A Review of Sociotechnical Systems Theory: A Classic Concept for New Command and Control Paradigms
Abstract
What is this report about?
This report is about the military relevance of a long standing area of research: sociotechnical systems theory.
Background and reasoning behind the work
Traditional military command and control is increasingly challenged by a host of modern problems. These include environmental complexity, dynamism, new technology, and competition that is able to exploit the weaknesses of an organisational paradigm that has been dominant since the industrial revolution. The conceptual response to these challenges is a new type of command and control organisation called Network Enabled Capability (NEC), yet organisations with ‘network enabled’ characteristics have been the subject of analysis within the sociotechnical school for several decades.
What was undertaken in the research?
A comprehensive literature review has been undertaken in which well over two hundred scholarly articles and books have been synthesised into a coherent whole that has direct relevance to the emerging field of NEC.
What was discovered?
The paper reviews the twin concepts of NEC and sociotechnical systems theory, the underlying motivation behind the adoption of open systems thinking, a review of classic sociotechnical studies and the current state of the art. Although developed independently, NEC exhibits a high degree of overlap with all of these concepts. Not only is the link between sociotechnical systems theory and NEC seen to be entirely valid but there also exists considerable opportunity for commercial/civilian sector spin-in of knowledge and ‘lessons learnt’.
Military relevance of the work
Sociotechnical theory is unique in bringing to NEC research a successful fifty year legacy in the application of NEC-like principles to commercial organisations. This track record is something that NEC research currently lacks.
contact us