Socio Technical System

Socio-technical meaning that there is a recognition of the interaction that is made between people and technology in the workplaces. The NSF defines this new work culture as being dispersed geographically, but still able to remain as one unit through the use of the Internet. They themselves focus more into virtual organizations because they find that in the current age they have become necessary to widen learning and their knowledge base. According to their article, “virtual organizations can enable and enhance scientific, engineering, and education production and innovation” (NSF). The social and technical interactions are creating this alternative form of organizing which allows for the change from the formal structure of human organizing to something much more loose, and yet, still

Hitt, M. A., Ireland, R. D., & Hoskisson, R. E. (2013). Strategic Management (10th ed.). Mason,

Jean M Bartunek’s article “You’re an organization development practitioner-scholar: Can you contribute to organizational theory?” summarizes the past and present relationship that has existed between organizational theory and practice and suggests ways to strengthen connections between them. The author, Jean M. Bartunek is the Chair and Professor of Organization Studies at Boston College. She has a PhD in social and organizational psychology from the University of Illinois in Chicago and has published over 100 journal articles and book chapters.

Organizations use technology to leverage their competencies to remain competitive or surpass their competitors. In pursuit of competencies, organizational structures support the various forms of technology and its successes or lack thereof. At times, organizations may prefer to decide to alter its structure and technology to create different competences.

Dante Di Gregorio, Douglas E Thomas, Fernán González de Castilla. International Journal of Management. Poole: Sep 2008. Vol. 25, Iss. 3; pg. 532, 15 pgs

Drivers for introduction of technology can be described as being operational, relational or transformational (Kettley and O’ Reilly, 2003; Snell, Stueber and Lepak, 2002) Operational goals can be described as having a focus on reducing the administrative burden of HR and cost effectiveness, whilst enhancing the accuracy of data; relational goals relate to improving services for internal customers due to reported low levels of satisfaction with the HR function (Kyprianou,

Serguei Netessine 1 The Wharton School University of Pennsylvania Robert Shumsky2 W. E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration University of Rochester February 1999, revised February 2002.

In organizational development, sociotechnical systems are a perception to intricate organizational work design recognizing the interaction between technology and people in the workplace. It involves harnessing technical aspects and people 's aspects of organizational processes and structure in order to achieve combined optimization of quality-work and technical performance in individuals ' performance. A historical viewpoint of how management techniques evolved to encourage and support the sociotechnical approach will be discussed. In addition, the stages of innovation and how Roger 's diffusion of innovation informs the adoption of the sociotechnical systems will be displayed.

As organizations grow, they decentralize; middle and lower levels of the organizational hierarchy acquire more decision-making authority and power (Robbins, 1990; Bartol et al., 2001). Technology Technology is the “…[k]nowledge, tools, equipment and work techniques used by an organization in delivering its product or service” (Bartol et al., 2001, p. 314). Two key aspects of technology have attracted the greatest interest from contingency theorists, technological complexity and technological interdependence (Fry 1982; Bartol et al., 2001). 1 A staff position is one where the occupant provides expertise, advice,

A MANAGEMENT RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSAL SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF MASTERS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DEGREE.

Jeff and Martha Hamilton Faculty Fellow (2005-2006) A stipend for excellence in teaching, research, and service given by the University of Montana School of Business Administration.

Faculty of Management and Administration, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau International Graduate School of Business, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

The purpose of this article is to emphasize the importance of a socio-technical system (STS) to the overall growth of the organization. In this case an examination of the ALCAN organization. This company is a global enterprise which has over 68,000 employees, and operating facilities in 61 countries. The organization take in over 23 billion US dollars in 2006 from its four major business groups (Primary Metal, Engineered Products, Packaging and Bauxite & Alumina-Dube, Bernier, & Roy, 2009). The problem that this organization had was much like many other organizations which are in the global arena. The main problem is that one business unit is not successfully communicating with the other units of the organization. Additionally, Alcan like other global enterprises is attempting to add to its empire through the merger and acquisition process. The solution for Alcan was founded in the institution STS principles. This general concept is that with STS the organization can use human behavior and social structure to enhance system outputs. In other words STS connects technical systems with social systems which leads to an increase in both independent areas of operation. This report will examine how Alcan use of STS to improve its production as well as the way to future organization development. Lastly, this document will display why this is the right solution for many organizations especially in the information age.

Dr. Swapna S. Sinha swapnassinha@yahoo.com Dr. David H. Kent dkent@ggu.edu Dr. Hamid Shomali hshomali@ggu.edu Ageno School of Business Golden Gate University 536 Mission St. San Francisco, CA 94105 Tel: 415-442-6500

It is a pattern of interaction and co-ordination that links technology tasks and human components of the organization to ensure that the organization accomplishes it purpose. (Andrzej A Huczynski, David A.Buchanan, 2007) .Organizational structure allows the expressed allocation of responsbilities for different functions and processes to differrent entites. Employing of individuals in an organizatuonal structure normally is contracted either timely or untimely basis.while process are aimed at