Reference:Glossary of terms/The Human System
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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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Members of the Organization
They are the people who do the work in organizations and who make up the interacting system that is an organization. Members of an organization are drawn from one of the critical organizational environments: the work force.
Roles
Members of organizations act in roles. Roles are more than jobs. They involve interacting with other people who have expectations of each other. The role is created by individuals as they act to meet the expectations of others and themselves. The role remains to be filled by others as people move through the organization; it is the basis of organizational continuity.
Social system
The social system is the set of members of an organization acting in their roles and as working members of the organization. It is a system because these roles are interdependent and interactive in the workplace and differ from the roles of individuals when they go home.
Sociotechnical systems
An organization is a sociotechnical system; that is, a combination of people acting in their roles to operate technical systems to transform inputs into outputs which earn an organization its resources. Social systems make sense out of the environment and control the technical systems so that they function productively. Technical systems are the means by which social systems act on the environment.
Joint Causation
Because both the social system and the technical system interact with the environment, whatever results are achieved are caused by their joint operation; they co-produce outcomes. Hence, they are thought of as operating under "joint causation."
