Computers - Planning For People

Out of Print...Planning for computer usage will be a major managerial preoccupation in the years ahead. It is a process which is both new and complex: the computer difficulties experienced by many firms are a direct result of a lack of knowledge of problem areas in electronic data processing. This lack of knowledge leads, in turn, to partial and inadequate planning. One important reason for defective planning is industrys traditionally narrow approach to technical innovation-considering this only from an engineering or systems point of view. But it is increasingly apparent that the problems of innovation have more than a technical content: they also contain economic factors, organisational factors and personnel and human-relations factors. Good planning means that management must diagnose and plan for problems in all these areas, and to do this successfully it must adopt an integrated and interdisciplinary approach. This book uses such an approach in its full and stimulating discussion of likely technical, organisational and personnel problem areas in computer introduction and development. Mrs Mumford is Lecturer in Industrial Sociology at the Manchester Business School. Mr Ward is head of the management research department in a very large mail-order organisation.