The role of information support systems in the joint optimization of work systems

Sociotechnical approach preaches the affinity of the social and the technic al organization but divides organizations into social and technical subsyst ems. Thus, it has failed to anticipate the possibilities of new technologie s within the social system. The social subsystem of a modern sociotechnical system does not consist of mere human beings but combines people and the t echnological artifacts they use. In this article, we discuss one such technology, information support, and h ow it can be used to expand functional redundancy of a sociotechnical syste m, even the cognitive redundancy of individual people. However, such techno logies have often been applied specifically to limit functional redundancy of the sociotechnical system, that is, to reduce communication, learning, a nd utilization of human talent. The discussion is based on findings from case studies on multimedia-based i nteractive task support systems used in lightweight assembly industry in Fi nland and in Denmark. The case studies provide both justification to the in formation support approach and questions to be addressed in the future. For example, why did the introduction of so many interactive task support syst ems fail? (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.