**4.1 Socio-technical approach to the organization**

The socio-technical approach of organization is to consider the organization as a system consisting of a social system interacting with a technical system [40]. The following reflections are essentially based on the book *Knowledge Management in the Sociotechnical World*. Coakes [40] states that the term "socio-technical" is commonly used in systems studies, particularly in the design of organizations. Based on numerous writings, some dating back to 1920, she says that the best incarnation of this paradigm is found in the work of Fred Emery and Eric Trist at the Tavistock Institute, London, and in the study of Trist and Bamford (1951) in which the researchers identified the need for a socio-technical approach to develop a social system appropriate for the establishment of a new technical system. Elayne Coakes defines the term "socio-technical" as "The study of the relationships and interrelationships between the social and technical parts of any system" (p. 5). Thus, this term describes a broader view of the role of technology in an organization: "technology should be considered, discussed and developed not only as a technical artifact but in the light of the social environment in which it is exploited" (p. 4). She suggests that "Knowledge management from a socio-technical perspective requires managing the organization through continuous change and a continuous learning process supported by appropriate technologies" (p. 10). In addition, [41] consider that "adopting a socio-technical perspective avoids a purely technological approach to information systems" (p. 27).

Thus, an information and knowledge system of an organization could be considered as a subset of the organization in which the technical system would be the digital information system (DIS). This system interacts with the members of

the organization considered both as users and as components of the system. This system is described in the following subsection. We refer to it by the expression "the organization's information and knowledge system".
