A Meta Synthesis of the Modeling Methods of Complex Socio-technical Systems with a Multi Paradigm-multi Methodology Approach

Objective: Today,organizations are dealing with the systems which have structural, technological and social complexities named socio-technical systems. To capture this complexity and variety in modeling, we need methods which provide the researchers with similar level of variety. Despite developing a number of methods in different disciplines such as decision-making and systems theories, these methods are commonly one dimensional or they do not consider special aspects of socio-technical systems. Moreover, some methods do not propose a specific framework to model these systems. Therefore, the current study presents a meta-synthesis of the existing modeling methods and creates a new modeling method. Methods: The current study tries to present a meta-synthesis of the modeling methods using critical interpretive synthesis and a multi paradigm-multi methodology approach considering strengths and applicable tools of the extant methods. Results: Following the meta-synthesis, 12 descriptive themes were identified and used to analyze the methods. In addition, synthetic and analytic constructs were identified and used to propose the synthetic method. Conclusion: The proposed method, which is a by-product of the meta-synthesis of modeling methods of socio-technical systems, is able to model the different aspects of socio-technical systems using diverse concepts and tools of extant approaches and methods. However, its applicability has to be evaluated through different case studies.