Sociotechnical Systems Essay

Leo Marx, once a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Harvard graduate, wrote an article titled “Technology The Emergence of a Hazardous Concept”. In this article, the author explores the modern day definition of the word technology and argues that technology offers too broad of a definition and is ill fitting to describe all technical advancements and their creators. Technology can be defined as the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment, drawing upon such subjects as industrial arts, engineering, applied science, and pure science (dictionary.com). On the other hand, it can

Sociology is the study of human social relationships and institutions. It studies the structure, development, and functioning of a society as a whole. Comparative sociology is a social science that measures social change over time. Social change is the way societies and cultures are altered over time, which produces the mode of production. Mode of production is a system that determines the way societies survive and remain functioning. “The Promise of Sociology" written by Charles Wright Mills explains that most men are unable to comprehend the effects of cultural and sociological changes that it can have on their lives.

The social perspective has to do with the citizens and the society. In this regard,

Davidson, E. J., & Chismar, W. G. (2007). THE INTERACTION OF INSTITUTIONALLY TRIGGERED AND TECHNOLOGY-TRIGGERED SOCIAL STRUCTURE CHANGE: AN INVESTIGATION OF COMPUTERIZED PHYSICIAN ORDER ENTRY. MIS Quarterly, 31(4), 739-758.

Social awareness has been heightened over the past several decades because of the rapidly changing environment and technical information here in the United States and overseas. This change has accelerated the way we think and the way our decisions are based (Thomas, Fleck & Snipes, 2000). This is the reason that organizations that encounter information overload are better off when they are able to come up with solutions through technical and social systems. Because of some organizations inability to adapt innovative advances, they hamper on the negative impact of information overload.

According to sociocultural thought, human activity like learning and behavior are impacted by individual, social and contextual issues. Humans are considered to be social and reflexive in nature and this causes human thought and behavior to be altered by the complexities of that social world. Therefore when studying any phenomenon, it is important to keep in the mind the context in which it took place. The focus on the role of social dynamics ensures that a holistic view of the phenomenon is obtained. At times the interplay of social dynamics affects the outcome of a phenomenon.

The work entitled "Challenges and Reflections on Knowledge Society & Sociotechnical Systems" reports that information technology (IT) is redefining the business basis" and that "customer attendance, operations, product strategies, marketing and distribution and even the society of knowledge depend sometimes even totally on Information System (IS)." (Balloni, 2010, p.21) The implementation of a new technology has been associated with problems that are "often linked to resistance by the work force and failure to achieve the expected benefits." (Balloni, 2010, p.21) Balloni (2010) reports that there must be a fit between the 'technical' and 'social' system, which form the organization. This means that business strategy, rules and processes determine the type of software and subsequently the type of hardware, database, and telecommunications system needed by the organization. The social system is comprised by the organization's

When a new technology is created there are two distinct parties who define whether it is full of promise or peril: the creator and those who are affected by the creation. The definition used by each party varies massively on the technology that was developed. The creator of a new technology is often the first person to determine whether or not it will bring peril to society. In almost every case, the technology is constructed with the intentions of promise, bringing a net benefit to society.

The category social, refers to an individual within society. Specifically, how technology effects changes in social relationships and people’s lives. Technology can make life easier and at the same time can make life more difficult. When an invention is released, the inventors’ intent and purpose to increase production and reduce time or increase quality of life, may produce the opposite result. For example, DDT, which was used as a pesticide, was sprayed during the mid-1900’s to rid of insects, solved the problem temporarily, but eventually caused problems to the environment and people later down the road. As a result, the technology wasn’t completely successful.

As systemic hierarchies expand into networks, a certain control is afforded to the user or participant through the reflexive relationship between society and technological development. Technology is always changing in of itself or through changing definitions of utility. Constructivist ideals suggest that the function necessitated by the culture of a technology’s users will determine what the technology looks like down the road. Such changes can undermine the existing hierarchies from the inside out, spawning new technologies in the image of the desires and actions of the system’s participants. These new technologies tend to afford the user agency over

Social perspective is a view of world in its social environment. For example, social groups and how they influence the behavior of others and the bigger picture of the society that organizes it. This chapter also talks about sociologist and their methods of social perspectives. Sociologists like Comte, Spencer, Marx, and Weber developed ideas of sociology. There were several methods on understanding social perspectives. It included eight steps that involved analyzing, collecting, and further studying all data.

For a lot of people, when the word technology is said they picture something related to or of a computer or cell phone. Not many people think of the technology found in the field of science or the creation of a modern-day car or even what powers the technology they imagine. Even less think of the individual parts of the artifact that makes up the piece of tech they thought of or just how long this science of craft has existed and grown. With such an ever expanding and omnipresent force at work to make humankind more advanced and life simpler, it’s not surprising that other fields have sprouted to examine how technology is shaped. One such examination led to the concept of the social construction of technology (or SCOT). Advocates of this concept

Information technology is used to provide information transfer across the healthcare teams, in order to make the information delivery more safe and efficient. Many approaches have been evolved to study the interaction between the humans and technology. Commonly used theory is Socio-Technical Systems (STS). Actor-Network hypothesis (ANT) draws on the STS viewpoint.

Social engineering has always been a threat, but has spiked particularly in the last two years. Hackers have increased the ways they can gain valuable information from computer systems before any suspicion arises, most often playing off human error or weakness. There are preventatives measures to take such as a firewall and installing anti-virus protection on a computer system. However, humans are naturally very trusting, and when that is combined with security gaps, it leads to the hackers gaining full control over the computer system.

The contemporary approach to job designs that attempts to redesign tasks to optimize operation of a new technology while preserving employees’ interpersonal relationships and other human aspects of the work is called sociotechnical systems theory. It is relevant in to the internal environment because it focuses on employees and their knowledge, training, and tools.