The organizational consequences of office automation: refining measurement techniques

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The organizational consequences of office automation: refining measurement techniques

Morell, J.A.

Data is reported regarding the impact of personal computer use in the Naval Military Personnel Command. The emphasis is on furthering knowledge of variables which may be affected by the introduction of office automation, and of how those variables might be measured. Particular attention was paid to the problem of abstracting generalizable measures from descriptions of what people did with their computers. Analysis of results revealed six general categories of impact, each with several specific, measurable indicators. The general categories include: budgeting, information for planning or administration, amount of time saved, uses of time saved, 'information creation', and communication. The intent is to demonstrate that an effort to measure the impact of office automation can be successful, and to urge others to undertake similar analyses with other data sets. Together, such efforts would lead to much improved understanding of how office automation affects activity within organizations.