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This paper aims to identify and appropriately respond to any socio-technical gaps within organisational information and cybersecurity practices. This culminates in the equal emphasis of both the social, technical and environmental factors affecting security practices.

The socio-technical systems theory was used to develop a conceptual process model for analysing organisational practices in terms of their social, technical and environmental influence. The conceptual process model was then applied to specifically analyse some selected information and cybersecurity frameworks. The outcome of this exercise culminated in the design of a socio-technical systems cybersecurity framework that can be applied to any new or existing information and cybersecurity solutions in the organisation. A framework parameter to help continuously monitor the mutual alignment of the social, technical and environmental dimensions of the socio-technical systems cybersecurity framework was also introduced.

The results indicate a positive application of the socio-technical systems theory to the information and cybersecurity domain. In particular, the application of the conceptual process model is able to successfully categorise the selected information and cybersecurity practices into either social, technical or environmental practices. However, the validation of the socio-technical systems cybersecurity framework requires time and continuous monitoring in a real-life environment.

This research is beneficial to chief security officers, risk managers, information technology managers, security professionals and academics. They will gain more knowledge and understanding about the need to highlight the equal importance of both the social, technical and environmental dimensions of information and cybersecurity. Further, the less emphasised dimension is posited to open an equal but mutual security vulnerability gap as the more emphasised dimension. Both dimensions must, therefore, equally and jointly be emphasised for optimal security performance in the organisation.

The application of socio-technical systems theory to the information and cybersecurity domain has not received much attention. In this regard, the research adds value to the information and cybersecurity studies where too much emphasis is placed on security software and hardware capabilities.

This paper aims to examine organizational information systems based on Web 2.0 technology as socio-technical systems that involve interacting relationships among actors, structure, tasks and technology. Alignment within the relationships may facilitate increased technology use; however, gaps in alignment may impede technology use and result in poor performance or system failure. The technology examined is an organizational wiki used for collaborative knowledge management.

Results of a survey administered to employees of an organization providing cloud computing services are presented. The research model depicts the socio-technical component relationships and their influence on use of the wiki. Hierarchical latent variable modelling is used to operationalize the six main constructs. Hypotheses propose that as alignment of a relationship increases, wiki use increases. The partial least squares (PLS) method is used to examine the hypotheses.

Based on the results, increased perceptions of alignment among technology and structure increase wiki use. Further analysis indicates that low usage may be linked to gaps in alignment. Many respondents with lower usage scores also indicated “low alignment” among actor-task, actor-technology, and task-structure.

The sample size is rather small; however, results may give an indication as to the appropriateness of dimensions chosen to represent the alignment relationships. Socio-technical systems theory (STS) is often utilized in qualitative studies. This paper introduces a measurement instrument designed to evaluate STS through quantitative analysis.

User acceptance and change management continue to be important topics for both researchers and practitioners. The model proposed here provides measures that may reveal predictive indicators for increased information system use. Alternatively, practitioners may be able to utilize a diagnostic tool as presented here to assess underlying factors that may be impeding effective technology utilization.

The paper presents a diagnostic tool that may help management to better uncover misaligned relationships leading to underutilization of technology. Practical advice and guidelines are provided allowing for a plan to rectify the situation and improve technology usage and performance outcomes.

Interruptions are prevalent in knowledge work, and their negative consequences have driven research to find ways for interruption management. However, these means almost always leave the responsibility and burden of interruptions with individual knowledge workers. System-level approaches for interruption management, on the other hand, have the potential to reduce the burden on employees. This paper’s objective is to pave way for system-level interruption management by showing that data about factual characteristics of work can be used to identify interrupting situations.

The authors provide a demonstration of using trace data from information and communications technology (ICT)-systems and machine learning to identify interrupting situations. They conduct a “simulation” of automated data collection by asking employees of two companies to provide information concerning situations and interruptions through weekly reports. They obtain information regarding four organizational elements: task, people, technology and structure, and employ classification trees to show that this data can be used to identify situations across which the level of interruptions differs.

The authors show that it is possible to identifying interrupting situations from trace data. During the eight-week observation period in Company A they identified seven and in Company B four different situations each having a different probability of occurrence of interruptions.

The authors extend employee-level interruption management to the system-level by using “task” as a bridging concept. Task is a core concept in both traditional interruption research and Leavitt's 1965 socio-technical model which allows us to connect other organizational elements (people, structure and technology) to interruptions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the validity of the proposed integrated socio‐technical knowledge management (KM) model, and to determine the relative importance of social and technical initiatives in organizational KM.

The conceptual model was proposed with three inter‐related concepts (knowledge stocks, processes, and socio‐technical enablers) and was tested via a survey‐based study in the context of public administration of a small European country using 185 senior Civil Servants as subjects.

The findings provided a confirmatory test of the proposed model and revealed social factors to be of greater importance than technical factors in advancing organizational knowledge in the case of public administration organizations. They also pointed to leadership as the single most important enabler of organizational KM in these organizations.

Findings are based on European public administration and may not reflect other geographic, economic and cultural contexts. Variables were perceptual and measurement items proxies for the real phenomena. There is a need for including objective data, improving measurement, and extending research towards deeper analysis of contextual influences on and consequences of KM.

The model may be useful to managers for predicting organizational learning, as well as intervening to enhance organizational social environment and to increase the likelihood of technology use in KM.

The main contribution of this research is the discovery of complex interactions among knowledge enablers and processes influencing knowledge stocks. Another contribution of this research is the revelation that (at least in the context of public administration) leadership may be the single most important enabler of successful KM.

The aim of this paper is to examine empirically the relevance of the theory of deferred action for knowledge management systems (KMS) design in practice.

The study adopts a case study approach to examine knowledge work and knowledge management in virtual teamwork in a large UK telecommunications company to understand the occurrence of emergent knowledge and how it is managed by virtual team leaders. The section in the company studied is described as a “knowledge intensive organization” dealing with the company's e‐commerce activities.

The analysis confirms the complex adaptive system hypothesis – a complex system adapts to its environment through self‐organization. The data reveal the behaviour of the virtual team to be self‐organizing and adaptive to its environment. It confirms the knowledge tacitness hypothesis and social embeddedness of knowledge hypothesis as important determinants of knowledge sharing. Specifically, the data reveal the main issues concerning knowledge sharing practices of virtual team workers and the crucial team leader's role in the effectiveness of the teams' capability to develop social links to externalise and share tacit knowledge to accomplish tasks.

In this paper, the authors contribute “emergent knowledge” as a third category of organizational knowledge in addition to the existing tacit and explicit knowledge that needs to be considered when designing KMS. It also derives socio‐technical systems design principles based on the theory of deferred action, and a tentative development process with metrics is then proposed for KMS design that caters for emergent, tacit, and explicit knowledge.

Existing models such as the SECI model do not acknowledge emergent knowledge or its conversion into explicit knowledge. The theory of deferred action is invoked to derive design principles, termed deferred systems design principles, to depict how explicit knowledge, tacit knowledge, and emergent knowledge can be represented to design knowledge management systems for “emergent organizations”.

The study contributes to the limited research and lack of consideration of emergent knowledge as an integral part of organizational knowledge, especially in an era of emergent organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the measurement constructs of learning within construction projects' milieu. The literature indicated some mechanisms of learning in projects under four aspects, namely knowledge sharing, knowledge creation, team action to learn, and learning support. The empirical study attempts to verify whether intra-project learning can be measured through these aspects.

The study used a survey method to collect the data from 36 mega-sized building projects in Malaysia. In total, 203 questionnaires were collected from professionals working in the sites of these projects. The data were analysed using principal component analysis (PCA) to determine the constructs of intra-project learning. Partial least squares-path modeling was used then to confirm the results of PCA and determine the contribution of each construct to intra-project learning.

The results affirmed two constructs of intra-project learning, named, social and technical and each consisted of four indicators of learning.

The paper emphasized the socio-technical perspective of learning and contributed to developing a hierarchical measurement model of learning in construction project. A project manager can propose new initiatives in response to the new perspective of learning for team building and continuous development. Lastly, the paper provides a comprehensive presentation of how to estimate the hierarchical measurement models of project learning as a latent variable.

This paper seeks to critically review the conceptual frameworks that have been developed for assessing the impact of information and communications technology (ICT) on real estate.

The research is based on a critical review of existing literature and draws from examples of previous empirical research in the field.

The paper suggests that a “socio‐technical framework” is more appropriate to examine ICT impact in real estate than other “deterministic” frameworks. Therefore, ICT is an important part of the new economy, but must be seen in the context of a number of other social and economic factors.

The research is based on a qualitative assessment of existing frameworks, and by using examples from commercial real estate, assesses the extent to which a “socio‐technical” framework can aid understanding of ICT impact.

The paper is important in highlighting a number of the main issues in conceptualising ICT impact in real estate and also critically examines the emergence of a new economy in the information society within the general context of real estate. The paper also highlights research gaps in the field.

The paper deconstructs the myths of the “death of real estate” and “productivity increase means jobs loss”, in relation to office real estate. Finally, it examines some of the ways in which ICT is impacting on real estate and suggests the most important components for a future research agenda in the field of ICT and real estate impact, and will be of value to property investors, facilities managers, developers, financiers, and others.

This paper aims to propose a model of production management that integrates knowledge management, as a third dimension, to the production and work dimensions and to identify factors that promote a favorable context for knowledge sharing and results achievement in the production operations shop floor environment.

The model proposed is built from opportunities identified in the literature review.

The factors in the model integrate its three main components: knowledge management, production organization and work organization, providing a representation of the dynamics of the workplace and shop floor environment.

The proposed model and its factors allow managers to better understand and to improve the organization activities, because it integrates knowledge management with the production organization and work organization components of traditional models.

Literature acknowledges the role of knowledge as competitive advantage, but it is still dealt in an implicit way within the traditional models of production management. This paper proposes a model and factors that provide a favorable context for tacit knowledge sharing and results achievement in the production operations shop floor environment. The model explicitly integrates knowledge management with traditional models' components.

This paper uses the Socio‐Technical Systems (STS) model as a conceptual framework to explore client/server information system implementations, and demonstrates the logical disconnect between traditionally developed mainframe systems and the flexibility required to meet rapidly changing environments. Such flexibility can be afforded by client/server and web enabled technologies; however, to exploit these technologies, managers must improve the interaction between the technical and social systems of the organization during the information systems development process. In this paper, conditions for successful implementations are presented along with a technology migration model based upon the characteristics of and flexibility afforded by these newer technologies.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis and review of the sociotechnical approach as a result of analysis of experiences with the introduction of ICT in higher education

The experiences of the author with the creation of special web sites in palaeography are analysed paying special attention to knowledge construction and development at three different levels: individual, community, and organisation (society). The results are compared with those from the concept of communities of practice.

There is a need for the introduction of a new element in the SECI cycle and the introduction of a new element in the scheme for a sociotechnical approach.

The findings need further experimentation in order to discover any validity for the knowledge management field in relation to the concept of communities of practice.

The use of the scheme for the sociotechnical approach could help in the planning and implementation of information systems in a variety of situations.

The paper introduces new elements to be considered for the application of the sociotechnical approach and for the construction of information systems in corporations and organisations.