The Emergence of Functional Knowledge in Sociotechnical Systems

Sociotechnical systems theory (STS), a theory that originated in studies of mechanization in British coal mines, holds that work processes consist of two separate dimensions, one social, the other technical. The main tenant of STS is the principle of joint optimization – that is, the dimensions are reciprocally interdependent and must be designed conjointly. Although it has been intuitively appealing to conceptualize work processes along two dimensions, equivocal outcomes in STS research suggests there may be additional dimensions. In the context of ITintensive reengineering projects, we examine the extent to which the technical dimension, the social dimension, and their reciprocal interdependence explain variance in project performance. Project performance is captured with an objective measure of IT-related project delay (IT-delay) and a subjective measure of client satisfaction. We find that neither the main effects nor the interaction effect significantly explains IT-delay or client satisfaction. Allowing for additional dimensions in our empirical analysis, however, we find that elements of functional-knowledge that were embedded in the initial technical dimension emerge as a separate dimension. Although the main effects of the technical, social and functional-knowledge dimensions do not significantly explain IT-delay or client satisfaction, interactions among the three dimensions explain a significant proportion of both measures of project performance. As a result, rather than embedding functional-knowledge in the social or technical dimensions, we find functionalknowledge is a separate third dimension and the principle of joint optimization must incorporate all three dimensions.