Chapter 10

Modern Socio-Technology
Set by De Sitter

los Benders, Hans Doorewaard, and Erik Poutsma

Catholic University ofNijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Abstract
Paradoxically, the notion ofnew work organizations has a long history, in particular in
the Netherlands . To understand this, it is necessary to make a distinction between the
accidental experiments with new forms of work, such as team-based working, on the
one hand, and the acceptance ofthese ideas among the business community at large on
the other. For at least since the 1960s, team-based working has been a central issue in
workplace reform and is even older as an idea. However, it took a considerable period
before the concept broke through, perhaps because for a long time it had the image of
good for people but bad for business. However, for the last decade or so, probablyon
the wings of received understandings of highly efficient Japanese team-based organiz-
ations, team-based working has been and still is intensely advocated as an effective way
ofworking that is sure to pay offhandsomely.
The importance of team-based working has traditionally been stressed by proponents
of the Dutch brand of socio-technical systems design, commonly referred to as Modem
Socio-technology or MST. Emeritus professor Ulbo de Sitter, now eminence grise, is
widely regarded as its founding father. As described below, MST resulted out of several
decades of organizational renewal in practice and theory.
First, we describe the predecessors of the modem socio-technical approach in the
Netherlands, focusing on experiments in the early sixties and seventies. The next
sections deal with the historical development of modem socio-technology and the
current state of the art, respectively. Conclusions are drawn after discussing
contempo rary theoretical developments and MST's diffusion.

Early Developments
As in other countries, throughout most of the twentieth century the majority of Dutch
organizations were characterized by a high degree of division of labor. Throughout
much of the century this was accepted as the only economically feasible way of
organizing, but it had been criticized for its negative social consequences as early as the
beginning of the century. Yet until 1960 such criticisms never resuIted in actual
changes. In that year, an experiment was started in Eindhoven at a television assembly
plant of Philips, the large Dutch electronics company. The Philips researchers sought to
investigate the impact ofthree different lay-outs on what was at that time called output,
169
M.M. Beyerlein (ed.), Work Teams: Past, Present and Future , 169-180.
© 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers.
170 Benders, Doorewaard, and Poutsma

quality and morale . The major invention was splitting a lang assembly line into five
segments, which were operated by better-structured groups of about 20 persans . In
addition, whereas the original line had only one quality inspection station at its end
which complicated feedback, each line segment had its own quality inspection station.
Compared to the lang line, the new system led to shorter waiting times, to smaller
balancing and system lasses, and less disruptions caused by a lack ofmaterial supply . A
more even production flow and the faster feedback improved quality. Morale in the new
setting was compared to that in the originalline and to that of smaller groups producing
channel selectors. For most indicators, the score ofthe segmented line was in between
the scores ofthe other two production settings (Yan Beek, 1964).
These positive findings had a not to be underestimated influence on the development of
so-called work structuring within Philips. The term work structuring was introduced in
1963 (Fontijne, 1970, p. 32) and covered a large variety of changes in the conventional
organization designs. About 1965 the importance of work structuring became more
officially recognized at the corporate level, job design experiments began to flourish
and "gradually the practical notion became more influenced by the theoretical nations
and ideas. The theoretical framework was eclectic in character; ideas from different
schools such as the orthodox job enrichment school, the socio-technical system
approach and organizational development school were included", according to Den
Hertog (1979, p. 152). By 1968, at least 36 experiments at Philips had been carried out.
In 1972, Philips' work structuring activities were assessed critically by the company's
Central Workers' Council (a works' council represents employees, is legally compulsory
for companies as of a minimum size, and is composed of employees who are elected). It
was concluded that the movement had scarcely come offthe ground, only involving 3.5
per cent of Dutch Philips workers, and that change projects were often restricted to
small and isolated parts of organizations. However, the Council had a favorable opinion
about the experiments, and recommended so-called 'preventive work structuring',
meaning to apply these ideas to the design of new production systems, plants and
technical systems, wh ich is especially relevant in case of heavily mechanized work
settings. Den Hertog (1979) mentions some measures to stimulate work structuring
after 1972, including:

I. Social marketing : the stimulation of work structuring by corporate management.

2. An attempt to approach the organization as a whole in contrast to the limited scope
of former experiments.
3. Increased worker participation .
4. Developing preventive work structuring.

Apart frorn the Philips experiments, other experiments with new work forms were
carried out in the 1960s. As in the Philips cases, these experiments aimed both at
organizational goals and/or workers' interests. Kuipers (1972) mentions 37 cases of task
structuring, a term which he uses as a synonym for work structuring . The approach
spread beyond Philips and the electronics industry, as evidenced by the fact 18 out of
these 37 cases were not in that sector. Kuipers' data were collected between September
1969 and August 1971, and refer to task structuring and work consultation.
Unfortunately, both the descr iption of the data as weil as the analysis are superficial,
although the results were comparable to those of Philips.
Modern Socio- Technology 171

The Protestant employers union VPCW initiated six experiments among its
members . These were motivated by "the thought, that responsibility in its
religious/ethical meaning is a factor of sufficient importance to justify experiments with
a greater responsibility" (Ramondt, 1968, p. 13), rather than by changing business
conditions, as was the case with work structuring. Ultimately, only two of the six
organizations involved managed to increase employee responsibility by giving them
more control over their own work situation. In one organization, the result was not
lasting while in the remaining three cases the reform attempts were stopped within a
few months. Overall, the results were disappointing, both from organizational and
ideological points ofview. "The process has a sobering effect on those who expect that
idealistic motives - more humane work relations - as such can induce organizational
change"(Ramondt, 1974, p. 110).
Ramondt (1974, p. 76-79) also describes an experiment at the Pemis oil refinery of
Chevron. In several departrnents, tasks of different natures were added to functions.
Management reported favorable results with respect to productivity, organizational
transparency and absenteeism . Staff was cut back by 49 per cent. The experiment
c1aimed to be motivated by McGregor's theory, but Ramondt dismisses this idea as a
social desirable, ex post legitimization of a reorganization, and motivated by economic
concems.

Towards Modem Socio-Technology

The term socio-technical was first used in The Netherlands in 1965, when a field
experiment was carried out in the cheque-clearing departrnent of a large bank. Main
researcher Hans van Beinum had been working at the London-based Tavistock
Institute, so that socio-technical notions came to influence the 1965 experiment.
The department's main task was clearing large numbers of cheques. An important
reason for conducting the experiment was the tight labor market. Only by the
creation of complex tasks instead of the former simple jobs one expected to be able
to attract new workers for the department. Joint optimization of the technical and
social system was assumed to lead to the most effective organization. The old
organization was characterized by individual, independent and homogeneous tasks ,
and task specialization. Employees were not able to take over each other's work , and
close supervision was feIt to be necessary. Four changes were implemented: group
tasks , task variation, promoting the knowledge about work coherence, and giving
more responsibility . The results were thatjob satisfaction, work morale, and produc-
tivity increased. It rema ins unclear whether the rising productivity can be attributed
to the experiment, as only one (out of two) of the control groups showed a similar
development (Van Beinum, Van Gils and Verhagen, 1968). Table 1 summarizes the
basic assumptions ofthis approach .
The previous organization was seen as too complex : the high division of labor not
only resulted in simple work, but also required much co-ordination and supervision , and
hence additional sub-units . By forming groups and assigning them more responsibility,
the organization could become simpler.
Allegro's study (1973) in a textile mill is influenced both by the ideas of the
traditional socio-technical approach and by emerging perspectives of organizational
development. Allegro found out that after two and a halfyears, 40 employees worked in
"smaII group tasks for 2 persons [...] which had the characteristics of an autonomous
172 Benders, Doorewaard, and Poutsma

TAHLE I . Summary of field experiment in check clearing department

Old System New System

Simple individual tasks Complex task groups
Complex organ ization Simple organ ization
External control Internal control
Source: Van Beinum,Van Gilsand Verhagen, 1968,p. 46. Used with permission.

group task'. Productivity had not decreased, employee involvement had increased, and
absenteeism was down. These changes were attributed to the qualifications ofthe newly
hired personnei, as well as to the new policy of creating complex jobs . "However, the
most irnportant result seemed to be that the organization is actively involved in a
leaming process" (Allegro, 1973, p. 210).

Evaluating the 1960s and 1970s

Although many experiments had been conducted in the I960s and 1970s, these failed to
break through. When at the end of the 1970s Huijgen was looking for fmns that
actively pursued a policy to break way with the existing ways of organizing, he only
found two, a very small number given that his research focused on branches that were
considered to face major problems in this respect (1984, p. 13-14). Statistical surveys
conducted around 1980 point in the same direction, showing that there were few semi-
autonomous workgroups (Loontechnische Dienst, 1979; Muffels, Heinen and Van Mil
1982). Despite the facts that - all in all - some 54 experiments had been conducted
within Philips (Den Hertog, 1975, p. 107), and that repeated efforts were made to
revitalize and extend the approach, ultimately the movement ofwork structuring has not
taken root (Dankbaar, 1990, p. 14). Management interest in new forms ofwork organiz-
ation had increased, but remained selective. The approaches used were meant to
mitigate negative effects of conventional organization structures. Projects tended to be
small-scale, and were generally initiated by management.
More qualitative judgements adopted a pessirnistic tone as weil. Van Hoof and
Huiskamp (1989) found that from the point of industrial democracy the results were
meagre:
"Only the creation of (semi-) autonomous groups (and to an ever more limited
degree , job enrichment) contributed to a greater influence of workers on their
own work . However, this autonomy was generally exercised within strict limits ."
(p.I58)
But an evaluation of the 1960s and 1970s is complicated because of the relationship
between economic and organizational goals on the one hand, and social goals on the
other. The very first Philips-experiment (Van Beek, 1964) had already included both
types of goals, but it appears as if in the course of time social goals came to dominate .
Especially in the 1970s the buzzwords were quality ofwork and humanization ofwork.
The debate focused more than ever on job content, job requirements and working
conditions (Van Hoof and Huiskamp, 1989, p. 159), and according to Pot et al., "work
structuring failed due to single sided interest for quality of working life" (1991, p.
Modern Socio-Technology 173

23-24). Especially if this interest was seen by managers as motivated solely by ethical
rather than by economic concems, it is not surprising that work structuring ultimately
failed. Although Ramondt stated that at Philips organizational goals were more or less
met (1974, p. 48-76), work structuring's success in these terms was apparently not
sufficient to keep the approach alive within the company, let alone elsewhere . In
conclusion: neither from an economic nor from a social perspective had large-scale
results been reached.
However, indirectly the experiments of the 1960s and 1970s were important for
setting the scene for what was to come. Theoretically, they had been informed by
different streams of thought, among which socio-technical work. Work structuring,
pioneered within Philips and later used elsewhere, became the overarching label, yet
there had never been asolid theoretical background, which was feIt as a major
impediment.

Modem Socio-Technology
At the beginning of the 1970s the distinction between socio-technical work and work
structuring was blurred. Even De Sitter (see box I for some personal details), who was
to become the leading exponent of Dutch socio-technical thinking, called work
structuring an "applied form of socio-technique" (l974a, p. 65). In his Ph.D.-thesis, he
found that the leadership style was not so much a personal characteristic of leaders, but
instead to an important extent dependent on the organization structure. Both social
leadership, which allows for changing the rules of the game, and instrumental
leadership, which stresses obeying existing rules, proved .to be dependent on structural
characteristics : if the workload could be dealt with within predetermined rules,
instrumentalleadership would suffice, but if employees could not cope with the
workload within such rules, one finds social leadership (De Sitter, 1995). In his later
work, structural characteristics are constantly emphasized, for which cybemetics and
social systems theory provided vital insights.
After his appointrnent in 1970 as a full professor at the Eindhoven University of
Technology, Oe Sitter and his associates started working on developing a theoretical
approach (De Sitter 1974a and 1974b; Van der Zwaan, 1975) for what was initially
called sociotechniek and defined as:
"the study and explanation of the manner in wh ich both the technical
strumentation and the division of labor are related to environmental conditions
and the operation, capacity and output of production systems, as weil as the
application of this analytical insight into the design of production systems." (De
Sitter , I974a , p. 81) .
Oe Sitter's hallmark study Op Weg naar Nieuwe Fabrieken en Kantoren (On the
Road towards New Factories and Offices; 1981) brought the approach to the attention
of a large public, and can be seen as a catalyst for the development of Dutch socio-
technical thinking. In it, extensive use was made of Swedish (and German) engineering
and organizational design traditions (cf. De Sitter, Den Hertog and Dankbaar, 1997:
499-500) . In the I970s, De Sitter repeatedly visited his native Sweden, where he
became well-acquainted with the organizational renewal programs set up by the
Swedish Employers' Confederat ion SAF. De Sitter even translated two summarizing
books from Swedish into Dutch (Oe Sitter, 1975; Aguren, Edgren and De Sitter, 1982).
174 Benders, Doorewaard, and Poutsma

Among others, these books stressed the way different manufacturing operations were
combined into physical layouts (see Figure I with the three different basic structures;
also see Engström's contribution in this volume).

Professor Ulbo de Sitter

Ulbo de Sitter was born on April 2, 1930 in Jönköping,Sweden. Both his grandfatherand father were
professorsin astronomy and geology respectively. Although raised in an intellectual environment(rumor
has it that he once sat on Einstein'slap), he de Sitter began his careeras a machiniston merchantships.
After his militaryservice, he began his studies and acceptedhis first researchjob in 1962 with the Dutch
PlT (nationalmail and telecomcompany). From 1966 till 1970, he worked at the University of
Amsterdam, where he completedhis PhD-thesison leadership. As of 1970, he has been a full professor,
subsequently at the Eindhoven UniversityofTechnology, the UniversityofLimburg and the Universityof
Nijmegen, from where he retired in 1995.
As a ship's mechanic, Oe Sitter was confrontedwith the hierarchical chain of conmand. Detailed
company prescriptionspreventedcreatingsafe working conditionsat sea. He called such experiences"the
concrete start of a study in sociology," which in his view has to be .design-oriented,' i.e. it must be actively
engaged in improvingsocial condtions.
Sources: Van Eijnattenand Van der Zwaan (1995); Oe Sitter(1995)

At that time, the functional structure, which organizes operations by type, and the
line structure, in which operations are organized sequentially along the product flow,
were increasingly being criticized for having negative consequences on organizational
outcomes and human well-being. In the mid-1970s, Burbidge's work on group
technology offered an alternative for the functional structure , which often leads to
substantial coordination difficulties and hence losses (see Benders and Badham in this
volume for a more elaborate discussion). In the same period, Wild (1975) criticized line
structures for various inefficiencies such as system and balance losses. In addition, line
structures have almost traditionally been viewed as detrimental for worker well-being,
In the Netherlands, like De Sitter, Jan in 't Veld advocated such ideas in Organisatie-
structuur en arbeidsplaats (1981); the book had an engineering focus, and became an
important source of inspiration for socio-technical proponents.
In Op Weg naar Nieuwe Fabrieken en Kantoren De Sitter combined such engineering
insights with social points ofview. De Sitter paid much attention to Karasek's views on
job design (1979) and the not ion ofjob decision latitude, which are still cornerstones of
Modem Socio-technology (MST). Essentially, MST equates quality of working Iife
with job decision latitude (regelcapaciteit in Dutch), which is seen as an objective view
of quality of working life in the sense that it can be assessed by measuring job attributes
rather than asking employees how they feel about their work, which is a subjective
approach. However, job decision latitude alone does not suffice: there must be
something to make decisions about, i.e. the working situation must pose challengingjob
demands to the job holder. Only jobs that combine a sufficiently high job decision
latitude with such job demands reduce strain and enhance leaming (Karasek, 1979).
Both job decision latitude and production structures are expressions of more funda-
mental insights derived from cybernetics and systems theory , which forms the core of
the scientific basis of MST. MST sees work stations as interrelated elements in a
network. Often due to exteinal changes, disturbances and interferences occur which
need to be resolved. This requires local capacity to control, so appropriate interactions
Modern Socio- Technology 175

can be selected to solve distrubances. This self-organization is necessary for effective

problem solving . Furthermore, following Ashby's law of requisite variety, a system's
possibilities for control must match the need for control due to environmental changes.

(a) lins layout

operation
a

I I
operation operat ion operation
b c d

I I
operation operation operation
b c d

(b) functional layout

ope~tion I ope~tionI
operation
b
ope~ion I
operation operation operat ion
a c b

(c) group layout

Figure 1. Basic Forms ofLayout

In the case of a high degree of division of labor, there are many elements and hence
interrelations. Together these form a complicated network that is not only sensitive to
disturbances, but at the same time has few possibilities to deal locally with these
disturbances. Thus , the more complex the organization, the harder it is to contro\. This
affects organizational effectiveness negatively, and at the same time means that job
holders have little control over their own work. From this perspective, at the core ofthe
problem of the functional structure is the large number of possible interactions and
relations between the workstations making it hard to control, whereas the line structure
is problematic for its tight couplings between elements, leading to a high sensitivity for
disturbances. In other words: the functional structure is too complex, and the line
structure has little control capacity.
Whereas Op Weg naar Nieuwe Fabrieken en Kantoren can be seen as the diagnosis
of what was wrong in Dutch factories and offices, the follow-up study Het flexibele
bedrijf (The Flexible Company; 1986), written by Oe Sitter and a large number of
associates under the name "Groep Sociotechniek", provided some recipes and solutions.
In 1994, at the end of his academic career, Oe Sitter summarized his work in
Synergetisch produceren (Producing Synergetically), published in 1994.
176 Senders, Doorewaard, and Poutsma

Design Theory
MST's conceptual foundation underlies a worked-out design methodology. This
consists of a number of steps, which have to be followed subsequently. Figure 2 is a
visual display ofMST's design process.

structural (re)design

produelion control
structure structure

JJ fr
I whole task un its
I
Figure 2. The Design Process in Modern Socio -Technology

The first step is analyzing the environment, which has to result in a list of require-
ments or design criteria that the new organization has to meet. These include market
objectives, but other criteria such as the quality ofworking life and labor relations may
also be on the list. The next step involves analyzing the flow patterns of the products to
be made, wh ich serves as input for designing the production structure, first roughly and
then in detail. This involves (serni-)autonomous production units creating via
parallellization (making parallel production flows) and segmentation (splitting up
production flows) . These production units are operated by so-ca lied whole task -
groups . The design ofthe control structure starts by allocate control tasks to the lowest
possible level: first workstations, then whole task-groups, and only then to higher
hierarchical levels. So-ca lied operational groups , which combine several support and
line functions , may be created to assist a number of whole task-groups. Such
operational groups would typically include maintenance and quality control special ists.

Contemporary Theoretical Developments

MST provides a number of design principles and a design methodology. Applying
MST expertise in practice inevitably leads to all the difficulties inherent in
organizational change . Whereas Allegro (see above) already emphasized the
importance of attention for organizational change in 1973, the articulation of a detailed
design methodology appears to have worked in the opposite direction, and MST has
been criticized for being an expert-driven approach , paying insufficient attention to
employee participation in developing and implementing new organization designs (cf.
Huijgen and Pot, 1995). Van Eijnatten's history of the development of socio-technical
thought (1993), which received considerable attention in the Dutch academic
community, shows that early socio-technical work inspired the development of socio-
technical approaches in other countries, most notably in Sweden and Australia (see
Emery's contr ibution in this volume). However, such socio-technically-informed
approach es tend to see expert knowledge as undesirable as it would distort the
participative character of the design process . Informed by such writings and practical
Modern Socio- Technology 177

experiences several Dutch authors try to reconcile the expert and participative views
(f.i, Fruytier, 1996). Whereas the importance of employee participation is uncontested,
many different models circulate how to deal with it and no consensus about how to
incorporate participation in designing and implementing new plans into MST has yet
been arrived at. Arecent development is the use of'roundtable' or ' group' conferences,
in which socio-technical facilitators work with large groups of organization members to
design new structures in relatively short periods of time (Van Amelsvoort, 1996).
A second area of development concems human resource issues, especially designing
and implementing work teams, and performance and reward systems. Guidelines for the
design, implementation, and development ofteams were published by Van Amelsvoort
and Scholtes (1994) in a booklet targeted at practitioners . Their team development
model appears to be used widely and to have become somewhat of a standard in the
Netherlands (Van Amelsvoort and Benders, 1996).
Although performance measurement and payment systems receive considerable
attention in the mid-1990s, little seems to happen in practice. There are some
experiments catching the originally Arnerican model of PROMES to teams by
developing so-called goal matrices. These weight the scores on a number of
performance criteria to calculate an overall performance score.
In addition, several companies are experimenting with new payment systems
(Simonse, Scholtes and Van Amelsvoort, 1995). Skill-based wage systems, which
stimulate employees to develop their skills, appear to be gaining some popularity .
Linking wages to performance, however, is still a sensitive topic. Unions tend to be
against it, especially at the team level. Van Amelsvoort and Scholtes recommend that
the team bonus be a small part of total wages to foster the team spirit and cooperation
within the team (1994, p. 39).
Whereas the importance of issues such as change management and HRM-practices
is uncontested, there remains somewhat of a controversy whether or not these should be
incorporated in socio-technical theory or in contrast should be seen as complementary.
Other areas in which work is being done include the control structure and applying
socio-technical thinking to product development.

Diffusion
Given that by the mid-1990s key socio-technical notions such as flow production and
team-based working appear to be considered as proper rather than awkward and suspect
ways of organizing, and that MST derived its insights from many sources, the question
arises what this organization concept has to offer?
For practitioners, what matters is whether or not insights work in their particular
settings (Eccles and Nohria, 1992). Although the MST failed to break through inter-
nationally, it is a proven concept in the Netherlands . Practitioners elsewhere may want
to profit from these insights and put MST to their own tests. One particularly important
point that other concepts promoting tearn-based working either neglect or underplay is
the stress MST puts on the structural environment: these define the limits and therefore
the opportunities for teams to work in, an insight for which De Sitter coined the term
human resource mobilization (1994). Implementing teams has to start by looking at the
organization.
Knowledge about socio-technical design is disseminated through various channels
such as academic curricula (most notably at the universities of Eindhoven , Groningen
178 Benders, Doorewaard, and Poutsma

and Nijmegen), consulting agencies, publications and conferences, and through change
projects. Oe Sitter co-founded the foundation Stichting NKWO to provide socio-
technical courses. As of 1985 several socio-technical consulting agencies were founded,
among which KOERS and the ST-Groep.
In practice, socio-technical insights appear to be increasingly applied and, unlike the
situation in the beginning of the 1980s, teams are no longer exceptions but, on the
contrary, a model of good practice. Large and renowned companies such as DAF
Trucks, Akzo Nobel and Philips are among its adopters. Neverthe1ess, there is still
much work to be done in further diffusing it, not just by extending the approach by
developing complementary views on issues such as employee participation, change
management and HRM, but also by trying to increase its reputation and therefore
legitimacy as an effective organization concept. MST is a well-grounded approach,
which in some ways works to its disadvantage : the academic focus and theoretica1
underpinning make Dutch-Ianguage publications on MST often hard to read, and
practitioners are easily put off by socio-technical jargon . This may have not only have
been an important obstacle in MST's diffusion, but also have given it more of a stuft)'
image as an approach out of an ivory tower inhabited by societally engaged academics
rather than that of a business approach to redesigning organizations . As of
approximately 1993, the originally American concept of Business Process
Reengineering (BPR) has become fashionable in the Netherlands, as weil. This appears
as somewhat of a surprise if one accepts the claim of MST adherents that BPR's basic
ideas are roughly similar to those ofMST, yet that BPR is less sophisticated as a design
approach . BPR is thus typically commented on by MST adherents as some sound ideas,
"which we have been applying for the last twenty years" (Oe Sitter, 1994: VIII). Yet, as
Van Veen notes, BPR is mainly a consultancy product whereas MST has a firm basis in
Dutch academia (1998: 52-53), making MST less vulnerable to the capriciousness
which is characteristic for management fashions.

Conclusion
As shown above, MST did not develop in a vacuum. It built forth on theoretical work as
weil as field experiments . As early as 1960, the interconnectedness of organizational
and work design and their consequences for organizational effectiveness had been
recognized at Philips. Whereas many experiments followed under the title of work
structuring, a coherent view on these issues did not start developing until Oe Sitter and
his companions started their work on socio-technical design in the early I970s. By
combining insights from different technical and social sciences as weil as practical
experiences they worked out a systematic, integral approach to redesign organizations.
This approach strongly stresses the production environment in which teams operate:
these determine the conditions under which teams have to work. Unless the
organization is designed properly, there is no use implementing teams.
What can we leam from this history of MST? Perhaps the most important lesson is
that whereas it already takes a long time to work out such a design-oriented approach, it
even takes longer to get it accepted . And even now, when its content is not disputed any
more, the ideas are often implemented under another label. Thus, a weil worked out
theoretical foundation alone does not guarantee that an approach is picked up. It must
also appear legitimate in the eyes of key organizational decision-makers. Unless they
perceive an approach as attractive, it will not get adopted. MST adherents may claim
Modern Socio-Technology 179

that MST makes money, but these claims were and are not generally accepted. This
point may have long been overlooked by the rational academics that founded and
developed MST. Yet, the fact that De Sitter's book Synergetisch produceren, which
summarizes his Iife's work, was awarded a prize for the best business book of 1994 by
the National Association of Management Consultants, however, is an important
recognition ofhis, and MSTs, contribution to organizational design and may help in the
future diffusion.

Acknowledgements
We are indebted to Pierre van Amelsvoort and Mike Beyerlein for their comments on
earlier draft ofthis paper.

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