[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# Socio-Technical Systems Thinking

Selsky, John W.; Babüroğlu, Oğuz N., 2023, Journal of Systems Thinking 3(1):1-13 — Business & Management

Patterns: [Distinctions](https://dsrpevidence.org/pattern/distinctions), [Systems](https://dsrpevidence.org/pattern/systems), [Relationships](https://dsrpevidence.org/pattern/relationships), [Perspectives](https://dsrpevidence.org/pattern/perspectives)

## In short

An appraisal of socio-technical systems thinking seventy years after the Tavistock coal-mine studies, arguing the tradition must extend from the workplace to ecosystems to stay relevant.

## What they found (results)

STST rests on three ideas: joint optimization of the social and technical systems, choice in design principles, and work systems as open systems in an environment. The authors find its diffusion has been narrow, its treatment of power thin, and its engagement with high technology slight. They argue it must become socio-ecological — extending joint optimization to the environment and to inter-organizational systems — to remain useful.

## What they set out to do (purpose)

Appraises socio-technical systems thinking (STST) — its origins at the Tavistock Institute, its key developments, the critiques made of it and its prospects — drawing on systems theory, organization studies, information science and ergonomics.

These researchers were not testing DSRP. The finding is theirs; the correspondence to DSRP is drawn by this site.

[Source](https://doi.org/10.54120/jost.000012)