COMPUTER AWARENESS AMONG FUNCTIONAL MANAGERS
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb057521 |
| Pages | 14-18 |
| Published date | 01 September 1988 |
| Date | 01 September 1988 |
| Author | Christopher J. Rowe |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
COMPUTER AWARENESS AMONG
FUNCTIONAL MANAGERS
by Christopher J. Rowe
Reader in Management Studies, Humberside Business School
Introduction
Figure 1 recently appeared in a company report. It was prepared by the computer manager of a major UK
multinational, and summarises his views as to how different departments were responding to information
technology (IT). The X axis represents the amount of computing equipment and systems available to users,
while the Y axis indicates (in the computer manager's eyes) the degree to which departments understand
how IT can help in meeting business targets. The range in computer sophistication is from "ignorance" to
"omniscience", and his suggestion is that while most departments now have a fair amount of technology
at their disposal, this is rarely matched with sufficient awareness of its potential. No department appears
above the ignorance-omniscience line — possessing more awareness than technology — though some do
exhibit greater awareness than others.
This seems
to me a
useful model
for
analysing
the
varying levels
of
computer awareness among functional
managers,
and the
computer manager's findings
are,
I suggest, representative
of
many other companies
beside
his
own. What
he
highlights
is the
wide range
of response and, consequently,
the
inappropriateness
of talking about "management response
to IT" in
general terms. The truth is that managers respond very
differently
— not
just between companies,
but
within
functional areas,
and my aim is to
consider
why
this
should
be.
The Honeywell Technalysis Survey,
1984 [1]
A major American survey
for
the Honeywell computer
company examined the extent to which new technology
was being adopted by different functional departments
[2].
The
study covered
800 of the
largest
US
corporations
and
enquired
as to how
managers were
using
IT in
three main areas — word processing (WP),
computer terminals and personal computers (PCs).
As
Table
I
shows, significant
use was
made
of
each
technology, but there was considerable variation across
the groups. While around
70
per cent
of
managers had
access
to
WP and terminals, and over
50
per cent could
use PCs, this ranged from
34 per
cent
(for
PCs
in
legal
departments)
to 89 per
cent
(WP in the
same
department).
As regards actual
use,
greater availability seemed
to
produce greater use,
but
again,
the
range
was
wide,
from
as
low as 16 per cent
for
PCs and terminals
in the
legal department,
to 54 per
cent
for
terminals
in
computing
and
engineering.
Table II shows the purposes
for
which PCs and terminals
were used,
and the
most popular
was
information
retrieval from databases
(82 per
cent), followed
by
analysis
of
numbers
(73 per
cent),
WP (50 per
cent)
and communication (43 per cent). Once more, however,
there were marked disparities,
if not
with information
retrieval,
then certainly
in
relation
to
analysis, WP
and
communication.
When questioned over the advantages
of
IT,
89
per cent
believed that
it
saved them considerable time,
and 78
per cent claimed
it
enabled them
to
produce more work.
Table
III
shows, however, that across
the
functional
areas,
there were differences
in
how time savings were
then used. Marketing managers reported
the
greatest
increase
in
planning (60 per cent)
—
perhaps because
they are used
to
working
in
teams
on
marketing plans
— while finance and legal departments gave more time
to professional reading
and
development.
We should note that the companies
in
this survey were
a somewhat elite group — almost certainly some years
ahead
of
smaller US companies,
or for
that matter
UK
IMDS
September/October
1988
14
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