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The mini‐company: A specification of sociotechnical business systems

Jan de Leede (Faculty Technology and Management, University of Twente, The Netherlands)
Jan Kees Looise (Faculty Technology and Management, University of Twente, The Netherlands)
Maarten Verkerk (Philips Components B.V., Roermond, The Netherlands)

Personnel Review

ISSN: 0048-3486

Publication date: 1 June 2002

Abstract

Sociotechnical systems theory (STS) does not address in full the implications of the team‐context relations, despite its open systems character. There is a need to open STS into a sociotechnical business systems (STBS) theory and practice. We observe three interrelated aspects that are important for STBS. First, the design of the production structure is a traditional STS aspect. Second, the design of the control structure on the team level needs an elaboration compared with STS. The third aspect is the social‐dynamic alignment. We describe the mini‐company concept and argue that this concept is a specification of STBS covering the three aspects. The case of the implementation of mini‐companies in a Dutch manufacturing plant illustrates the strengths of the concept.

Keywords

Citation

de Leede, J., Kees Looise, J. and Verkerk, M. (2002), "The mini‐company: A specification of sociotechnical business systems", Personnel Review, Vol. 31 No. 3, pp. 338-355. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480210422741

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MCB UP Ltd

Copyright © 2002, MCB UP Limited

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