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Telebank Call Centers Operating Socio-Technical Systems

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Discuss how the Telebank Call Center operates as a socio-technical system. Please be sure to address the following issues, along with presenting any other ideas about this concept that you find interesting:

How would you describe the organizational structure at the Telebank Call Center, in terms of the traditional categories? To what degree can this company appropriately be described as a "machine"?

What would you say are the major components of its technical system? Of its social system? Are there any major features of the organization that you would put outside both the technical and social systems?

What kind of control does management have over the technical system elements? Toward what ends or goals? What are some effects of exercizing that control?

What kind of control does management have over the social system elements? Toward what ends or goals? What are some effects of exercizing that control?

Are there any interesting interactions between the technical and social systems that affect their management?

All told, is the concept of the organization as a sociotechnical machine really beneficial and useful as an organizational metaphor, or is it simply a set of word games? Or something in between? Why, in either case?

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Solution Summary

The solution discusses how the Telebank Call Center operates as a socio-technical system. The organization structure at the Telebank Call center is determined.

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ANSWERS
Telebank Call Center

First, socio-technical systems or STS is a theory which attempts to explain the radical changes which happened in the field of organizational development (Karakas 2009, p. 15). Specifically, this theory models the social aspects of both people and society and its relationship with the technical aspects of machines and technology employed within an organization. Moreover, socio-technical systems study how this relationship promotes the optimal utilization of technology in the achievement or organizational objectives and the improvement on the quality of life.

Second, Telebank Call Center as an organization integrates both people and machine for the realization of the organization's objectives. However, in contrast to the Fordist model of organization, Telebank Call Center's structure is the opposite. The Fordist model of organization insists the "complete subordination of the individual worker to the [socio-technical] system of the factory" (Bohm & Land 2009, p. 80). Instead, Telebank's organizational structure recognizes that human intellect and the contribution of its employees in the organization's development is superior than the machine and technology.

As regards to the extent to which it utilizes machine and technology in its operations, Telebank Call Center is highly automated. However, to call it as a "machine" because of this ...

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