Innovative Socio-Technical Systems for Complex Decision-making

This paper views the complex activities and decision-making of self-directed groups as socio-technical systems. Seven innovative ICT-based tools are presented that underpin such activities. Three projects are then described where suitable selections of these tools are used creatively in harmony with human and social processes. The Activity Theory hierarchy is used to explain how, in these three projects, the capacity of technology is exploited, where appropriate, to automate operations, while the choice and execution of actions remain with the people engaged in the activities. This provides a picture of decision support systems as sociotechnical in nature, involving the exploitation of collective tacit knowledge rather than just the use of explicit information. The paper concludes with the proposition that this is not just a conceptual and theoretical issue, but is also highly practical in consideration of the creative decision-making processes of self-directed, innovative groups.

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