ABSTRACT
The teleology behind the motto was simplistic and oblivious to the evolutionary complexity of technology change. The changes in work practices brought about by industrial automation conveyed, in hindsight, many benefits, but human error was far from eradicated. Divisions of labor have been prevalent in Western societies since long before mechanization or automation; the specialist guilds of the Middle Ages are examples. The sociotechnical approach underlines that it is fallacious to assume that increased automation will eradicate the need to take social variables in an organization seriously. Automation in part means that responsibility for the execution of a task comes to lie with fewer and fewer people. Workers always find it necessary to tailor, or adapt, automated devices and their work processes to accommodate the changed technology and to insulate the larger system from automation's idiosyncrasies and deficiencies. Sociotechnicians strive for minimum fractionation of work, leaving the units of the production process—local groups—with considerable autonomy.
