ISyE 652: Sociotechnical Systems

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ISyE 652 - Sociotechnical Systems

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Catalog Description

652 Sociotechnical Systems. (Crosslisted with Psych 652.) I; 3 cr. Sociotechnical systems theory with applications to the design of organizations and jobs. Open systems and organizational environments. Analysis of the technical and social systems and techniques for "whole" system consideration. Organizational design strategy. Field site analyses by student teams. P: Grad st or IE 349.

Course Prerequisite(s)

See catalog description above.

Prerequisite knowledge and/or skills

Students should have a strong understanding of human factors engineering, specifically how different elements of a work system can impact human performance.

Textbook(s) and/or other required material

No required textbook. Required readings will be provided.

Course objectives

Students will understand and be able to apply sociotechnical systems engineering theory, design and analytical methods to real-world situations, especially job design and technology implementation.

Topics covered

Lectures will cover the systems, open systems, the history of sociotechnical systems, technical system, social system, environmental system, sociotechnical systems analysis, sociotechnical systems design and redesign, macroergonomics adn organizational design, participative decision making, and real-world sociotechnical systems applications.

Class/laboratory schedule

Two sessions per week of 75 minutes each.

Contribution of course to meeting the professional component

This course contributes primarily to the students' knowledge of engineering topics, and does provide design experience.

The following statement indicates which of the following considerations are included in this course: economic, environmental, ethical, political, societal, health and safety, manufacturability, sustainability.

The following considerations are included in the course: economic, environmental, ethical, political, safety, sustainability and health.

Relationship of course to undergraduate degree program objectives and outcomes

This course primarily serves students in the department. The information below describes how the course contributes to the undergraduate program objectives.

This course prepares students to apply engineering principles, techniques and tools to identify, analyze and solve real-world industrial work systems problems. The problems focused on in this course relate to technology implementation, and job and organizational design. Student will also learn principles for how to implement a solution or change to meet the needs of the business (e.g. keeping a systems perspective, understanding economic impact) and employees (e.g. designing to support employee cognitive, social and physical performance needs). Students will be expected to apply project management skills to their group project, work effectively in teams that might be multidisciplinary, and understand work system behavior and proposed change impacts on that behavior. Ethics involved in the design and implementation of systems changes will be stressed throughout the course.

Assessment of student progress toward course objectives

Student progress will be assessed through 2 exams, a group design project, team case study presentation and in-class case study analyses.

Person(s) who prepared this description

Ben-Tzion Karsh

Copyright 2007 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
Date last modified: 28-Dec-2007
Content by: prpeters@engr.wisc.edu
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