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Sociotechnical systems theory is a mixture of sociotechnical theory, joint optimisation and so forth and general systems theory. The term sociotechnical system recognises that organizations have boundaries and that transactions occur within the system (and its sub-systems) and between the wider context and dynamics of the environment.
Eric Lansdown Trist (11 September 1909 – 4 June 1993) was an English scientist and leading figure in the field of organizational development (OD). He was one of the founders of the Tavistock Institute for Social Research in London.
A number of socio-technical systems researchers such as Trist and Mumford also used the term occasionally, but seemed not to define it in detail. In contrast, the work system approach defines work system carefully and uses it as a basic analytical concept.
Socio-technical systems are part of a comprehensive theoretical framework called Open Systems Theory (OST). Two of Emery's and Trist's key publications were: "The Causal Texture of Organisational Environments" (1965) [9] and "Towards a Social Ecology" (1972). These publications are the groundwork on which Fred Emery developed OST.
This list of types of systems theory gives an overview of different types of systems theory, which are mentioned in scientific book titles or articles. [1] The following more than 40 types of systems theory are all explicitly named systems theory and represent a unique conceptual framework in a specific field of science .
Sociotechnology is an important part of socio-technical design, which is defined as "designing things that participate in complex systems that have both social and technical aspects". [3] The term has been attributed to Mario Bunge. [4] He defines it as a grouping of social engineering and management science. [5]
In 1951, Trist and Bamforth published a founding article on STSD while the London-based Tavistock Institute played a key role in further developing socio-technical design into practical applications. During the 1950s and 1960s these notions were picked up in many countries, with Norwegian and Swedish researchers playing key roles.
At the point of its conception, the SCOT approach was partly motivated by the ideas of the strong programme in the sociology of science (Bloor 1973). In their seminal article, Pinch and Bijker refer to the Principle of Symmetry as the most influential tenet of the Sociology of Science, which should be applied in historical and sociological investigations of technology as well.