Sociotechnical Plan

 


In the mid-1990s, Nokia emerged from Finland to lead the mobile phone revolution. It rapidly grew to have one of the most recognizable and valuable brands in the world. Nokia’s early success was primarily the result of visionary and courageous management choices that leveraged the firm’s innovative technologies as digitalization and deregulation of telecom networks quickly spread across Europe. According to Doz (2017), “The core business focused on incremental improvements and a relatively small data group took up the innovation mantle. Nokia had begun to collapse in the mobile communications market because of technological advancement, rapid market change, and growing complexity. Management decisions, dysfunctional organizational structures, growing bureaucracy, and deep internal rivalries all played a part in preventing Nokia from recognizing the shift from product-based competition to one based on platforms. Nokia had become a sitting duck to growing competitive forces and accelerating market changes, and Nokia’s strategic options seem limited.  The management team was struggling to find a response to a changing environment, and Nokia’s strategy of product differentiation through market segmentation resulted in a proliferation of poorer quality products Doz (, 2017)”.

Nokia was an engineering company but needed more marketing savvy. Nokia was a hardware company rather than a software company and was an expert at building physical devices but failed to make the programs that make those devices work. The company profoundly underestimated the importance of software, including the apps that ran on smartphones, and was unable to recognize the increasing importance of software. In 2008, Nokia was said to have one of the most valuable brands in the world and failed to recognize that brands today. The high-tech era has taught people to expect constant innovation, and Nokia falls behind.

According to Hayashi and Baranauskas (2013), “Sociotechnical plan is the formulation and adaptability of different inter-related processes to achieve a common result. This definition was developed in the study as a plan to review the meanings of formal and informal learning and how it might help to unravel the new possibilities presented by digital technology, towards more seamless learning scenarios. Making sense of technology, in the context of children’s education, demands a socio-technical perspective that might contribute to the dialogical approach (Hayashi & Baranauskas, 2013”.

The social-technical system refers to the interaction between complex infrastructures and human behaviors. Technical and social systems are interdependent. According to Sieczka (2011), most organizations have barriers to creativity, ideas, and innovation. These barriers tend to eliminate creative possibilities from the organization; identifying and removing barriers to creativity and innovation is crucial (Sieczka, 2011). Below are a few factors in which an organization can determine and bypass many common obstacles and become more idea-oriented by employing simple strategies.

Judgment - Fear of a new idea is often manifested as criticism and sometimes harsh judgment. People mock and ridicule what they don’t understand. People who have ideas are reluctant to share because they worry that no one will like the idea and afraid of ridicule or the implications of possible failure (Sieczka, 2011).

Playing By The Rules- Policies and procedures, inflexible and rigid organizational structures, traditions, and a culture of playing by the rules, are keeping employees from participating, stifling any innovative or creative processes. An oppressive environment tends to force employees to conform to accepted patterns, regulations, and inherent limitations, which hampers creative thinking and new ideas (Sieczka, 2011).


References

Doz, Y. (2017). The Strategic Decisions That Caused Nokia’s Failure. Retrieved from https://knowledge.insead.edu/strategy/the-strategic-decisions-that-caused-nokias-failure-7766

Hayashi, E. S., & Baranauskas, M. C. (2013). Affectability in educational technologies: A socio-technical perspective for design. Retrieved from Affectibility_in_Educational_T.pdf

Sieczka, K. (2011). Cause and Effect: Barriers To Creativity And Innovation. Retrieved from https://trainingindustry.com/articles/strategy-alignment-and-planning/cause-and-effect-barriers-to-creativity-and-innovation/

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