Managing Computers in Large Organizations
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<strong>Manag<strong>in</strong>g</strong> Microcomputers <strong>in</strong> <strong>Large</strong> <strong>Organizations</strong><br />
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/167.html<br />
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INTRODUCTION 70<br />
for management. Because of their potential impact on a significant portion of<br />
employees, microcomputers may be a uniquely important issue for the large<br />
organization and its management.<br />
Consider<strong>in</strong>g the rate of growth and popular enthusiasm for personal<br />
computers, along with the potentially serious problems they raise, the biggest<br />
risk management can take is to wait and do noth<strong>in</strong>g. If the personal computer is<br />
an agent for <strong>in</strong>evitable change, how do we prepare for it? Management has a<br />
responsibility to address the potential improvement <strong>in</strong> the performance of the<br />
organization's primary asset—people.<br />
Alastair Omand identifies a whole range of important issues raised by the<br />
presence of microcomputers <strong>in</strong> large organizations. Only a few of these, he<br />
says, deserve the attention of top management. The rest are better handled at<br />
other organizational levels.<br />
For contributor Roger Sisson, the most important issues are how end-user<br />
comput<strong>in</strong>g affects the quality of decisions and how microcomputers can be used<br />
to facilitate better and more creative decision mak<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> organizations.<br />
Thomas Conrad offers a personal perspective on a set of control related<br />
issues that are especially critical for very large organizations such as the<br />
military: procurement, standardization, and centralization.<br />
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