Extended abstract
1
Balloni, Antonio J and Targowski, Andrew S. (2015). Challenges and Reflections on Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom Societies and Sociotechnical Systems". In: Darshana Sedera; Norbert Gronau; Mary Sumner. Enterprise Systems. Strategic, Organizational, and Technological Dimensions. Chapter 14. Pages 1-22, LNBIP, Vol. 198, ISBN 978-3-319-17586-7, Springer Berlin. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-17587-4_14 Challenges and Reflections on Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom Societies & Sociotechnical Systems (*). Antonio José Balloni 1 and Andrew S. Targowski 2 , 1 Center for Information Technology Renato Archer (CTI), Brazil [email protected] 2 Western Michigan University, USA President Emeritus of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations (2007-2013) [email protected] Extended Abstract. This paper has been invited to be published by the Springer LNBIP series/2014 and so, it is an improved version from those version accepted for presentation at the Fifth Pre-ICIS workshop on ES Research, St Louis/USA 2010 (*). The paper considers some challenges and reflections concerned with Information and Knowledge/Wise Societies and Sociotechnical Systems. After a brief and innovative panorama on the information and knowledge/wise societies and sociotechnical system we present the core of this work: challenges and reflections related with our society and systems. For some of these challenges and reflections has been proposed answers such as: treatment of the organization as a living being → synergism & collaborative ecosystem research efforts; a unfair shared leadership, information partnership and a collaborative relationship in the age of knowledge and, a new way of development, which comprises the social, economical, cultural and environmental spheres leading us to a new model of perception and knowledge of the world & present financial crisis; …Our world is fundamentally a sociotechnical world, which is characterized by Human and technological interactions; Human organizations are living systems and should be analyzed accordingly; Their interactions drastically affect people relationships in space and time. If we consider that the core knowledge is embodied in people’s heads (tacit knowledge), and their abilities to utilize them generate new knowledge, we cannot speak about knowledge/wise society without taking into account these interactions. Since the Internet brings together the computer, media, and the distributed intelligence of the family and the community, constituting a new basis for the effectiveness of socio-technical organizations then, in this way, beyond the economic, organizational, cultural, and technological dimensions, the specific sociotechnical context characterizes every knowledge/wise society initiatives: synergism and ubiquitously driven by the Internet! However, management opposition persists, because sociotechnical system by nature enables collaborative decision-making and shared leadership. Management has been reluctant to give up the power and authority they have worked so hard to establish. Sociotechnical system challenges the traditional management taboos that of sharing information and knowledge with subordinates on a need to know basis only. The central corner stone of a technocratic bureaucracy is that decision-making is top-down and implementation is bottom up. Amazingly, many postmodern organizational leaders still believe information is best kept in the minds of senior management who have been trained how to use it, make decisions, and implement policy. In this mechanistic model, managers pretend to know and employees pretend to cooperate. This new emerging scope of the social modus operandi is changing our mentality about knowledge and wisdom. The last questions remain to be answered: Who or what will be driving innovations in this new era? What can be the impact of the sociotechnical system in such innovations process? Or, is the Sociotechnical system is being considered by the political leaders of the emerging knowledge/wise society? * Work partially supported by the State of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). Esse trabalho foi desenvolvido durante o período que estava participando de congresso internacional em Portugal/2010 <http://goo.gl/Hytzh6> e, que foi submetido no congresso ‘ES Research/2010’, citado no resumo acima.
-
Upload
university-of-north-carolina-at-chapel-hill -
Category
Technology
-
view
32 -
download
1
Transcript of Extended abstract
Balloni, Antonio J and Targowski, Andrew S. (2015). Challenges and Reflections on Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom Societies and Sociotechnical Systems". In: Darshana Sedera; Norbert Gronau; Mary Sumner. Enterprise Systems. Strategic, Organizational, and Technological Dimensions. Chapter 14. Pages 1-22, LNBIP, Vol. 198, ISBN 978-3-319-17586-7, Springer Berlin. DOI:
10.1007/978-3-319-17587-4_14
Challenges and Reflections on Information, Knowledge, and
Wisdom Societies & Sociotechnical Systems (*). Antonio José Balloni 1 and Andrew S. Targowski 2,
1 Center for Information Technology Renato Archer (CTI), Brazil
[email protected] 2 Western Michigan University, USA
President Emeritus of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations (2007-2013)
Extended Abstract. This paper has been invited to be published by the Springer LNBIP series/2014 and so, it is an improved version from those version accepted for presentation at the Fifth Pre-ICIS workshop on ES Research, St Louis/USA 2010 (*). The paper considers some challenges and reflections concerned with Information and Knowledge/Wise Societies and Sociotechnical Systems. After a brief and innovative panorama on the information and knowledge/wise societies and sociotechnical system we present the core of this work: challenges and reflections related with our society and systems. For some of these challenges and reflections has been proposed answers such as: treatment of the organization as a living being → synergism & collaborative ecosystem research efforts; a unfair shared leadership, information partnership and a collaborative relationship in the age of knowledge and, a new way of development, which comprises the social, economical, cultural and environmental spheres leading us to a new model of perception and knowledge of the world & present financial crisis; …Our world is fundamentally a sociotechnical world, which is characterized by Human and technological interactions; Human organizations are living systems and should be analyzed accordingly; Their interactions drastically affect people relationships in space and time. If we consider that the core knowledge is embodied in people’s heads (tacit knowledge), and their abilities to utilize them generate new knowledge, we cannot speak about knowledge/wise society without taking into account these interactions. Since the Internet brings together the computer, media, and the distributed intelligence of the family and the community, constituting a new basis for the effectiveness of socio-technical organizations then, in this way, beyond the economic, organizational, cultural, and technological dimensions, the specific sociotechnical context characterizes every knowledge/wise society initiatives: synergism and ubiquitously driven by the Internet! However, management opposition persists, because sociotechnical system by nature enables collaborative decision-making and shared leadership. Management has been reluctant to give up the power and authority they have worked so hard to establish. Sociotechnical system challenges the traditional management taboos that of sharing information and knowledge with subordinates on a need to know basis only. The central corner stone of a technocratic bureaucracy is that decision-making is top-down and implementation is bottom up. Amazingly, many postmodern organizational leaders still believe information is best kept in the minds of senior management who have been trained how to use it, make decisions, and implement policy. In this mechanistic model, managers pretend to know and employees pretend to cooperate. This new emerging scope of the social modus operandi is changing our mentality about knowledge and wisdom. The last questions remain to be answered: Who or what will be driving innovations in this new era? What can be the impact of the sociotechnical system in such innovations process? Or, is the Sociotechnical system is being considered by the political leaders of the emerging knowledge/wise society?
* Work partially supported by the State of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). Esse trabalho
foi desenvolvido durante o período que estava participando de congresso internacional em Portugal/2010
<http://goo.gl/Hytzh6> e, que foi submetido no congresso ‘ES Research/2010’, citado no resumo acima.
