"International Journal of Sociotechnology and Knowledge Development.”

 

  The OVERALL MISSION of this journal:

Is to provide both a practical and comprehensive forum for exchanging research ideas and down-to-earth practices which bridge the social and technical gap within organisations and society at large. It will encourage interdisciplinary texts that discuss current practices as well as demonstrating how the advances of - and changes within - technology affect the growth of society (and vice versa). The aim of the journal is to bring together the expertise of people who have worked practically in a changing society across the world for people in the field of organisational development and technology studies including information systems development and implementation.

The mission of this journal is to:

To support sociotechnical philosophies for organizational change and development;

To provide an interdisciplinary outlet for information systems and organisational development papers;

To provide an outlet for qualitative and reflective papers.

To accomplish this goal, the journal encourages:

The exploration of social and technical artefacts as they apply to change and development;

Qualitative analyses of change and technical practices;

Interdisciplinary approaches;

Articles which tie into, or disagree with, themes from prior issues.

The journal wishes to publish papers that offer a detailed analysis and discussion on sociotechnical philosophy and practices which underpin successful organizational change thus building a more promising future for today’s societies and organisations.   

The OVERALL SCOPE of this journal and the areas in which it will impact:

A sociotechnical approach has proven to be a good guide for organisations, consultants, practitioners, and theorists to investigate and support organisations and knowledge development, knowledge sharing and management activities. This is because it considers the major challenges facing organisations in a highly competitive and knowledge-intensive economy: joint optimisation of social and technical artefacts; autonomous working; appropriate organisation structure and technology support; national, local and organisational culture; group task support; self-determination of decision-making; and human resources management, including reward systems and authority structures. The focus of this journal is to extend understanding of how, and whether, social and technical systems within an organisation can achieve consonance.  There is evidence also that sociotechnical perspectives can assist innovation. 'Market fit' requires innovation in product, service, supply or process and ICT can provide support for this innovation in multiple ways provided the social fit to the organisation is achieved.

 

POSSIBLE TOPICS to be covered by this journal

Subject Coverage

This journal will look for practical sociotechnical approaches that can assist practitioners, academics, researchers, and students.

Appropriate themes might thus include (but are not restricted to), a sociotechnical perspective on:

Knowledge management systems;

Systems failures;

Implementation issues of change and technology;

Design and technology development issues including requirements and stakeholder participation;

Innovation;

Knowledge sharing; 

HRM issues for innovation and knowledge sharing;

Technology and its role in society and organisations;

Culture and trust within organisations and their relevance to technological artefacts;

Critical success factors (and key performance indicators) for organisations and technological implementation;

Organisational change;

Performance and quality of working life; 

Information systems development; 

The influence of human factors on operational efficiency; 

The relevance of the worker’s perspective; 

Empowerment and team development; 

Managing organizational knowledge as a strategic asset;

Using knowledge management principles to solve organizational performance problems; 

Learning organizations;

Humanistic redesign and technological politics in organisations; 

Quality assessment of computer information systems; 

Social aspects of automation;

Sociotechnical systems;

Technological Forecasting and Social Change;

Technology in Society;

E-government and democracy as affected by technological change;

Applied Ergonomics.