Sociotechnical design and self‐managing work groups: The impact on control

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Abstract
This paper compares employees perceptions of control in 20 manufacturing plants within one corporation. Four of the plants have incorporated self‐managing groups as a part of their organizational design, while the other 16 plants have more traditional designs. Survey data from the 20 plants are compared and used to test a set of hypotheses derived from the literature on Sociotechnical systems. These analyses indicate that the workers and supervisors in the Sociotechnical plants have higher levels of perceived control than do their counterparts in the more traditional plants. Top and middle management respondents, how‐ ever, have similar perceptions of control in both the Sociotechnical and traditional plants. Discussion focuses on the impact of Sociotechnical design, the measurement of control, and future research issues in Sociotechnical design and self‐managing work groups.

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