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Created: March 1, 2003
Latest Update: March 1, 2003
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Sociotechnology: Theory of the Long Wall

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, March 2003.
"Fair use" encouraged.

This essay is based on management and social theories on why people work, and what conditions are most productive of achievement at work: Traditional Theory X and Theory Y in Management Management has kind of taken over the theory, because, of course, they need to apply it effectively in their own environments.

Abraham Maslow "[A teaching page by Dr.] George Boeree (pronounced boo-RAY), . . .a professor in the Psychology Department at Shippensburg University, where I teach personality theories and the history of psychology (among other things). I specialize in the philosophical side of psychology, and have particular interests in phenomenology, existential psychology, Buddhism, and moral development. One good way of letting me know what you have learned about how and why people work effectively might be to consider a comparison between Theory X and Theory Y and Maslow's hierarchy of human needs.

There's also an old psych study about the white-footed mice. I've lost my copy, but nag me to tell you the story. jeanne

The Long Wall

• Graffiti on the Long Wall Elayne Coakes, D. Willis, and R. Lloyd-Jones. Computer Supported Cooperative Work. Review of a project on sociotechnical organization. Home page of Elayne Coakes with considerable information on the field of sociotechnology.

  "Sociotechnical principles are now widely used around the world in both information systems design and organisational design. First established in the 1940's to examine the effect of mechanised, mass-production systems on workers in the cool-mining industry, they are now an important tool for ensuring that people and technology work to optimal effect together within an organisation. One of their main aims is the development of organisations where small groups work independently, handling sets of varied tasks, and managing their own activities."
  From Graffiti on the Wall.

  hawthorneexbk01.htm
  Backup of management review of the Hawthorne Studies in organizational management. The Hawthorne experiements in the 1930's were interpreted as showing that any kind of interest shown in workers, and any kind of change which suggested that those in authority respected enough to hear them and notice them would produce improved work production. Some of the management literature interprets this as it doesn't matter what you do, as long as the workers perceive that they are being taken into account. Other, somewhat more serious management research has shown that it does indeed matter what changes are made.

  Will include later conceptual links to exchange theory and utility theory. jeanne March 6, 2003.

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