Human Systems Management

High technology is fundamentally different from any other technology: it affects directly the nature and organization of tasks to be performed. Therefore, high technology, more than any other technology, has to be managed. We propose operational definition of high technology in terms of its effects on the support net of requisite relationships. This allows us to bring the distinctions between high technology, technology and appropriate technology into sharper operational focus. The symbiosis of men and machines is discussed in the framework of human systems management and symbionics. Principles of high technology management are outlined and their use in organization design demonstrated on real-life example of high-technology effects on systemic operations structures of an international company.

The article proposed the concept of technostress and makes a strong recommendation for employing a ‘technology’ strategy for managing the positive and negative impacts of technostress on organizational behavior. The key components of a technology strategy are examined including strategic technological planning, strategic implementation and technostress monitoring systems. The article proposes the concept of strategic choice for technostress management for achieving the twin goals of better productivity and improved quality of worklife. Technostress is conceptualized as a dynamic state of adaptation, thus requiring strategic choices, such as technology strategy, focussing not only on the parameters of hardware but also of the motivations, skills and incentives of the people utilizing the information in their work. A number of research hypotheses are proposed as examples of potential research in the area of organizational technology strategy.

Socrates understood as ‘Maieutic’ the uncovering of hidden knowledge through a process of dialogue. During the last two decades, it was tried to integrate maieutic with procedures of social systems management. A synthesis of Maieutics and Systems Theory was attempted. A versatile method of systems analysis was developed, finding various applications in government institutions and industry. After some historical and methodological considerations, the idea of Maieutic Systems Analysis is presented and examples of application described.

Some modern technology has made work less meaningful for large numbers of people; it has reduced freedom of choice for both managers and employees and imposed inappropriate decisions on organizations. At the same time, technological advances can be beneficial and make work less onerous and more flexible. The paper will illustrate positive as well as negative aspects of changes in technology by stressing the existence of choice through the use of socio-technical thinking in two case examples. Appropriate choices can lead to greater work autonomy and improved utilization of human competence.

The technical manager attempting to evaluate robot performance from published specification data faces an increasingly complex decision problem. This problem complexity results from the nonuniformity of robot parameter data due to lack of standards and the rapid technological changes taking place in robotics. An evaluation of the currently available data base of robot specifications is presented and a statistical approach to evaluating the potential impact of trade-offs of performance requirements is presented. An example using four robot parameters – repeatability, velocity, degrees of freedom, and lifting capacity – is given.

Modern man is surrounded by procedural systems, often highly formalized and at least partially computerized. Systems are by their nature intangible and not directly visible. Indirect representation (via system models) is required to make a system visible, so that it can be properly understood, shaped and controlled.

A discussion of knowledge bases versus data bases as a new paradigm in management sciences is presented.

In this short paper we summarize how a new paradigm of management – human systems management – emerges naturally from the spontaneous dynamics of the ongoing processes of division of labor, division of knowledge, high technology, and systems thinking. The paper concludes by identifying the shift from a ‘systems-coordinative’ paradigm to the requisite ‘systems integrative’ paradigm.