La progettazione di sistemi sociotecnici

The story of sociotechnical design is closely allied with action-research. In the 1960s the STS design principles were applied to overcome the dominant form of work organization based on scientific management and to create new work arrangements that could increase organizational effectiveness and quality of working life (joint optimization). This paper is the second part of a conceptual essay on the historical background of STS school. It is devoted to review STS organization design methods with specific concern to inquiry procedures, that is design team composition and employee participation. As STS supports participatory design versus expert-driven design, the paper aims to deepen the role of employees involved in participative organizational design process and questions whether the employee actually becomes leader of the design process, performer of activities led by experts or just information provider.