This paper reviews the development of sociotechnical systems theory and research over the past 30 years, paying particular attention to the evolution of the paradigm in North America during the past decade. Elements of sociotechnical systems theory discussed here include the conceptualization of social systems, technical systems, and open systems, joint optimization, organizational choice, variance control, boundary location, support congruence, quality of work life, and continuous learning. A review of 134 experiments is then summarized, indicating which features of sociotechnical systems design are used most frequently, and which in turn are associated with reported success on a number of critical outcome dimensions such as productivity, costs, quality, and satisfaction. An unexpected finding of this review was that while sociotechnical system experiments have been extremely successful overall, the number of experiments involving technological innovation or change is relatively small; moreover, from the results achieved in these experiments, it is obvious that we still have much to learn regarding the design of technical systems for joint optimization. Methodological issues and areas in need of further research are explored.

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The purpose of this review is to identify and explore issues associated with the use of participation in conjunction with Organization Development activities. We maintain that the misunderstanding of participative processes places significant limitations on the success of Organization Development interventions and upon acceptance of the field as a whole. To remedy this situation, we suggest that practitioners pay more attention to combining individual and organization development efforts and that researchers devote more energy to exploring the effects of mediating variables on participation outcomes. We recommend the concept of organizational citizenship as a more inclusive frameworkfor research and practice concerning participation in organization development activities. "Progress for democracy lies in enhancing the actual freedom, initiative and spontaneity of the individual, not only in certain private and spiritual matters, but above all in the activity fundamental to every man's existence, his work." Eric Fromm, 1941. "If there were a nation of gods, it would be governed democratically. So perfect a government is unsuited to men." Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 176211967.

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A s editors of the Handbook of Collaborative Management Research,we began this project with a firm belief based on our experience that broader and deeper collaboration between managers of organizations and academic researchers could yield significant benefits for both parties. Managers would learn much more about how organizations function and new approaches to managing complex systems, thereby improving their individual and organizational performance. Researchers would have access to organizations to discover and test new theories and hypotheses, thereby advancing knowledge and using it to enhance undergraduate, graduate, and executive education. What we didn't realize at the time was how much we would learn about collaborative management research from each other and from our colleagues who have contributed chapters to this volume. As we began work on the editorial statement and guidelines for the book, we quickly realized that we held different ideas of what collaborative management research entailed.As we tried to define what we meant by management and collaboration, we disagreed on some basic points. Did management include both profit and nonprofit organizations? Did it include the "management" of systems that weren't even formal organizations, such as regional economies?

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