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“Sociotechnical” is a term that was derived by scholars of England at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations. The Tavistock initial purpose was to merge the social and psychological sciences together so that the society could be benefited which was damaged and destroyed by the Second World War. At that time, Tavistock Institute was consisted of researchers, scholars, therapists and a large number of consultants who were involved in formulating and inventing techniques and that could prove helpful to restore war-effected soldiers. After this, some of the Tavistock researchers started believing that these techniques could be utilized in favor of more humane or more appropriately human-centered organization. These researchers believed that these techniques could prove useful to the worker working in lower rank and could be beneficial for the employees who without any job satisfaction or personal development spent much of their time on routine and simple tasks.
This expansion of Tavistock policies and practices to the workplace depicted two attributes of sociotechnical perspective that unveil in quite different manners over time. The first and foremost obvious attribute is the interrelationship of the technological and the society i-e social systems of organizations. According to researchers and scholars all the technological elements whether machines or related work practices was not thought to be the only controlling factor but equal attention must be given to the environment in which workers work when a new technological system was implemented. In this perspective, the main purpose was to design technology-sustainable work arrangements which improve work practices through using multi-skilled works with employees arranged into teams. Thus in this way, the sociotechnical perspective acted as revolt against the development of work-design practices that had presented the work and workforce in view of instrumental perspective.
So the Sociotechnical research is based on the mutually dependent and intermingled relationships among the attributes of any technological item or system and the society ( social norms, rules of utilizing and contribution by a wide variety of human stakeholders). So the term Sociotechnical is based on this mutual constitution of society and technology. Mutual constitution leads the scholars and researchers to consider this relationship without making a partial judgment concerning with the relative importance or worth of social or technological features. Mutual constitution entails that 1) In a given situation, both humans and technologies may have some kind of relationship or agency or some ability to act 2) and these acts are not deterministic means actions are not independent of their surrounding events. The basic theory behind the mutual constitution is co-development of technology and society. The main idea on interdependency between the technology and human organization is substance triggers, actions of communal groups, demands from related pressures, and the composite procedures of development i-e adoption, adaptation, and utilization of new digital technologies in social world of people. Directionality is an asset of the condition, not intrinsic to a relation. Thus, the question arises why is this important? Researchers argue that only focusing on the material portions of technology directs scholars into improper materialism. While, on the other hand, attention on technology as an exclusively social construction has directed to an over dependence on social orders as chief motives, potentially directing to social determinism. In contrast of this perspective the sociotechnical aspect, and especially the theory of mutual constitution, deals directly to the difficult and dynamic relationship among technological facilities, societal histories, human choices and acts in spite of looking for basic causal agency relationship.
The Industrial Revolution, which occurred roughly from 1760 to 1840, had transformed the society more specifically the human life in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It brought complex interaction of changes in every matter of life whether it is technology, or society or medicine or economy, education, and culture in which numerous technological improvements substituted human labor with automatic work, substituted vegetable sources like with mineral sources like wood from coal and iron. It untied the mechanical power from the only resource of water and inoculated the capitalist policies, methods, and principles into an agrarian society. It marked a key turning point in human history through altering almost every aspect of life no like the invention of farming or the mount of the first city-states. So with reference to previous examples, this revolution suggested by "Industrial Revolution" was really a whole system which effected wrought in multiple ways, among them the technological advances are the most evident.
When technology and economics gained progress and momentum in 1850, the first Industrial Revolution merged into the Second Industrial Revolution. At that time, the progress of steam-powered ships and railways with internal combustion engine and electrical power generation get boomed. The surge of this technological improvement and succeeding societal conversion continued all the way through the twentieth century, leading to more disturbances of human life conditions. Today, we see different parts of the world are at their different Steps and stages in the industrial revolution. Some of the countries are most behind in contexts of industrial development being in a place, through utilizing the latest technologies, to jump over even some more developed countries that are fastened into the infrastructure of a prior technology. This industrial revolution benefited the contributing countries in the form of higher GDP per capita. But after one or two generations this increased GDP proved concentrated disproportionately in the hands of relatively few people. Still, it helped averages to enjoy a standard of living much better than that of their ancestors. Before the industrial revolution and emergence of capitalists’ economy, the traditional agrarian societies had usually been more constant, stable and advanced at a far slower rate. It has dramatically revolutionized the social relations and helped in establishing a modern urban society with a large middle class.
World War I which was notorious as “The war that would end all wars.” ended by 1918 and Europe was remained in ruins physically, socially, politically, and economically. The years subsequent the most distressing war to occur earlier to the 1920s, Europe, unlike the United States, made an effort for economic and political revival. The United States, left practically unhurt by World War I, was even experiencing a decade of peace and prosperity. One of the many reasons behind the America's prosperity is technology. This played the most key parts in bringing the vast economic and cultural progress that America witnessed during the 1920s. All these new advancements, discoveries, and inventions contributed in American lives in much more ways if not in every imaginable way.
One of the first major inventions of that time was Automobile, which spread as a national craze. It was developed by inventor Henry Ford, with a combustion engine in 1896 and later it started the Ford Motor Company. This company started mass production of affordable automobiles. By the end of that decade in United States, there was roughly one car per family. After that the automobile became a progressively more and more vital part of American lives. It eased the lives of the people since now workers no more need to live near to their workplace instead they could live at long distances with still arriving at their jobs with complete ease. People could run to their respective duties with greater expediency. This overall enhancement in productivity and effectiveness left the Americans with more time for fun, entertainment and leisure. Families could see relatives on a steady basis, even distant relatives. Thus, the automobile provided a complete way for people, particularly for young people, to hang out and make joyous. The eminence of the automobile also brought huge economic affluence. One of the key involvements to the success of the 1920s was the construction of roads and highways. It contributed towards the fresh public funding into the economy. Vehicles appeared everywhere, and they were being driven everywhere.
The enhancement in American recreation and the introduction of the automobile helped to bring about the success of the movie industry. Earlier movie audience was comparatively low due to the thin allocation of movie theaters. But as automobiles became more trendy, transportation became least irritated, and in the consequence of this, the movie audience raised with an increase in sale of the automobile. Thus, the movie industry became the main component of American industry in common. With the expansion of the movie industry, the salaries of actors raised. Thus, the introduction of some technologies helped to bring about the enormous success of many other industries, a success that would continue even to this very day.
Technology is changing continuously. This ever changing technology is bringing social and economical impacts on different aspects of our daily life. Some of these impacts were hard to cope with in the last decade. It is predicted that in the future, these changes will happen even faster, with lesser time to prepare. Thus, two aspects (Positive and Negative impact) emerged about this changing technology. But here the main point is to avoid erroneous choice if not, technology will demolish us. Automobiles proved as a faster and convenient form of transportation leading to liberty from family bonds and integration with diverse cultures and new communities. And thus television became foundation of entertainment, learning and information, virtual tour all over the world sitting in TV lounge, with social effects like family connection, holiday time, assertiveness, collaboration of different cultures and fashion. Household appliance freed the time and the people which in turn became able to participate in other civic, social and entertainment activities. As a result of all these activities, the things which were considered as luxuries have become necessities.
The Internet, which has emerged in 1950s, has affected different aspects of society. It is as important to understand what the results of the dispersion and high utilization of the Internet are for people’s lives. Researchers documented that over the last three decades, a wide decrease in a civic engagement and social participation is found in United States. In their opinion as a result of its high utilization, citizens avoid to cast their votes, go church less, least interested in discussing government policies, hesitant to join any voluntary organizations, go on less dinner parties and usually get together less for social purposes. The result of this social detachment affected social configuration and individual lives. These social detachments could be related with the more corrupt, less proficient government that caused more sin. In comparison, when inhabitants were active in civic life, it resulted in better quality education, approached their politicians easily and lives in serenity and harmony. While at the individual level, social detachment brought poor standards of life and demolished physical and psychological health. When people have more shared contact, they are happier and healthier.
The above contradictory impacts of Internet are affecting both individual as a single and society as a whole. One school of thought says that Internet is just contributing in making people isolated, unhappy, depressed and lonely. People who use the internet stay disconnected from their environment and lose face to face relations. Those are in turn strong by wasting time in virtual reality with unfamiliar people which results in weaker relations. Second school of thought claims the combination of people and they become more societal, with having chance to meet diverse people of their interests without any barrier (time and space). Some advocates Internet as neutral without any noteworthy impact.
So on the whole while on one side the invention of automobile in 1896 had boomed towards the social gathering, more hangouts, parties, and greater outdoor activities; the invention of internet in 1950s, on the other hand, totally reversed the society. People are more socially isolated; prefer to stay at their home, less sociable and less involved in civic activities. This is how technology shapes the society, their behaviors and activities.
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