Sociotechnical systems theory and teamworking Flashcards
- Sociotechnical Systems Theory - British coal industry
How many people employed and when?
Which places were prime amongst these?
- 1950s employed around 700,000 people
- Strategic importance to the UK economy
- Shaped the character of the areas in which it was based
- Durham/Northumberland prime amongst these
Eric Trist (1909-1993)
What was he?
What is co-founder of?
What journal did he launch?
What did he develop?
Who did he collaborate with?
What is he famous for?
- British social scientist
- post-WW2 co-founder of the Tavistock Institute
- launch of journal, Human Relations (1947)
- development of sociotechnical systems theory (STS)
- collaboration with Ken Bamforth
- application of new technology to coal-mining
The traditional ‘hand-got’ method implications (7)
- Small groups of workers
- Responsibility for full task
- Responsibility for each other
- Physical work conditions
- Conditions always changing
- Supervision remote
- Autonomy and flexibility
The longwall method (main parts - 7)
- Scientific Management
- New technology
- Three stages of process
- Cutting, ripping, filling
- Division of labour
- Variations in performance
- Management blamed workers
Reaction to the longwall method (6)
- Looked very different from workers’ perspective
- More extensive division of labour
- Replacement of small groups
- An engineer’s top-down solution
- Reacted against spontaneously by the workforce
- A ‘composite shortwall’ method developed
(Some) STS principles (4)
- Account to be taken of both social and technical systems: to achieve ‘joint optimisation’ of the two
- Idea of ‘organizational choice’: organization not absolutely determined by technology.
- Involvement of the workforce in change: not the separation of conception and execution.
- Importance of the autonomous work group/team: social interaction but also ability to respond to environment
- Influence of STS Ideas - How do management ideas arise and spread? (Model 1 vs Model 2) (6)
Model 1
- a basic ‘scientific’ model
- experiments undertaken
- invention made
- benefits demonstrated
- widespread adoption
- eventually superseded
- smooth, regular process
Model 2
- various sources of ideas
- ideas arise from practice
- ideas modified in practice
- ideas serve interests
- adoption for ‘legitimacy’
- adoption partial
- messy, complex process
Spread of STS ideas
- In Netherlands, modern sociotechnical theory (MST)
- STS a model of organization design
- Organization around interdependencies
- eg how to organize a care home for the elderly?
- In Norway, contribution at policy level to Industrial Democracy
- Involvement of workers in work organization
- Part of a more egalitarian society? (believing in or based on the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities)j
The Volvo experiment
- automotive industry: archetypal mass production
- but how to make work more attractive?
- a central concern for firms in the post-WW2 boom
- how can/should cars be made?
- possible to compete with mass production?
- can be delegated to the autonomous work group (AWG)?
- or some kind of compromise?
- in Volvo, c. 50 independent assembly workshops
- job cycles of at least 20 minutes
Why move from functional to cellular layout?
Rationale in terms of operations:
material flows (arrows in diagrams)
flows much greater in functional layout
more difficult to manage
more ‘work-in-progress’ across the factory
shows as high levels of stock or inventory
financial cost to the organization
Managing cellular manufacturing
‘You get control because what you’ve got is first of all very simple … you have clear ownership, so people know which bit is theirs; they focus in on it and out of that you get very easy control.’ (Manager)
‘Now you drop a job at the beginning of the line and I’ll say to the blokes [sic], ‘I want thirty of them,’ and sometimes see the job snaking all the way through the machines … you can do what would be a three-month lead-time in two days.’ (Cell leader)
The current wave of teamworking
- Revival of interest from 1990s
- Associated with more strategic approach to HRM
- Motivations for introduction
- Organizational implications
- Relationship with performance
- Key part of high-involvement work systems (HIWSs)
Structures, rolesand responsibilities
- Teamworking through cellular manufacturing
- Teamworking the result if not the intention
- Shift from functional to a product-/customer- focus
- New roles: link with flexibility
- Principles generally applicable? eg health services
Management and organizational implications
- Managerial responsibilities
- Role of team leader
- Supportive organizational systems
- Cultural change required?
- Consistency with ‘high trust’ management
- Employee attitudes
Perspectives on teams(Crowley et al. 2014)
empowerment perspective
teamworking offers discretion and involvement
panoptican perspective
effective through surveillance and control
implications of team autonomy for individuals
‘concertive control’ in teams (Barker, 1993)
conflict perspective
in context of employment relationship
UK evidence strongest for conflict perspective
