engineering

Human systems engineering

Human systems engineering is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Human systems engineering rather than just read about it. In short: Human systems engineering (HSE) is a field based on systems theory intended as a structured approach to influencing the intangible reality in organizations in a desirable direction. HSE claims to turn complexity into an advantage, to ease innovation processes in organizations and to master problems rooted in negative emotions and a lack of motivation.

Key takeaways

Human systems engineering belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Human systems engineering to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Human systems engineering from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Human systems engineering (HSE) is a field based on systems theory intended as a structured approach to influencing the intangible reality in organizations in a desirable direction. HSE claims to turn complexity into an advantage, to ease innovation processes in organizations and to master problems rooted in negative emotions and a lack of motivation. It is taught in the Master of Advanced Studies program of the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland (HES-SO) as a complementary and postgraduate program for students who have already achieved a bachelor level or an MBA. Recently, after the crisis of the Swiss banking system due to whistle blowing and to the stealing and selling to intelligence services of sensitive data by bank personnel, numerous articles featured "human risks" as a major problem in organisations. According to de:Lutz von Rosenstiel the "lack of meaning" and conflicts between personal and organisational values systems is becoming increasingly a problem; people have not any more the feeling to "belong" to an organization if every relation is to be seen as a commercial interaction. Chris Argyris sees the same problem from the point of view of learning interactions between the organization and personnel, where the organization expects from its personnel to learn in order to fulfil jobs, but the organization is not prepared to learn from its personnel through double-loop learning. To handle these issues, in HSE, the organization is seen as a living system according to J.G. Millers theory of open and self organizing systems. In HSE, the 3 systemic levels "individual", "group" and "organization" are considered as main entities and targets to influence, whereas the levels "society" and "supranational system" supply the criteria for a positive insertion of the organization in its environment. This approach is intended to help managers to understand the organization as a complex and organic system where functional relations, hierarchy and processes are only the visible and tangible part of the "iceberg". HSE claims the invisible part is as important as the tangible and structural aspects of the organizations. HSE sees the invisible as the unconscious part of both the individual and the organization as a collective entity. Fritjof Capra describes the subtle interactions between the tangible and the invisible in one of his books. From an epistemological point of view HSE refers explicitly to Edgar Morin's proposal to link sciences and practices and to Jean Piaget's concept of "transdisciplinarity". As a result of the program, human risks and the resources deriving from a positive interaction are now better understood. HSE was first launched in French in 2002 at the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland and in 2004 at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences in German language. The program was founded in 2002 by two professors of the university:

Prof. Christa Muth PhD, who did several years research in organizational psychosociology and was developer of the Leonardo 3.4.5 methodology for strategy analysis in relation with team-members thought patterns. Muth was the main conceptor of HSE. Prof. Marie-France Bourdais, specialist in communication and coaching, joined the team at an early stage and contributed her experience in using Neuro-linguistic-programming for modelling human and business processes. The program in Zürich was abandoned after a few years. In 2018, the French program was renamed "Développement Humain dans les Organisations" (human development in organizations). Recently Massachusetts Institute of Technology started using the term "Human Systems Engineering" in its Engineering Systems Division, putting the focus on how people and organizations, conceive, develop and handle technological systems. Specialised courses focus on topics such as "The Human Side of Technology" or more human risk oriented courses as for example "Managing Nuclear Technology". A similar program exists at Concordia University in Canada: Human Systems Intervention. Several departments and academic programs at the Georgia Institute of Technology focus on Human Systems Engineering and related theory. Namely their Masters program in Human Computer Interaction, which explores intersections of industrial design, psychology, interactive computing, and media, and the professional education short course "Introduction to Human Systems Integration," which considers Human Systems Engineering as it relates to addressing human-related issues in design. The Georgia Tech Research Institute, the applied research arm of the Georgia Institute of Technology, houses a Human Systems Engineering branch that focuses primarily on applications of Human Systems Engineering in the defense domain.

References

External links Human Systems Engineering University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland Zurich University of Applied Sciences MIT Verbatim for Human Systems Engineering Human Systems Engineering

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Human systems engineering

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Human systems engineering claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Human systems engineering before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Human systems engineering ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Human systems engineering

In research: Human systems engineering appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Human systems engineering in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Human systems engineering is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Management education, Systems engineering, Systems psychology, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Human systems engineering outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Human systems engineering in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Human systems engineering means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Human systems engineering out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Human systems engineering in simple terms?

Why does Human systems engineering matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Human systems engineering?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Human systems engineering.