Sts Theory – from the Industrial to the Knowledge Age

Socio-Technical Systems (STS) theory is rooted in principles that have their origin in action research field projects undertaken by the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in British coal mines during postwar reconstruction of industry (Trist, 1950). This was a time when mine productivity was failing to increase despite major investments in increased mechanization, while labor turnover and absenteeism were on a rapid rise. In the course of this research (supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and the British government), Tavistock social scientists discovered work practice and organization innovations made by local coal mine management and workers who had evolved a way of working at a high level of mechanization, which recovered the work group cohesion and self-regulation that had existed in the pre-mechanized era (Trist et al., 1963).