A critical review on Approaches، Methods and Principles of Socio-Technical Systems Design

Socio-technical systems (STS) was introduced due to the failure of techno-centeric systems and with the action research revolution in the world. The purpose of the socio-technical theory was to emphasize the integration of the human component along with the organizational structure, technical infrastructure and Tasks in the design procedure of a system. However, in the few Persian articles and resources that have tried to expand the theoretical literature in the field of socio-technical systems in the scope of the Persian language, the mistake term ''Techno-Social'' in writing and its common use seems to be caused by some kind of lack of attention to the key principle of this approach, that is, the human dimension compared to the technical dimension in this theory. Accordingly, in this research, by use of documentary and systematic review methods, and by extraction of selective and high cited papers in the field of social technical systems literature, the methods and principles of designing and developing social-technical systems is studied. The aspects of socio-technical systems design is discussed and with a systematic and critical approach. This research is a qualitative research in terms of methodology, data and results. Research studies confirm the four basic human, structural, technical and functional components of STS and indicate the lack of attention to values and cultural aspects in socio-technical systems theory.