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Sociotechnical
Sociotechnical systems (STS) in organizational development is an approach to complex organizational work design that recognizes the interaction between people and technology in workplaces. The term also refer to coherent systems of human relations, technical objects, and cybernetic processes that inhere to large, complex infrastructures. Social society, and its constituent substructures, qualify as complex sociotechnical systems. The term sociotechnical systems was coined by Eric Trist, Ken Bamforth and Fred Emery, in the World War II era, based on their work with workers in English coal mines at the Tavistock Institute in London. Sociotechnical systems pertains to theory regarding the social aspects of people and society and technical aspects of organizational structure and processes. Here, technical does not necessarily imply material technology. The focus is on procedures and related knowledge, i.e. it refers to the ancient Greek term ''techne''. "Technical" is a term used ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Work Design
Work design (also referred to as job design or task design) is an area of research and practice within industrial and organizational psychology, and is concerned with the "content and organization of one's work tasks, activities, relationships, and responsibilities" (p. 662). Research has demonstrated that work design has important implications for individual employees (e.g., employee engagement, job strain, risk of occupational injury), teams (e.g., how effectively groups co-ordinate their activities), organisations (e.g., productivity, occupational safety and health targets), and society (e.g., utilizing the skills of a population or promoting effective aging). The terms ''job design'' and ''work design'' are often used interchangeably in psychology and human resource management literature, and the distinction is not always well-defined. A job is typically defined as an aggregation of tasks assigned to individual. However, in addition to executing assigned technical tasks ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tavistock Institute
The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations is a British not-for-profit organisation that applies social science to contemporary issues and problems. It was initiated in 1946, when it developed from the Tavistock Clinic, and was formally established as a separate entity in September 1947. The journal ''Human Relations'' is published on behalf of the Tavistock Institute by Sage Publications. The institute is located in Gee Street in Clerkenwell, London. History of the Tavistock Institute The early history of the Tavistock Institute overlaps with that of the Tavistock Clinic because many of the staff from the Clinic worked on new, large-scale projects during World War II, and it was as a result of this work that the institute was established. During the war, staff from the Tavistock Clinic played key roles in British Army psychiatry. Working with colleagues in the Royal Army Medical Corps and the British Army, they were responsible for innovations such as the War Office Selecti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coevolution
In biology, coevolution occurs when two or more species reciprocally affect each other's evolution through the process of natural selection. The term sometimes is used for two traits in the same species affecting each other's evolution, as well as gene-culture coevolution. Charles Darwin mentioned evolutionary interactions between flowering plants and insects in ''On the Origin of Species'' (1859). Although he did not use the word coevolution, he suggested how plants and insects could evolve through reciprocal evolutionary changes. Naturalists in the late 1800s studied other examples of how interactions among species could result in reciprocal evolutionary change. Beginning in the 1940s, plant pathologists developed breeding programs that were examples of human-induced coevolution. Development of new crop plant varieties that were resistant to some diseases favored rapid evolution in pathogen populations to overcome those plant defenses. That, in turn, required the development o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fred Emery
Frederick Edmund Emery (27 August 1925 – 10 April 1997) was an Australian psychologist. He was one of the pioneers in the field of organizational development, particularly in the development of theory around participative work design structures such as self-managing teams. He was widely regarded as one of the finest social scientists of his generation. Biography Emery was born in Narrogin, Western Australia, as the son of a drover. He left school as Dux of Fremantle Boys' High in Western Australia at age 14. He gained his honors degree in science from the University of Western Australia in 1946, and joined the teaching staff of the department in 1947. He subsequently spent nine years on the staff of the Department of Psychology, University of Melbourne, where he obtained his PhD in 1953. During 1951–52, he held a UNESCO Fellowship in social sciences and was attached to the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in the UK. As a staff member at the University of Melbou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Technology
Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, industry, communication, transportation, and daily life. Technologies include physical objects like utensils or machines and intangible tools such as software. Many technological advancements have led to societal changes. The earliest known technology is the stone tool, used in the prehistoric era, followed by fire use, which contributed to the growth of the human brain and the development of language in the Ice Age. The invention of the wheel in the Bronze Age enabled wider travel and the creation of more complex machines. Recent technological developments, including the printing press, the telephone, and the Internet have lowered communication barriers and ushered in the knowledge economy. While technology contribu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Günter Ropohl
Günter Ropohl (14 June 1939 in Cologne, Germany – 28 January 2017) was a German philosopher of technology. Biography Günter Ropohl studied mechanical engineering and philosophy at Stuttgart University, where he was a scholar of the philosopher Max Bense. After his PhD ( Dr.-Ing.) in 1970, he wrote his Habilitation thesis in Philosophy und Sociology at Karlsruhe University 1978 under the supervision of Hans Lenk. His work dealt with the systems theory of " Technik" (engl. ''technique''), leading to the concept of general technology. In 1979, Ropohl became professor at the Universität Karlsruhe (TH). Soon after, in 1981, he became professor for Allgemeine Technologie (general technology) and philosophy of technology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt am Main, Germany (until 2004). In the 1980s, he visited his colleague and friend Carl Mitcham in the United States. From 1983 to 1991, i.e. during the period of the Cold War, he was course director and v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Organizational Development
Organization development (OD) is the study and implementation of practices, systems, and techniques that affect organizational change, the goal of which is to modify an organization's performance and/or culture. The organizational changes are typically initiated by the group's stakeholders. OD emerged from human relations studies in the 1930s, during which psychologists realized that organizational structures and processes influence worker behavior and motivation. More recently, work on OD has expanded to focus on aligning organizations with their rapidly changing and complex environments through organizational learning, knowledge management, and transformation of organizational norms and values. Key concepts of OD theory include: organizational climate (the mood or unique “personality” of an organization, which includes attitudes and beliefs that influence members' collective behavior), organizational culture (the deeply-seated norms, values, and behaviors that members ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Effects-based Operations
Effects-based operations (EBO) is a United States military concept that emerged during the Persian Gulf War for the planning and conduct of operations combining military and non-military methods to achieve a particular effect. An effects-based approach to operations was first applied in modern times in the design and execution of the Desert Storm air campaign of 1991. The principal author of the daily attack plans—then Lt Colonel, now retired Lt General David A. Deptula—used an effects-based approach in building the actual Desert Storm air campaign targeting plan. Deptula describes the background, rationale, and provides an example of how an effects-based approach to targeting was conducted in Desert Storm in the publication, "Effects-Based Operations: Change in the Nature of Warfare."http://www.ausairpower.net/PDF-A/AEF-AFA-Effect-Based-Operations-D.A.Deptula-2001.pdf The doctrine was developed with an aim of putting desired strategic effects first and then planning from t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ken Bamforth
Ken or KEN may refer to: Entertainment * ''Ken'' (album), a 2017 album by Canadian indie rock band Destroyer. * ''Ken'' (film), 1964 Japanese film. * ''Ken'' (magazine), a large-format political magazine. * Ken Masters, a main character in the ''Street Fighter'' franchise. People * Ken (given name), a list of people named Ken * Ken (musician) (born 1968), guitarist of the Japanese rock band L'Arc-en-Ciel * Ken (SB19 musician) (born 1997), stage name of Felip Jhon Suson of the Filipino boy group, SB19 * Ken (VIXX singer) (born 1992), stage name of Lee Jae-hwan of the South Korean boy group, VIXX * Naoko Ken (born 1953), Japanese singer and actress (Ken as surname) * Thomas Ken (1637–1711), English cleric and composer * Tjungkara Ken (born 1969), Aboriginal Australian artist * Ken Zheng (born April 5, 1995) is an Indonesian actor, screenwriter and martial artist Other * Kèn, a musical instrument from Vietnam. * Ken (doll), a product by Mattel. * ''Ken'' (unit) (間), a J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Complexity
Complexity characterises the behaviour of a system or model whose components interact in multiple ways and follow local rules, leading to nonlinearity, randomness, collective dynamics, hierarchy, and emergence. The term is generally used to characterize something with many parts where those parts interact with each other in multiple ways, culminating in a higher order of emergence greater than the sum of its parts. The study of these complex linkages at various scales is the main goal of complex systems theory. The intuitive criterion of complexity can be formulated as follows: a system would be more complex if more parts could be distinguished, and if more connections between them existed. Science takes a number of approaches to characterizing complexity; Zayed ''et al.'' reflect many of these. Neil Johnson states that "even among scientists, there is no unique definition of complexity – and the scientific notion has traditionally been conveyed using particular examples ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
System
A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment, is described by its boundaries, structure and purpose and expressed in its functioning. Systems are the subjects of study of systems theory and other systems sciences. Systems have several common properties and characteristics, including structure, function(s), behavior and interconnectivity. Etymology The term ''system'' comes from the Latin word ''systēma'', in turn from Greek ''systēma'': "whole concept made of several parts or members, system", literary "composition"."σύστημα" Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, '' [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spatio-temporal Pattern
Spatiotemporal patterns are patterns that occur in a wide range of natural phenoma and are characterized by a spatial and a temporal patterning. The general rules of pattern formation hold. In contrast to "static", pure spatial patterns, the full complexity of spatiotemporal patterns can only be recognized over time. Any kind of traveling wave is a good example of a spatiotemporal pattern. Besides the shape and amplitude of the wave (spatial part), its time-varying position (and possibly shape) in space is an essential part of the entire pattern. The distinction between spatial and spatio-temporal patterns in nature is not clear-cut because a static, invariable pattern will never occur in the strict sense. Even rock formations will slowly change on a time-scale of 10s of millions of years, therefore the distinction lies in the time scale of change in relation to human experience. Already the snapshot state of a dune will usually be taken as an example of a purely spatial ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
