Dynamic interaction in organizations is facilitated--created and maintained--by electronic or digital technology, a variety of information, communication, and collaboration (ICCT) systems. Our work environment is a blend of people and technology that demands that workers have a reasonable control over their work environments, devising the processes by which they make decisions and complete tasks in a collaborative manner. Workers must have appropriate autonomy while workplaces must be adaptive and flexible to workers needs and the tasks to be completed.
Organizations are information processing ecologies, knowledge generating networks, practical wisdom applying communities.
Laptops, iPods and Blackberries are about mobile computing, about “all-the-time,” “anytime,” continuous information flow and connectivity. The heart of Twitter and Facebook is social networking and the sharing of experiences. Adobe Connect and Cisco’s telepresence system strive to establish person-to-person “real time” encounters.
Digital information and communication technology is no longer about “pushing data.” Its purpose is to create dynamic conversations and relationships that enable collaboration and knowledge generation, thus forming an evolving system of critical reflection, dialogue, learning, innovation, and application.
Both the 21st century civic community and organization have become intelligent cyber-socio webs. Each are interdependent “sociotechnical networks of networks” forming constellations of individuals, teams, organizations, and governments interacting and achieving tasks via ICCT. Civic communities are not just citizens communicating with their neighbors “down the street” about local issues. Nor is the contemporary workforce merely employed men and women using ICCT tools. Both are the seamlessly weaving of people and technology into systems—knowledge generating and collaborative problem solving ecologies with specific identities able to accomplish tasks and create change.
Focusing on for-profit and nonprofit organizations, Organizations as Sociotechnological Systems, critically explores:
Laptops, iPods and Blackberries are about mobile computing, about “all-the-time,” “anytime,” continuous information flow and connectivity. The heart of Twitter and Facebook is social networking and the sharing of experiences. Adobe Connect and Cisco’s telepresence system strive to establish person-to-person “real time” encounters.
Digital information and communication technology is no longer about “pushing data.” Its purpose is to create dynamic conversations and relationships that enable collaboration and knowledge generation, thus forming an evolving system of critical reflection, dialogue, learning, innovation, and application.
Both the 21st century civic community and organization have become intelligent cyber-socio webs. Each are interdependent “sociotechnical networks of networks” forming constellations of individuals, teams, organizations, and governments interacting and achieving tasks via ICCT. Civic communities are not just citizens communicating with their neighbors “down the street” about local issues. Nor is the contemporary workforce merely employed men and women using ICCT tools. Both are the seamlessly weaving of people and technology into systems—knowledge generating and collaborative problem solving ecologies with specific identities able to accomplish tasks and create change.
Focusing on for-profit and nonprofit organizations, Organizations as Sociotechnological Systems, critically explores:
- The nature of sociotechnical systems.
- The dynamics of electronic information ecologies.
- The designing of knowledge management and communities of practice in global organizations.
- The potential of social media.
- The characteristics and human ramifications of 24/7 connectivity.
- How digital technology is reshaping the human person, the way we socialize and communicate, and how enterprises self-organize to achieve their missions.
So, as we begin this exploration, why are you interested in this notion of sociotechnical systems, and what are concepts, phenomena, or questions you want to explore?
