Work Systems Theory

The Work Systems Theory was developed by Steven Alter, a professor of information systems at the University of San Francisco. In his recent work, Professor Alter explained that the term work system has been used loosely for many areas. It was first discussed back in 1977 by Bostrom and Heinen (1977) in their articles of MIS Quarterly. Later on, Sumner and Ryan (1994) used the term to explain problems in the adoption of CASE (Computer Aided Software Engineering). Several socio-technical pioneers such as Trist and Mumford also used the term occasionally, but it was not defined in detail by these researchers. The author further argued that the work system approach defines work system carefully and he considers it as a basic analytical concept. The author defined work system as:

A system in which human participants and/or machines performs work using information, technology, and other resources to produce products and/or services for internal or external customers. Typical business organizations contain work systems that procure materials from suppliers, produce products, deliver products to customers, find customers, create financial reports, hire employees, coordinate work across departments, and perform many other functions (Alter, 1999).

Professor Alter further explained that the work system concept is like a common denominator for many of the types of systems that operate within or across organizations. Information systems, projects, and supply chains are all special cases of work systems. An information system is a work system whose processes and activities are devoted to processing information. A service system is a work system that produces services for its customers. A project is a work system designed to produce a product and then go out of existence. Similarly, a supply chain is an inter- organizational work system devoted to procuring materials and other inputs required to produce a firm’s products.

A typical work system framework is shown in figure 3.2 which can be used to summarize any work system and can be used for analyzing the work system. The framework comprises of nine different elements; each element in the framework should be used in even a superficial understanding of a specific system. The arrows used between each element reflect the importance of maintaining the mutual alignment between these elements. Four elements in the trapezoid which are business processes, participants, information, and technology comprise the system performing the work. Along with that, five other elements are required for brief understanding of a work system. These are: products and services, customers, environment, strategies, and infrastructure. The framework is useful in describing the system being studied, identifying problems and opportunities, describing possible changes, and to identify how those changes might affect other areas of the work system (Alter, 2002; Wikipedia, 2010e).

Figure 3.2: A Work System Framework (Source: Alter, 2002)

Business processes: The work performed within the work system can be summarized in terms of one or more business processes whose steps may be defined tightly or may

Participants: These are the people who perform at least some of the work in the business process. Some of these participants use computers and IT extensively, while others may use little or no technology.

Information: Information includes codified and non-codified information used and created while participants perform their work. Either type of information may or may not be captured on a computer.

Technologies: Technologies include tools (such as: cell phones, projectors, spreadsheet software, and automobiles) and techniques (such as: management by objectives, optimization, and remote tracking) that work system participants use while doing their work.

Customers: These are the people who receive direct benefit from the products and services which the work system produces. This includes external customers who receive the organization's products and/or services and internal customers who are employees or contractors working inside the organization.

Products and Services: Products and services are the combination of physical things, information, and services that the work system produces.

Environment: Environment includes the organizational, cultural, competitive, technical, and regulatory environment within which the work system works.

Infrastructure: Infrastructure includes human, informational, and technical resources that the work system relies on even though these resources exist and are managed outside of it and are shared with other work systems.

Strategies: The work system’s strategy and the organization’s strategy may help in explaining why the work system operates as it does. Examples of work system strategies include assembly line approach versus a case-manager approach and mass customization approach versus a commodity approach or a manually customized approach (Alter, 2002).

There are many advantages of a work system theory. The major advantage is that the theory is generally used as a problem solving approach for organizations which starts from identifying the actual problem within the organization towards the final recommendations for making better decisions for future. Although, there are several advantages of the theory, there are few drawbacks. The major disadvantage of the theory is related with the alignment and the balance between its various elements since all of its elements are interdependent. A change in its one element would usually require a corresponding change in other elements in order to maintain balance. For instance, better information or technology may have no effect on work system performance if nothing is being done about limiting factors elsewhere, such as with the business process or participants. Also, it is easy to say that elements of a work system should be aligned and balanced, but the fact that work systems contain disparate elements often lead to imbalances and misalignments which require management attention (Alter, 1999).