From: SocioTechnical approaches to Information Systems Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Elayne Coakes
Sent: 12 January 2007 14:58
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: The next Sociotech lecture Jan 07
8th Annual Sociotechnical Lecture Series
Westminster Business School, Marylebone Road, (Opp. Baker Street
Station, and Mme Tussauds)
Time: 6pm - 8.00pm. Cost: Free. All welcome! Especially PG
students.
Room: CPLW Centre M Block. Tea/Coffee/Biscuits available.
Directions from Security - but see diagram below Registration required -
please email Elayne on [log in to unmask] - places limited.
================
2007
January 24th
Professor Ken Eason
Bayswater Institute
Professor Emeritus at Loughborough University
IT in the NHS - National or Local Design?
Sociotechnical systems theory advocates designing social and technical
subsystems together. However, the National Programme for IT in the NHS
(NPfIT) is a suite of standard technical systems to be implemented in
all Trusts in England. Ken Eason will review the impact of this
programme on healthcare teams and, using case study evidence, examine
the degree to which local sociotechnical systems design is possible in
Trusts to order to meet local needs.
Ken Eason studied psychology Brunel University and then joined EMI
Electronics to work as an ergonomist and occupational psychologist. In
1970, he moved to Loughborough University and helped Brian Shackel set
up the HUSAT Research Group working on a wide variety of projects
investigating the impact of technical change on people at work and on
their organisations. Ken became Professor of Cognitive Ergonomics and
took on a variety of management roles. He became the Director of the
Bayswater Institute in 2002 when he retired from Loughborough
University.
===============
7th Feb
Dr Misha Hebel
Dogwhistle Ltd & Cass
Business School
Light bulbs and Change - systems thinking for new ventures
Misha says:
I have been a student and teacher of systems thinking for a number of
decades. A few years back I felt I could no longer research or lecture
on fifty year old methodologies and models - like Soft Systems
Methodology (SSM) and the Viable Systems Model (VSM) - without
revisiting their practical worth in the workplace. It seemed to me that
the simplicity of the core ideas had been lost in academic studies so I
became an independent business advisor. If I couldn't communicate or
apply systems ideas in this context I wouldn't earn money. What resulted
was a major learning experience. This talk summarises my application of
some very simple systems tools and concepts to bring about light bulb
moments and significant changes in the operation of new ventures in the
UK.
Misha is Visiting Faculty at the Open and City Universities, designing
and delivering a range of courses on leadership; systems thinking;
technology and entrepreneurship. She is also Managing Director of
Dogwhistle, an Organisational Development and training company
specialising in micro and small businesses. She currently sits on
editorial boards for a number of international journals and conferences
and is currently working on a book on leadership for women in the UK.
=================================
March 14th
Dr Robert Mellor
Kingston University
To be held in M215 - HRM Centre
Diversity Innovation in the context of SMEs involved in B2C eCommerce It
was discovered that it is mutual inspiration - 'diversity innovation' -
which is the major driving force in SMEs. 'Diversity innovation' is a
hitherto only hinted at form of innovation and a new insomuch as it uses
neither creation nor invention. It is postulated - based on simple
algebra - that it is the transaction cost associated with communication,
which is the limiting factor for 'diversity innovation'.
Innovations in the use of IT made at European SMEs between 1994 and 2004
were tracked back to their originators. Amongst these originators, the
multi-skilled were dramatically over-represented and multi-skilled
trans-migrants were highly prominent amongst this group. These results
underline the importance of transaction costs for communication between
specialists in connection with 'diversity innovation'. In companies
working in mature markets, as opposed those within immature markets, the
multi-skilled, and especially trans-migrants, experienced difficulty in
spreading their innovations within their environment, probably because
of their large distance (the "Innovation
Gap") from the leadership consensus group. Indeed, in mature markets,
initial innovations by trans-migrants provoked a Trickle Down effect,
this rebound often taking the form of disenfranchisement of the
originator involved, who saw their ideas transformed into a consensus
group concept, from which they were excluded. This conflict with the
dominant consensus group negates the premises of Transaction Cost theory
and works against the best interests of the company (in the sense of
Williamson's "guileful behaviour"). Indeed in one case, Trickle Down
from the consensus group led to near-bankruptcy.
A recent large survey of IT professionals in the UK food and transport
sectors confirmed the existence of the "Innovation Gap" between IT
professionals trying to introduce innovations and the middle management
consensus group, who are unwilling to implement change seen as coming
from outside their ranks.
The discovery that 'diversity innovation' is the major driving force in
SMEs, plus that it is the transaction costs associated with
communication, which a limiting factor for 'diversity innovation',
implies that the major management challenge for growing SMEs occurs
around size 50 employees; the transition from being "flat" to becoming
structured. This is in stark contrast to conventional wisdom and
nomenclature, which ignores this important division and lumps all
10-99 employee companies together as 'small enterprises'.
Dr Robert B. Mellor has 25 years university experience and 12 years
industrial experience, joining the staff of the University of Marburg an
den Lahn in 1982.
In 1987 he was called to a professorial position in Basel, Switzerland,
which he later combined with a Directorship of a German chemical
company. In early 2000 he helped start up the IT University of
Copenhagen before returning to the UK (Kingston University) in 2005.
He has published more than 120 peer-refereed journal and conference
papers, mostly in leading journals including Nature, is author of 8
books (2 of which have been translated into foreign languages) and sits
on the review panels for several national and international (e.g. EU)
granting agencies. He has led major BPR projects in the public and
private sectors as well as serving as expert consultant at Ministerial
level for over 10 years. Robert B. Mellor has been nominated for, and
won, 10 prizes including the Engineers Association Award (2003), The
Entrepreneurship Prize (2003) and the Enterprise Medal (2004). He has
been listed in "Who's Who" since 1998 and is fluent in 4 languages.
===============================
May 9th
Prof Leela Damodaran and Dr Wendy Olphert Loughborough University
Informing Digital Futures: Strategies for Citizen Engagement
=============================== 9th Annual Series
October
Date tba
Gavin Butler
University of Westminster
The risk in IT - is security worth it?
November 21st
Professor Trevor Wood-Harper
Director of Graduate Research
The University of Manchester
Title tba
Sunderland venue:
http://www.cet.sunderland.ac.uk/webedit/allweb/news/SocioTechNorth.htm
Don't forget the books too....
Coakes, Willis & Lloyd-Jones The New Sociotech: Graffiti on the Longwall
; Coakes, Willis & Clarke Knowledge Management in the Sociotechnical
World ; Clarke, Coakes, Hunter & Wenn Sociotechnical and Human Cognition
Elements of Information Systems;
Centre for Excellence in Professional Learning from the Workplace
University of Westminster - Marylebone Campus
Elayne Coakes (Dr)
Senior Lecturer in Business Information Management Westminster Business
School Rm CG70
+44(0)207 911 5000 x3338
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