces, the people espousing its theory and the organizations that practise it. Its role in the implementation of computer systems and its impact in a number of different countries are stressed. It also shows its relationship with action research, as a humanistic set of principles aimed at increasing human knowledge while improving practice in work situations. Its evolution in the 1960s and 1970s evidencing improved working practices and joint agreements between workers and management are contrasted with the much harsher economic climate of the 1980s and 1990s when such principled practices, with one or two notable exceptions, gave way to lean production, downsizing and cost cutting in a global economy, partly reflecting the impact of information and communications technology. Different future scenarios are discussed where socio‐technical principles might return in a different guise to humanize the potential impact of technology in a world of work where consistent organizational and economic change are the norm.