Modelling and simulation of complex sociotechnical systems: envisioning and analysing work environments

Abstract

Accurate comprehension and analysis of complex sociotechnical systems is a daunting task. Empirically examining, or simply envisioning the structure and behaviour of such systems challenges traditional analytic and experimental approaches as well as our everyday cognitive capabilities. Computer-based models and simulations afford potentially useful means of accomplishing sociotechnical system design and analysis objectives. From a design perspective, they can provide a basis for a common mental model among stakeholders, thereby facilitating accurate comprehension of factors impacting system performance and potential effects of system modifications. From a research perspective, models and simulations afford the means to study aspects of sociotechnical system design and operation, including the potential impact of modifications to structural and dynamic system properties, in ways not feasible with traditional experimental approaches. This paper describes issues involved in the design and use of such models and simulations and describes a proposed path forward to their development and implementation.

Abstract

Practitioner Summary: The size and complexity of real-world sociotechnical systems can present significant barriers to their design, comprehension and empirical analysis. This article describes the potential advantages of computer-based models and simulations for understanding factors that impact sociotechnical system design and operation, particularly with respect to process and occupational safety.

Keywords::

• sociotechnical systems
• modelling and simulation
• occupational safety
• complex adaptive systems

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank John Carroll, Marvin Dainoff, John Flach and W. Ian Hamilton for their very helpful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. Sincere thanks also to Margaret Rothwell for her invaluable editing assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

^1. Email: [email protected]

^2. Email: [email protected]

^3. Email: [email protected]

^4. Note that in the countries of the European Union, the term ‘human factors integration’ (e.g. Tainsh 2004) is more commonly used than ‘human-systems integration’, although the principles underlying both are largely identical.

^5. In essence, the whole of the planet's social ecosystem comprises a vast sociotechnical system. When viewed from this perspective the ripple effects of any particular sub-system's activities can have very diffuse and often unpredictable influences on other sub-systems as well as on the system as a whole, a notion that is a mainstay of complexity theory (c.f., Miller and Page 2007).