Reference:Glossary of terms/Getting Something Done
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This glossary of Socio-technical systems terms was published by, and is copyright of, Eli Berniker, May 1983
| Introduction | Systems and Organization | The Means | The Human System | Getting Something Done | The Analysis | Design | Design Concepts | Design Structure and Process | Design Principles |
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Work
Work is a purposeful transforming interaction between people and their environment that produces changes valued by those people. It is making things happen, fabricating, forming or creating.
Everyone works but the nature of human work is rarely considered. It involves people correlating their actions with processes in the environment so that the joint outcome achieves certain goals. In organizations, work consists of interacting with technical systems.
Task
Tasks are activities that are necessary for the functioning of organizations. They may be production tasks such as loading a machine, regulating, adjusting and maintaining. They may be involved with maintaining an organization as a social system such as communication, allocation of work and leadership. They may be involved with individuals, such as training, feedback, rewards and discipline. A task is a piece of work. The word originally meant tax.
Job
The term job is a unique invention of the English. It does not readily translate to other languages. Its original meaning was a piece of work. Jobs were created by fragmenting skills (such as the making of cloth or pins) into separate steps and assigning each step as a full time occupation to a person.
Today, jobs are a collection of tasks assigned to a person'. Jobs are usually kept as narrow and limited as possible so that the required skill levels are low. Industrial engineering is all about designing jobs for people as if they were machine elements.
With automation absorbing the programmable aspects of work, such jobs become obsolete. In sociotechnical system designs based on teams, jobs may not be designed or specified at all. They may be conceived and allocated by the team in response to needs as they arise.
Team
Modern technical systems are too complex to be operated by single individuals. Groups are required. Modern organization design recognizes the interdependencies between organization members and configures them into teams. This requires that the work be designed so as to permit teamwork; that is, the interdependencies must become part of the jobs. Teams are more than groups. They involve membership tasks that become part of the roles of team members.
Effective teamwork requires that members be trained in team skills, that the work be designed for team cooperation, and that the social system functions of control, coordination and adaptation be part of team members roles.
