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What do managers think about IT?
European Manngement ]ournal Volume 6 No 3 0 Europrnr~ Management ]ournal 1988 ISSN 0203-2373 $3.00
What do Managers Think About IT? John Fripp Assistant Director of Studies, Ashridge Managemeut College, Berkhamsted,
UK.
The last few years have produced many conflicting opinions about the benefits and drawbacks of information technology (IT) at work. These have varied from the extravagent claims of office equipment suppliers who predicted the “paperless office”, to apocryphal stories about the adverse effects IT would have on employment. This article summarises some of the recent evidence about IT at work and describes a survey carried out among managers at Ashridge Management College. The managers all had personal experience of IT, and they reported how they used it, and what the advantages and difficulties were. Collectively this evidence confirms that there are indeed many potential advantages to be gained by using IT, provided that managers take appropriate steps.
IT at \Vork An earl!: view of Office Automation (OA) stated that OA would provide a cheap and effective solution to many office problems. It would also improve morale and effectiveness amongst both staff and management, dnd bring about immediate cost and marketing benefits’. Wallace and Yates-Merce? show that these claims have not been realised. They reviewed a number of articles dealing with the implications of OA and identified several problems which meant that the “paperless office” might never be realised. The reasons included the lack of suitable software offering the right features, and the fact that equipment was not sufficiently reliable. The authors also pointed out that the conventional wisdom that offices were ripe for automation and would offer significant cost savings was not true. For example only a small proportion of a secretary’s time is spent typing, and professional and managerial workers spend most of their time in face to face communication. Wallace and Yates-Mercer also point out likely human problems of resistance to change, due to the “office” being far more than a place of information transfer. Other potential problems included the fact that I?‘ allows easy communication across different levels of the organisation, and between different functions. This could have profound effects on the way that people organise their work, and the way they ust’ and disseminate information.
Rajan3 studied the impact of IT on the finance sector, the most advanced sector of business in terms of IT usage, and said that the assumptions of the adverse effects of IT on jobs were ill founded. Far from reducing the workforce, he found that in the finance sector new technology acts as a source of new jobs, allowing banks, for example, to become more cost effective and increase business activity and therefore job prospects. Huggins” contrasts the different reception given to IT products by the financial services and manufacturing industries. The top managers in the financial services industries are seizing on IT as a means of improving competitiveness, while those in manufacturing see IT at best as a purely administrative tool with little or no competitive advantage. These attitudes obviously reflect the relative importance of rapid information transfer and access within the two industries. The Department of Trade and Industry sponsored a programme of pilot schemes, designed to test the effect of Office Automation. Moran discusses these in detail, showing an overall disappointing pattern of failures, including the failure of the DTI’s own scheme. One of the main reasons for the failures was that OA turned out to be very different from data processing (DE’), and most of the suppliers and consultants involved came from a DP background and simply did not appreciate the full implications of applying IT in a non-expert environment. The users
224
WHAT DO MANAGERS
THINK ABOUT IT?
knew what they wanted, but could not express their needs in terms that the suppliers could understand.
Top management commitment was also found to be crucial, for example many managers underestimated the amount of time and effort that would be needed in implementing the new systems, training users, and ensuring the new systems worked fully and effectively. They often gave those responsible for the work additional and unrelated tasks, which made it more difficult for them to oversee the OA projects satisfactorily. It was also vitally important that a bad manual system was not automated. The system should be put right first. The necessary planning and development work must be completed before implementation, and it was essential that the equipment should work right first time. Users were also often misled by suppliers into thinking that the system would do more than it actually did. The Kobler Unit6 surveyed a number of companies that had used IT, and also stressed the importance of top management commitment. They failed to find any relationship between the investment in IT and business success. In fact they pointed out that large investments in IT could slow a company down and reduce its profitability. However leading companies tended to exploit IT more actively and link corporate strategy with IT strategy. surveyed chairmen, directors and top Kearney7 managers of companies in the Times Top 1000. The majority saw IT as providing strategic and operational opportunities which would lead to competitive advantage, but paradoxically these top managers often prevented companies gaining full advantage from the potential of IT. The main objection was that they believed that adequate cost benefit techniques did not exist. The applications of IT were mainly restricted to those offering cost control and increasing productivity. Also many companies had not aligned their IT strategy with that of the business. Factors leading to success were the quality of their staff, co-operation between user and technical staff, training, and a clear statement of requirements. Kearney succeeded in finding a strong connection between financial performance and the appropriate use of IT. Companies that lagged behind in IT usage were six times more likely to have poor financial performance within their business sector than companies leading in their use of IT. Kearney also showed that the gap between leading and lagging companies was widening. IT was helping the leading companies to become more competitive, and making the lagging companies less so, and therefore less able to catch up.
thought that technology would improve managerial decision making, equip the company to face economic and other threats, and give a tighter control of all corporate activity. In a later survey Kearney’ showed that all companies perceived the importance of computerisation in order to remain competitive, with over 66% classifying it as vital or very important. On the other hand, the message about OA was much less clear. The authors suggest that this might have been due to the potential benefits of OA being less well demonstrated. The move towards IT systems which will give competitive and strategic advanta e has been docuand Keen’ g. They describe a mented by Wiseman” large number of (mainly USA) companies that have exploited IT for competitive advantage. Keen stresses the need for clear business vision and the need for a strong link between corporate policy and IT policy. Wiseman codifies the various ways in which companies have used IT strategically, including the differentiation of a product or service, cost reduction, the development of innovative new products or services, growth by using IT for additional purposes, often using spare capacity, and the formation of strategic alliances. Ashridge is currently mounting research to find out more about how UK and European companies have used IT in this way. Galliers’* showed that few UK companies are reaping the rewards of IT investment. Reasons included the fact that companies rarely matched the investment to the business need, and in many cases IT planning was not tied to business planning. Mullinsi3 states that in order to capitalise fully on the potential of IT, managers need to develop working practises based on-a better understanding of motivation and human behaviour, and the integration of individual and organisational needs. He advocates the creation of commitment, trust, and the careful attention to job design and job satisfaction. Strassmani4 indicates some of the improvements in personal and organisational effectiveness which can be gained from the appropriate use of IT. These will occur if applications focus on effectiveness, rather than efficiency or cost cuttting, and if they are part of the overall strategy of the business. It is vital to ensure that the business systems are working first: IT can make good businesses better, but poor ones worse.
The Ashridge The Chief Executive survey* showed a more optimistic picture. 80% of the managing directors questioned
Ashridge
Survey
recently
surveyed
the IT usage
and ex-
WHAT DO MANAGERS
periences of a group of 134 middle and senior managers. The managers were all attending courses at Ashridge Management College and they came from many different companies and backgrounds. 90% ctf them were from the UK, and 12% were directors or chief executives. Their responsibilities ranged across all the main business functions, and their companies were in the chemical, manufacturing, public utilities, retail and distribution, publishing, and financial services sectors. They all had one thing in common however: actual experience of Inforn~ation Technology at work. Their experience varied from the use of terminals linked to mainframe computers, to stand-alone micros. It included fax machines, word processors, telex, teletext, tele-conferencing, viewdata, electronic diaries, electronic mail and local area networks. They completed a detailed questionnaire seeking their opinicns and experiences of IT, and their views of the main c>pportunities and barriers to IT at work.
Table 2
ABOUT
IT?
225
IT Facilities Used. % of Respondents Used by manager: by stafj:
Type of equipment: Stand-alone micro Terminal to mainframe Telex FAX Electronic Mail Dedicated word processor Teletext eg Orade or Ceefax Local area network Viewdata, eg Prestel Electronic Diary Teleconferencing Teletex Expert system
The Use of Personal to judge what effect IT was having on the managers and their jobs, we simply asked an open question inviting replies in their own words. The niost frequently occurring replies are shown in Table 1. These focussed on the potential of IT for
THINK
58 43 23 22 18 16
68 73 65 46 1 60
11 9 8 5 5 1 1
5 1 8 5 4 4 3
Computers
In an attempt
in~ornl~tion
Table 1
gathering
Hozo ITaffects
and analysis.
Of those who used a micro, 33% were new users with less than six months experience, 22% had between one and two years, and 30% gave their experience as over two years. In reply to a question on who else used the equipment, 8% said their boss was the main other user, 25% reported other managers at their level, while 65% said their own staff were the main other users.
Managers Personally
Better nformation Less manual work to do Receive more information Recei\re information faster Little or no effect --
17% 12% 12% 8% 7%
When asked how the work and attitudes
of their bosses were affected, the majority reported no affect at all, with minorities reporting a supportive reception, with “more being expected” of them. The impact on the managers staff was, however much more marked. 95% said that IT affected their staff, with a surpris:ng majority reporting increases in job satisfaction, morale, and be:ter or faster work. These effects are detailed below.
Next we looked at the range and variety of IT equipment used. Table 2 shows the replies ranked in decreasing order of usage. Predict ably, most equipment was used rather less by the managers than by their staff. The main exceptions were teletext, electronic mail and local area networks. In view of the high usage of microcomputers we then asked a number of questions specifit ally about them.
Table 3
Benefits Expected and Found
Benefit 1 Faster turnround of work 2 Raises my productivity 3 Raises my staff’s productivity 4 Allows more information to be considered 5 Improves quality of my decisions 6 Increases my staff’s job satisfaction 7 Increases my job satisfaction 8 Reduces my costs 9 Meets external reporting requirements 10 Improves my organisation’s competitiveness 11 Makes information more secure 12 Improves my organisation’s image
% of Respondents expected found 60 59 55
60 52 69(“‘)
49 33
62(**) 40
30 28 25
53(‘“) 52(“*) 20
23
31
16 12
25(‘) 16
5
41(**)
(““1 shows changes between “expected“ and ‘Ifound” signi~cunt at 2 % ~McNe~ar test, see Seigel (7.5)) (“1 shozu.5 the changes were sign~cant at 5%.
zuere
226
WHAT DO MANAGERS
THINK ABOUT IT?
Personal computers were used for a variety of purposes. Among software packages used, many different proprietary packages were mentioned. 30% reported that they used various database packages, 30% used word processing packages, 29% spreadsheets, and 21% used integrated packages (defined as those packages offering three or more functions).
The Benefits and Drawbacks
of IT
A major concern of this research was to establish what the managers believed to be the main advantages and disadvantages of using IT at work. Table 3 shows their response to a question designed to compare the benefits they expected prior to introducing IT with those actually found after they had some experience. It is interesting to note that benefits 1 to 3, the most widely expected ones, were all related to “efficiency”, ie faster turnround of work, an improvement in the managers productivity, and that of their staff. The next two were related to the manager’s decisionmaking responsibilities, ie IT was believed to provide more information, and to improve the quality of their decisions. The next two benefits were concerned with their staff and their own job satisfaction. Then follow a number of less widely felt advantages on cost reduction, meeting organisational reporting requirements, improving competitiveness, making information more secure and image improvement. The only expected advantages which did not fully materialise were those of personal productivity and cost reduction. The productivity finding may be partly explained by reference to Table 2, which shows that in almost all application areas the manager’s staff were more likely to use the equipment than the thus reducing the scope for managers themselves, productivity improvements. The improved staff productivity was one of the benefits that was significantly more prevalent than was anticipated. The impact of IT on information availability is also clear. What is perhaps most surprising is the very significant increase in the manager’s own job satisfaction, and that of their staff. Respondents also felt that competitive advantage and image improvement benefits both materialised more strongly than expected, together with the possibility of more information being considered. These results taken collectively show a very encouraging picture: IT has a wide range of advantages, and the benefits are almost always more pronounced than anticipated. The benefits affect not only the main users of the equipment in terms of job satisfaction, but are clearly valued by the manager himself in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.
Table 4 compares the problems anticipated actually experienced. Table 4
with those
Problems Expected and Found
Problem Staff resistance of change My own lack of technical knowledge Lack of user training Need to prove cost-effectiveness Management unaware of benefits Lack of top management support No suitable products available Unrealistic estimate of equipment cost Inadequate communications between users and suppliers 10 Makes information less secure 11 Poor after sales service 12 Lack of ability to manage the design and implementation process 13 Union objections 14 Unreliable equipment 15 Changes in system specification
%of Respondents expected found 39
lo(+*)
34 33 32
20(7
19
27
13
11
12
w+)
10
9
40 19(“)
9 9 8
28(‘*) 8 20(**)
8
11
8 8
30 16
6
lV(*“)
(*“) shows changes between “expected” signijcant at 1% (McNemar test). (*) shows changes were significant at 5%.
and
‘found”
were
The problem expected most widely, by 39% of respondents, was that of staff resistance to change. The next two problems were the managers fear that they themselves would not be technically able to cope with the equipment, and the probable lack of training for users. The next three drawbacks may be grouped together and represent the difficulty of justifying the investment and gaining managerial support. A number of less widely reported drawbacks then follow, covering equipment cost, reliability and availablity, after sales support, union objections and security of information. The right hand “problems found” column is revealing. Seven problem areas were less prevalent than anticipated, four significantly so. Far fewer managers actually experienced any resistance to the equipment being introduced than expected it, either from their staff directly, or from organised unions. Also the need to prove that the equipment was cost effective was less of a problem after it had been installed. Encouragingly, they found themselves personally
WHAT DO MANAGERS
more able to cope with the new equipment expected.
1. StaftlNVOLVEMENT
and TRAINlNG
DO involve your staff, brief and train fully DONT forget - some people are frightened by IT 0 TRAIN, TRAIN. and TRAIN! (DONT stint on it) for “hands on”, and one to one 0 DO provide training where necessary 0 DO ensure the equipment is available immediately after training, so people don’t forget what they have learned 0
0
4. Choosing
227
SOFTWARE
DO it before choosing hardware DO investigate what’s available before deciding (BUT be prepared for this to take a long time) DO buy more capacity than you currently need DONT be fooled by dummy tests - use your own data DO use commercial software wherever possible DONT develop your own software DO ensure compatibility with other systems where appropriate DO go for user friendly software (But beware: there is very little software that is truly user friendly! 5. Choosing HARDWARE 0 DO buy a machine with wide software range 0 DO go for discs (soft or hard) 0 Some said: DONT evaluate alternative micros, but other said: DO shop around 0 DO get a demonstration of the package on the micro you want 0 DO make sure you understand the power (and limitations) of the micro you are considering 6. How to GET STARTED DO start small DO be prepared to write it off and restart DO test thoroughly before going live DO get new users to use a spreadsheet first DO restrain colleagues who want to rush in without knowing why DONT expect too much too quickly DO allow more time then you can possibly imagine for implementation and learning how to use the new system DO it!!!
2. Set OBJECTIVES 0 DO know what your requirements are 0 DONT automate a bad manual system l DO set an action plan with deadlines or supplier 0 DONT take what the programmer thinks you need at all levels, & find out l DO get users involved, what they want 0 DO agree on your specification before approaching suppliers 0 DO go for a standard product where possible 0 DONT let the supplier change your requirements unless absolutely esstential - make him change the program or equipment
IT?
0 DO get advice, but from an expert USER, or someone using similar system 0 DO ensure that control is in your hands, not in the hands of the supplier or expert (whether incompany or external) 0 DONT believe the salesmen 0 DO insist on good “after sales service”
Advice to other Users Finally we asked what advice they might like to give to other managers contemplating introducing any form of IT at work. This question received many indicating that managers were indeed replies, anxious to pass on their experiences. The comments can conveniently be summarised under seven headings.
ABOUT
3. The role of “EXPERTS”
than they
However there were eight problems that were found more frequently than anticipated, four significantly so. 21% of respondents found that after installing equipment, it was not really suitable for the task at hand. It was clear that there was inadequate communic‘jtion between users and suppliers, that the managers received poor after sales service, and that they suffered certain changes in requirements. These issues are of course related, and collectively they indicate the need for closer involvement between user and supplier, both before and after purchase. The managers seem to be generally disatisfied with their suppliers.
THINK
I
.
The ROLE OF THE MANAGER
DO set a good example. “Lead from the front” DO find out how to use the equipment yourself, and its strengths and limitations 0 DONT delegate the job to a separate group of IT specialists 0
0
228
WHAT DO MANAGERS
THINK ABOUT IT?
l DO generate enthusiasm l DONT be frightened!
Conclusions Introducing IT in organisations brings a number of very clear advantages, some of which are unexpected. These range from improvements in managerial and staff productivity to the ability to analyse more information, thus leading to better decision making. Users, both managerial and staff, can also find real benefits in terms of job satisfaction. Some IT users still show a marked distrust of suppliers, both before purchase of equipment and afterwards, in terms of after sales service. Managers find it more useful to find an experienced user of similar equipment, someone who had “been through the mill” and who understood the problems and who could therefore be trusted to offer impartial advice. They were also pleased with the positive response of their staff, and pleasantly surprised by their own ability to understand the equipment, and to manage the process of introducing IT. Some clear lessons can now be drawn from recent findings on IT. IT can be used successfully for a variety of applications, but it will not be successful unless certain conditions are satisfied. First the reasons for introducing IT must clearly thought through, and the objectives and plans must be integral to overall business plans. Likely impacts on the users and on the organisation of work should be considered carefully, and it is vital that those who will actually use the equipment are fully consulted. The evidence is that if these steps are followed, IT will give a range of advantages. It can increase productivity, job satisfaction, and if properly managed, bring fewer problems than most people anticipate. Staff will generally welcome the introduction of new technology provided the reasons are fully explained, jobs are not threatened, and adequate training is given. The work reported here shows very clearly that the successful introduction of new technology is ultimately dependent on the willing and effective
cooperation of a wide variety of people. Full benefits will only be attained if proper account is taken of human as well as technical factors. Furthermore the kinds of skills and abilities needed to manage the successful introduction of IT are not new ones. Good managers are likely to be good at introducing IT.
References 1. “IT’s Business“, British Business bimonthly review of developments in information technology, 23 April 1982. 2. Wallace D.L. and Yates Mercer, P.A., “A paperless society: reality or myth?“, Management Services, February 1980, pp. 12-17. 3 Rajan, A., Nezu technology and employment in insurance, banking and building societies: recent experiences and future impact, Gower 1984. 4. Huggins, T., “Chief Executives underestimate IT’s potential”, Netzuork, October 1985, pp. 17. 5. Moran, N., ‘Users learn their lessons’, Management to Computer Weekly), Reviezu (Supplement January 1985, pp. 13-14. 6 Kobler Unit, Does Information Technology Slozu you Dozun?, November 1987. 7. Kearney, A.T., The Barriers and the Opportunities of Information Technology - a Management Perspectizle, 1984. 8. “Management Puts Dead Hand on IT progress”, Chief Executive, October 1985, pp. 53-65. 9. Kearney, A.T., Corporate Organisation and Overhead Efictiveness Survey, March 1987. 10. Wiseman, C., Strategy and Computers, Dow JonesIrwin, 1985. 11. Keen, P.G.W., Competing in Time: using Telecommunications for Competitive Advantage, Ballinger, 1986. Business 12 Galliers, R., “A Failure of Direction”, Computing and Communications, July/August 1986, pp. 32-38. Technology - the 13. Mullins, L., “Information September 1985, Human Factor”, Administrator, pp. 6-9. PayoJ, Macmillan, P., Information 14. Strassman, 1985. 15 Siegel, S., Nonparametric Statistics for the Behavioural Sciences, McGraw Hill, 1956.
What do Managers Think About IT? John Fripp Assistant Director of Studies, Ashridge Managemeut College, Berkhamsted,
UK.
The last few years have produced many conflicting opinions about the benefits and drawbacks of information technology (IT) at work. These have varied from the extravagent claims of office equipment suppliers who predicted the “paperless office”, to apocryphal stories about the adverse effects IT would have on employment. This article summarises some of the recent evidence about IT at work and describes a survey carried out among managers at Ashridge Management College. The managers all had personal experience of IT, and they reported how they used it, and what the advantages and difficulties were. Collectively this evidence confirms that there are indeed many potential advantages to be gained by using IT, provided that managers take appropriate steps.
IT at \Vork An earl!: view of Office Automation (OA) stated that OA would provide a cheap and effective solution to many office problems. It would also improve morale and effectiveness amongst both staff and management, dnd bring about immediate cost and marketing benefits’. Wallace and Yates-Merce? show that these claims have not been realised. They reviewed a number of articles dealing with the implications of OA and identified several problems which meant that the “paperless office” might never be realised. The reasons included the lack of suitable software offering the right features, and the fact that equipment was not sufficiently reliable. The authors also pointed out that the conventional wisdom that offices were ripe for automation and would offer significant cost savings was not true. For example only a small proportion of a secretary’s time is spent typing, and professional and managerial workers spend most of their time in face to face communication. Wallace and Yates-Mercer also point out likely human problems of resistance to change, due to the “office” being far more than a place of information transfer. Other potential problems included the fact that I?‘ allows easy communication across different levels of the organisation, and between different functions. This could have profound effects on the way that people organise their work, and the way they ust’ and disseminate information.
Rajan3 studied the impact of IT on the finance sector, the most advanced sector of business in terms of IT usage, and said that the assumptions of the adverse effects of IT on jobs were ill founded. Far from reducing the workforce, he found that in the finance sector new technology acts as a source of new jobs, allowing banks, for example, to become more cost effective and increase business activity and therefore job prospects. Huggins” contrasts the different reception given to IT products by the financial services and manufacturing industries. The top managers in the financial services industries are seizing on IT as a means of improving competitiveness, while those in manufacturing see IT at best as a purely administrative tool with little or no competitive advantage. These attitudes obviously reflect the relative importance of rapid information transfer and access within the two industries. The Department of Trade and Industry sponsored a programme of pilot schemes, designed to test the effect of Office Automation. Moran discusses these in detail, showing an overall disappointing pattern of failures, including the failure of the DTI’s own scheme. One of the main reasons for the failures was that OA turned out to be very different from data processing (DE’), and most of the suppliers and consultants involved came from a DP background and simply did not appreciate the full implications of applying IT in a non-expert environment. The users
224
WHAT DO MANAGERS
THINK ABOUT IT?
knew what they wanted, but could not express their needs in terms that the suppliers could understand.
Top management commitment was also found to be crucial, for example many managers underestimated the amount of time and effort that would be needed in implementing the new systems, training users, and ensuring the new systems worked fully and effectively. They often gave those responsible for the work additional and unrelated tasks, which made it more difficult for them to oversee the OA projects satisfactorily. It was also vitally important that a bad manual system was not automated. The system should be put right first. The necessary planning and development work must be completed before implementation, and it was essential that the equipment should work right first time. Users were also often misled by suppliers into thinking that the system would do more than it actually did. The Kobler Unit6 surveyed a number of companies that had used IT, and also stressed the importance of top management commitment. They failed to find any relationship between the investment in IT and business success. In fact they pointed out that large investments in IT could slow a company down and reduce its profitability. However leading companies tended to exploit IT more actively and link corporate strategy with IT strategy. surveyed chairmen, directors and top Kearney7 managers of companies in the Times Top 1000. The majority saw IT as providing strategic and operational opportunities which would lead to competitive advantage, but paradoxically these top managers often prevented companies gaining full advantage from the potential of IT. The main objection was that they believed that adequate cost benefit techniques did not exist. The applications of IT were mainly restricted to those offering cost control and increasing productivity. Also many companies had not aligned their IT strategy with that of the business. Factors leading to success were the quality of their staff, co-operation between user and technical staff, training, and a clear statement of requirements. Kearney succeeded in finding a strong connection between financial performance and the appropriate use of IT. Companies that lagged behind in IT usage were six times more likely to have poor financial performance within their business sector than companies leading in their use of IT. Kearney also showed that the gap between leading and lagging companies was widening. IT was helping the leading companies to become more competitive, and making the lagging companies less so, and therefore less able to catch up.
thought that technology would improve managerial decision making, equip the company to face economic and other threats, and give a tighter control of all corporate activity. In a later survey Kearney’ showed that all companies perceived the importance of computerisation in order to remain competitive, with over 66% classifying it as vital or very important. On the other hand, the message about OA was much less clear. The authors suggest that this might have been due to the potential benefits of OA being less well demonstrated. The move towards IT systems which will give competitive and strategic advanta e has been docuand Keen’ g. They describe a mented by Wiseman” large number of (mainly USA) companies that have exploited IT for competitive advantage. Keen stresses the need for clear business vision and the need for a strong link between corporate policy and IT policy. Wiseman codifies the various ways in which companies have used IT strategically, including the differentiation of a product or service, cost reduction, the development of innovative new products or services, growth by using IT for additional purposes, often using spare capacity, and the formation of strategic alliances. Ashridge is currently mounting research to find out more about how UK and European companies have used IT in this way. Galliers’* showed that few UK companies are reaping the rewards of IT investment. Reasons included the fact that companies rarely matched the investment to the business need, and in many cases IT planning was not tied to business planning. Mullinsi3 states that in order to capitalise fully on the potential of IT, managers need to develop working practises based on-a better understanding of motivation and human behaviour, and the integration of individual and organisational needs. He advocates the creation of commitment, trust, and the careful attention to job design and job satisfaction. Strassmani4 indicates some of the improvements in personal and organisational effectiveness which can be gained from the appropriate use of IT. These will occur if applications focus on effectiveness, rather than efficiency or cost cuttting, and if they are part of the overall strategy of the business. It is vital to ensure that the business systems are working first: IT can make good businesses better, but poor ones worse.
The Ashridge The Chief Executive survey* showed a more optimistic picture. 80% of the managing directors questioned
Ashridge
Survey
recently
surveyed
the IT usage
and ex-
WHAT DO MANAGERS
periences of a group of 134 middle and senior managers. The managers were all attending courses at Ashridge Management College and they came from many different companies and backgrounds. 90% ctf them were from the UK, and 12% were directors or chief executives. Their responsibilities ranged across all the main business functions, and their companies were in the chemical, manufacturing, public utilities, retail and distribution, publishing, and financial services sectors. They all had one thing in common however: actual experience of Inforn~ation Technology at work. Their experience varied from the use of terminals linked to mainframe computers, to stand-alone micros. It included fax machines, word processors, telex, teletext, tele-conferencing, viewdata, electronic diaries, electronic mail and local area networks. They completed a detailed questionnaire seeking their opinicns and experiences of IT, and their views of the main c>pportunities and barriers to IT at work.
Table 2
ABOUT
IT?
225
IT Facilities Used. % of Respondents Used by manager: by stafj:
Type of equipment: Stand-alone micro Terminal to mainframe Telex FAX Electronic Mail Dedicated word processor Teletext eg Orade or Ceefax Local area network Viewdata, eg Prestel Electronic Diary Teleconferencing Teletex Expert system
The Use of Personal to judge what effect IT was having on the managers and their jobs, we simply asked an open question inviting replies in their own words. The niost frequently occurring replies are shown in Table 1. These focussed on the potential of IT for
THINK
58 43 23 22 18 16
68 73 65 46 1 60
11 9 8 5 5 1 1
5 1 8 5 4 4 3
Computers
In an attempt
in~ornl~tion
Table 1
gathering
Hozo ITaffects
and analysis.
Of those who used a micro, 33% were new users with less than six months experience, 22% had between one and two years, and 30% gave their experience as over two years. In reply to a question on who else used the equipment, 8% said their boss was the main other user, 25% reported other managers at their level, while 65% said their own staff were the main other users.
Managers Personally
Better nformation Less manual work to do Receive more information Recei\re information faster Little or no effect --
17% 12% 12% 8% 7%
When asked how the work and attitudes
of their bosses were affected, the majority reported no affect at all, with minorities reporting a supportive reception, with “more being expected” of them. The impact on the managers staff was, however much more marked. 95% said that IT affected their staff, with a surpris:ng majority reporting increases in job satisfaction, morale, and be:ter or faster work. These effects are detailed below.
Next we looked at the range and variety of IT equipment used. Table 2 shows the replies ranked in decreasing order of usage. Predict ably, most equipment was used rather less by the managers than by their staff. The main exceptions were teletext, electronic mail and local area networks. In view of the high usage of microcomputers we then asked a number of questions specifit ally about them.
Table 3
Benefits Expected and Found
Benefit 1 Faster turnround of work 2 Raises my productivity 3 Raises my staff’s productivity 4 Allows more information to be considered 5 Improves quality of my decisions 6 Increases my staff’s job satisfaction 7 Increases my job satisfaction 8 Reduces my costs 9 Meets external reporting requirements 10 Improves my organisation’s competitiveness 11 Makes information more secure 12 Improves my organisation’s image
% of Respondents expected found 60 59 55
60 52 69(“‘)
49 33
62(**) 40
30 28 25
53(‘“) 52(“*) 20
23
31
16 12
25(‘) 16
5
41(**)
(““1 shows changes between “expected“ and ‘Ifound” signi~cunt at 2 % ~McNe~ar test, see Seigel (7.5)) (“1 shozu.5 the changes were sign~cant at 5%.
zuere
226
WHAT DO MANAGERS
THINK ABOUT IT?
Personal computers were used for a variety of purposes. Among software packages used, many different proprietary packages were mentioned. 30% reported that they used various database packages, 30% used word processing packages, 29% spreadsheets, and 21% used integrated packages (defined as those packages offering three or more functions).
The Benefits and Drawbacks
of IT
A major concern of this research was to establish what the managers believed to be the main advantages and disadvantages of using IT at work. Table 3 shows their response to a question designed to compare the benefits they expected prior to introducing IT with those actually found after they had some experience. It is interesting to note that benefits 1 to 3, the most widely expected ones, were all related to “efficiency”, ie faster turnround of work, an improvement in the managers productivity, and that of their staff. The next two were related to the manager’s decisionmaking responsibilities, ie IT was believed to provide more information, and to improve the quality of their decisions. The next two benefits were concerned with their staff and their own job satisfaction. Then follow a number of less widely felt advantages on cost reduction, meeting organisational reporting requirements, improving competitiveness, making information more secure and image improvement. The only expected advantages which did not fully materialise were those of personal productivity and cost reduction. The productivity finding may be partly explained by reference to Table 2, which shows that in almost all application areas the manager’s staff were more likely to use the equipment than the thus reducing the scope for managers themselves, productivity improvements. The improved staff productivity was one of the benefits that was significantly more prevalent than was anticipated. The impact of IT on information availability is also clear. What is perhaps most surprising is the very significant increase in the manager’s own job satisfaction, and that of their staff. Respondents also felt that competitive advantage and image improvement benefits both materialised more strongly than expected, together with the possibility of more information being considered. These results taken collectively show a very encouraging picture: IT has a wide range of advantages, and the benefits are almost always more pronounced than anticipated. The benefits affect not only the main users of the equipment in terms of job satisfaction, but are clearly valued by the manager himself in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.
Table 4 compares the problems anticipated actually experienced. Table 4
with those
Problems Expected and Found
Problem Staff resistance of change My own lack of technical knowledge Lack of user training Need to prove cost-effectiveness Management unaware of benefits Lack of top management support No suitable products available Unrealistic estimate of equipment cost Inadequate communications between users and suppliers 10 Makes information less secure 11 Poor after sales service 12 Lack of ability to manage the design and implementation process 13 Union objections 14 Unreliable equipment 15 Changes in system specification
%of Respondents expected found 39
lo(+*)
34 33 32
20(7
19
27
13
11
12
w+)
10
9
40 19(“)
9 9 8
28(‘*) 8 20(**)
8
11
8 8
30 16
6
lV(*“)
(*“) shows changes between “expected” signijcant at 1% (McNemar test). (*) shows changes were significant at 5%.
and
‘found”
were
The problem expected most widely, by 39% of respondents, was that of staff resistance to change. The next two problems were the managers fear that they themselves would not be technically able to cope with the equipment, and the probable lack of training for users. The next three drawbacks may be grouped together and represent the difficulty of justifying the investment and gaining managerial support. A number of less widely reported drawbacks then follow, covering equipment cost, reliability and availablity, after sales support, union objections and security of information. The right hand “problems found” column is revealing. Seven problem areas were less prevalent than anticipated, four significantly so. Far fewer managers actually experienced any resistance to the equipment being introduced than expected it, either from their staff directly, or from organised unions. Also the need to prove that the equipment was cost effective was less of a problem after it had been installed. Encouragingly, they found themselves personally
WHAT DO MANAGERS
more able to cope with the new equipment expected.
1. StaftlNVOLVEMENT
and TRAINlNG
DO involve your staff, brief and train fully DONT forget - some people are frightened by IT 0 TRAIN, TRAIN. and TRAIN! (DONT stint on it) for “hands on”, and one to one 0 DO provide training where necessary 0 DO ensure the equipment is available immediately after training, so people don’t forget what they have learned 0
0
4. Choosing
227
SOFTWARE
DO it before choosing hardware DO investigate what’s available before deciding (BUT be prepared for this to take a long time) DO buy more capacity than you currently need DONT be fooled by dummy tests - use your own data DO use commercial software wherever possible DONT develop your own software DO ensure compatibility with other systems where appropriate DO go for user friendly software (But beware: there is very little software that is truly user friendly! 5. Choosing HARDWARE 0 DO buy a machine with wide software range 0 DO go for discs (soft or hard) 0 Some said: DONT evaluate alternative micros, but other said: DO shop around 0 DO get a demonstration of the package on the micro you want 0 DO make sure you understand the power (and limitations) of the micro you are considering 6. How to GET STARTED DO start small DO be prepared to write it off and restart DO test thoroughly before going live DO get new users to use a spreadsheet first DO restrain colleagues who want to rush in without knowing why DONT expect too much too quickly DO allow more time then you can possibly imagine for implementation and learning how to use the new system DO it!!!
2. Set OBJECTIVES 0 DO know what your requirements are 0 DONT automate a bad manual system l DO set an action plan with deadlines or supplier 0 DONT take what the programmer thinks you need at all levels, & find out l DO get users involved, what they want 0 DO agree on your specification before approaching suppliers 0 DO go for a standard product where possible 0 DONT let the supplier change your requirements unless absolutely esstential - make him change the program or equipment
IT?
0 DO get advice, but from an expert USER, or someone using similar system 0 DO ensure that control is in your hands, not in the hands of the supplier or expert (whether incompany or external) 0 DONT believe the salesmen 0 DO insist on good “after sales service”
Advice to other Users Finally we asked what advice they might like to give to other managers contemplating introducing any form of IT at work. This question received many indicating that managers were indeed replies, anxious to pass on their experiences. The comments can conveniently be summarised under seven headings.
ABOUT
3. The role of “EXPERTS”
than they
However there were eight problems that were found more frequently than anticipated, four significantly so. 21% of respondents found that after installing equipment, it was not really suitable for the task at hand. It was clear that there was inadequate communic‘jtion between users and suppliers, that the managers received poor after sales service, and that they suffered certain changes in requirements. These issues are of course related, and collectively they indicate the need for closer involvement between user and supplier, both before and after purchase. The managers seem to be generally disatisfied with their suppliers.
THINK
I
.
The ROLE OF THE MANAGER
DO set a good example. “Lead from the front” DO find out how to use the equipment yourself, and its strengths and limitations 0 DONT delegate the job to a separate group of IT specialists 0
0
228
WHAT DO MANAGERS
THINK ABOUT IT?
l DO generate enthusiasm l DONT be frightened!
Conclusions Introducing IT in organisations brings a number of very clear advantages, some of which are unexpected. These range from improvements in managerial and staff productivity to the ability to analyse more information, thus leading to better decision making. Users, both managerial and staff, can also find real benefits in terms of job satisfaction. Some IT users still show a marked distrust of suppliers, both before purchase of equipment and afterwards, in terms of after sales service. Managers find it more useful to find an experienced user of similar equipment, someone who had “been through the mill” and who understood the problems and who could therefore be trusted to offer impartial advice. They were also pleased with the positive response of their staff, and pleasantly surprised by their own ability to understand the equipment, and to manage the process of introducing IT. Some clear lessons can now be drawn from recent findings on IT. IT can be used successfully for a variety of applications, but it will not be successful unless certain conditions are satisfied. First the reasons for introducing IT must clearly thought through, and the objectives and plans must be integral to overall business plans. Likely impacts on the users and on the organisation of work should be considered carefully, and it is vital that those who will actually use the equipment are fully consulted. The evidence is that if these steps are followed, IT will give a range of advantages. It can increase productivity, job satisfaction, and if properly managed, bring fewer problems than most people anticipate. Staff will generally welcome the introduction of new technology provided the reasons are fully explained, jobs are not threatened, and adequate training is given. The work reported here shows very clearly that the successful introduction of new technology is ultimately dependent on the willing and effective
cooperation of a wide variety of people. Full benefits will only be attained if proper account is taken of human as well as technical factors. Furthermore the kinds of skills and abilities needed to manage the successful introduction of IT are not new ones. Good managers are likely to be good at introducing IT.
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