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'''''Socio-Technical Systems''''' (STS) theory has a long tradition stemming from its origins in the 1950s. It was initially established in the work of the [[Tavistock Institute]] in the British coal mining industry, soon followed by the work of Rice and his colleagues in the textile industry in India and by Emery, Thorsrud and others in the [[Norwegian Industrial Democracy program]].  (The history and evolution of this remarkable development are documented in the three volumes of the [[Tavistock Anthology]] edited by Eric Trist, Fred Emery, and Hugh Murray, with assistance from Beulah Trist, and in the Trist monograph, [[Reference:Evolution_of_socio-technical_systems|'The evolution of socio-technical systems']] originally published in 1980 by the Ontario Quality of Working Life Centre.) 

As a general approach to the analysis and design of organizational processes, systems and structures, it promotes principles of participation, an open systems conceptual framework embodying the joint optimization of the organization's social and technical subsystems, and an action-research methodology. Its key ideas are now embodied in a wide range of concepts and practices employed globally by practitioners as university researchers and teachers, consultants, and union and management leaders, who are working to develop organizations that are BOTH humane AND effective.

==See also==
*[[:Category:Reference|Reference library]]