Reference:Principles of STS Analysis and Design/Continuity
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Some Principles of Sociotechnical Systems Analysis and Design was originally published in 1992 by the Dr. Eli Berniker for the School of Business Administration, Pacific Lutheran University and is copyright Dr. Eli Berniker. Reproduced here with permission.
| Cover page | Introduction | Philosophical Premises and Values | Design Process | Structuring Work Groups | Work Design | Continuity | Epilogue | References |
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Cherns (1976) pointed out, in a principle labeled "incompletion" that the design process is never completed. Given changing environments and challenges, there is an ongoing need to redesign the work team, its activities, and constitutive roles. There follow three design principles that relate to the continuing adaptation of work teams.
Principle 22: Learning
Successful designs will allow for many kinds of learning by the group.
Cummings and Mohrman (1987) suggest that many kinds of learning are necessary conditions for innovative success. Learning proceeds at both the individual organizational levels.
Learning will impact many aspects of the team's work. The mastery of the technical system and its technology is an ongoing topic. The equivocality of technologies assures continuing challenges (Weick, 1990). The group should learn about the effects of its actions. Learning can be expected to modify the innovation itself, to impact on behaviors and values, to reveal hitherto unseen environmental factors, and to the lead to additional organizational changes (Cummings and Mohrman, 1987). Without active inquiry, organizational policies that place conflicting demands on the work team may escape detection. Conflicts may be internalized without reflection to the detriment of the work group. Learning enables the work group to accumulate experience and knowledge to improve its performance.
Of particular importance, the work group should learn about its own learning processes, deutero learning (Bateson, 1972) enabling it to examine and change its frame of reference and values or norms (Cummings and Mohrman, 1987) and sustain its learning capacities in the face of emergent challenges.
The time and resources to support such learning must be included in the design. Failure to allocate time and effort for learning activities leaves the group with a responsibility and goal which it cannot adequately fulfill.
Principle 23: Experimentation
Design decisions are to be taken as experiments to be modified in the light of the evaluation of outcomes.
Cummings and Mohrman (1987) suggest that every work group innovation must include considerable experimentation and invention during implementation. This applies equally to the social organization and to the technical system. Weick (1990) suggests that new technologies involve considerable improvisation and experimentation. Ettlie (1986) discusses reinvention during implementation. The point is to recognize the tentative nature of many design decisions. The group needs the opportunity to test them out in practice. Too rigid adherence to prior design decisions will inhibit work group adaptability. Better to develop commitment to an evolutionary process of work group experimentation than to particular aspects of work group functioning.
The experiment principle does not imply that the entire innovation is to be treated as an experiment. Such a designation often leads to isolation and a withdrawal of commitment and support by many actors. The achievement of successful work place innovations with evolving adaptive capability requires strong organizational commitments.
Principle 24: Self-Design
Design is an ongoing participative activity of the work group as it responds to changing environmental demands and stakeholder objectives.
Cherns (1976) labeled this principle "Incompleteness" because work group design is never complete. Cummings and Mohrman (1987) make this more explicit with their concept of self-design.
As the environment of a work system evolves and presents new challenges, so must the work group adapt. Immediate adaptations may involve a simple redeployment of individuals between tasks. The succession of adaptations results in irreversible changes. Over time, the environment and the work group functioning may become uncorrelated. Periodically, the work group should reexamine its roles and practices and engage in an explicit process of redesign.
