Integrating technologies to support action

As computer supported co-operative work (CSCW) becomes of increasing practical significance in business and public sector organisations, there is a need to develop a framework which can embed CSCW within the wider needs of the organisation. It is proposed here, based on specific study into the group working of executives, that such a framework needs to draw on the four domains of business drivers, information, human and social aspects, and technology. In much of the work to date for executives, there has been a preoccupation with their decision support needs. It is proposed that ‘systems to support action’ (SSA) should be given greater significance. The framework to underpin SSA could be based on one of the systems approaches, and that particularly examined here is managerial cybernetics, as developed by Stafford Beer.