TUI University

Donald Dunn

Module 1: Case #1

ITM501: Management Information System and Business Strategy

Sam Biragbara

July, 25, 2011

Donald Dunn

Mgt. Info Syst. And Bus. Strategy

Sam Biragbara

July 25, 2011

Module #1 – Case: How taking a socio-technical perspective can be more productive in helping organizations manage information overload than either technical solutions or organizational solutions alone.

The current workplace environment presents a constant reevaluation for businesses and organizations. Downsizing has become status quo for these same businesses, organizations and US military alike. At the same time they are expected to remain competitive, relevant and effective. The term,” doing more with less comes to mind.” The one common expectancy with these businesses and organizations is that workloads will increase instead of decrease. These groups need to “generate value from their intellectual and knowledge based assets. Generating value from such assets involves codifying what employees, partners and customers know and sharing that information among employees, departments and even with other companies in an effort to devise best practices.” (Levinson) The developing relationships between socio and technical elements can lead productivity and wellbeing of all involved.

On a daily basis the information age continues to move forward. There is a constant battle within businesses and organizations in this information age to control “information overload.” The individuals entrusted to guide their workers to the end product are subject to failure if information overload is not controlled. Sociotechnical theory looks to streamline the organizational world, redefine how an organization is structured and how it operates in order to maximize interconnectedness of the people. A consequence of this information overload is that