Authors
Susan Winter, Nicholas Berente, James Howison, Brian Butler
Publication date
2014/10/1
Journal
Information and Organization
Volume
24
Issue
4
Pages
250-269
Publisher
Pergamon
Description
The sociotechnical systems (STS) approach provides a framework that is well suited to grappling with many issues of work in organizations. By conceiving of work systems as mutually-shaping social and technological systems, the STS approach has provided decades of researchers and practitioners with robust analytical tools to consider both the social and the technical elements of organizational contexts. However, we identify two areas where the conceptualization of sociotechnical systems must be updated to reflect the role of information infrastructures as an enabler of trans-organizational work arrangements. First, with its view of nested systems, the STS approach encapsulates work and the infrastructure used to do it within organizations (either explicitly or implicitly) — often leading to a “container” view of organizations as the context of work and a venue for joint optimization of the social and the technical …
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