Sociotechnical systems comprise integrated human and machine entities that, when functioning as an integrated, coordinated unit, can address a wide range of problems that are too complex to be addressed by individuals or machines working alone. However, the design and implementation of modern work systems tends to place primary emphasis on technological innovation without equal consideration for the social component—the teams and groups of humans—that uses that technology. There is a polarity between high technologies and the social systems that use them that can give rise to errors when a sociotechnical system is asked to respond in a manner not anticipated by the designers of the technology. Poor coordination of system-level response following Hurricane Katrina and failed emergency communications during the campus shootings at Virginia Tech are clear reminders that technology alone does not lead to an adaptive response. In complex sociotechnical systems, adaptation emerges from collaborated and coordinated response to a novel event in a manner not specified in the initial design or implementation of the system. The primary goal of this special issue is to gain new insights into what we have learned and are learning about the nature of coordination, collaboration, and adaptation in complex sociotechnical settings. We especially encouraged research conducted in field or synthetictask environments and theory relevant to current or future applications of teams and groups. We feature 13 articles that present new and innovative work in emerging human factors research areas, such as human-robot interaction, large brainstorming groups, and nonlinear dynamics of team coordination. A second goal of this special issue is to combine multidisciplinary perspectives. The 13 articles are consistent in the sociotechnical theme but come from a range of researchers working in different areas, such as computer science, psychology, engineering, and medicine. Also appended to the 13 special topic articles are three perspective pieces we solicited from communication and group learning scholars and psychologists from diverse disciplines with backgrounds in communications, computer science, education, industrial organizational psychology, information science, and philosophy. The perspective pieces also enhance the multidisciplinary nature of the special issue. With these 13 articles and the perspective pieces, we think we have delivered on the special issue goals and have done so with broad strokes across disciplines.