The Control Room as a Sociotechnical System

Sociotechnical system is a descriptive term given to any practical instantiation of social (e.g., people, teams) and technical (e.g., SCADA systems, displays, alarms) elements engaged in purposeful, interacting, goal-directed behavior. With an appropriate emphasis on a system of sociotechnical systems, the following key features can be noted  

Firi IRF i 1 NATO SAS-050 model of command and control. Different types of team- 

Model VersiL 1.0, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Brussels, Belgium, 2006.) 

An appropriate metaphor for the two organizational extremes is comparing an organization or communications architecture that is programmed compared to one that 

Obvionsly, the constraining and enhancing featnres of this model say a lot about communications processes and architectures. On the one hand, a sociotechnical system can be characterized by rigid bureaucratic control and one-way, top-down communication on the other hand, it can be much more collaborative and peer to peer. In terms of communications processes, these are two qnite distinct sitnations that may be more or less appropriate to different circumstances. Of conrse, there are many points and combinations in between, and there is nothing to say that an organization needs to be fixed. Indeed, communication architectnres can be dynamically reconfigured to suit different circumstances (e.g., normal vs. emergency sitnations). 

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The control room as a sociotechnical system (an interacting mixture of people and technology)... 

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