OBSERVATIONS ON THE USE OF PERSONAL COMPUTERS BY MANAGERS AND EXECUTIVES

Many managers and executives who are working with personal computers are doing more of the work they used to delegate to their subordinates or secretaries. Higher ranking managers and executives are doing their own word processing, creating and maintaining mailing lists, assembling organization charts, developing budgets for their operating areas, and working on any Computing number of similar types of application programs and databases. Access to personal computers can actually create more work at higher levels in some organizations, among a group of people who traditionally complain about the constraints they feel on the use of their time. There doesn’t seem to be much doubt that personal computers can be powerful tools to help someone better manages their resources. It seems equally true; however, that they can also take over a person’s schedule and rob them of time. For example, the manager or executive who used to draft memorandums or letters in longhand, or by dictation, and then let a secretary set them up, now does all this work on a personal computer. Some say that it saves time, because they can redo or rearrange written information much more efficiently. Caught up in the magic of word processing, however, a few of these people are spending more time than ever setting up the perfect memorandum. One manager has admitted spending over an hour setting up a memorandum on his personal computer, which previously would have only taken 15 or 20 minutes to write and proof. Or, take the manager who spent several hours each day creating and updating her status files, and formatting (or reformatting) various types of reports, sometimes just to see how differently they could look. It didn’t take long for her staff to begin grumbling about her inaccessibility, and wondering what was going on behind her closed door. Then there was the executive who became so smitten by the possibilities of what a personal computer might do that she began ordering and working on new software packages at the rate of one every two or three weeks, to judge “its usefulness for my staff.” This was at a time when hers was the only personal computer in any of her work areas. In many cases, learning also takes place behind a closed door, as the manager or executive tries to learn how to use the technology on his or her own. This can be a frustratingly slow hunt and peck process for those who never learned to type, and who don’t want to be seen as not knowing something as rudimentary as a keyboard. Many of these people are investing large blocks of time working on teaching themselves or trying to develop program, time taken away from the management process.There are those who would argue that this isn’t necessarily hail, because managers need to know how to work personal computers in order to understand how they can be used to get work Personal computers in order to understand how they can be used to get work done. While that is certainly true, there are other ways to accomplish this without the managers investing their own time in actually performing the work itself. This is where training and management education can play an important role. The key question that needs to be addressed for management ranks and above is whether they should be trained on personal computers, or educated as to how they can be used. Managers and executives should be treated as a separate group. Any personal computers curriculum developed for business, industry, or 1oviinnwnt should include a seminar that addresses the issues III 1ersonal computers from the manager’s point of view, and that gives manages  the facts they need to make informed choices.
There are five primary areas of concern that any such seminar should  address:
1. What are the uses of a personal computer?
2. What does management  really need to know about computers
3. How do managers learn what they need to know?
4. How does the use of a personal computer fit into an individual's management or operating style?
5. What are the organizational issues and human ramifications of placing personal computers in the manager's work areas?
Personal computers have the potential for handling a great variety of tasks quickly and efficiently. They are emerging as a new force in (lie workplace, and their arrival foreshadows changes in the way information is shared, decisions are made, business l conducted, politics are played, and organizations are managed. Vet, they also need to be kept in their proper perspective. For this group of individuals, that means that personal computers should be viewed as extensions of the management process that need the same careful time and attention as any other resource under their control.

 

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The Befuddling World oF Reference Manuals

While some software products are getting easier to handle, the manuals that accompany them are not keeping pace. User surly is frequently used to describe most reference works. Dense prose, poor use of English, and unexplained jargon are only some of the things that people encounter in the world of computer manuals. Some manuals neglect to include crucial information about the program, while others give incorrect instructions. Some use terms, such as “terminal,”“screen,”“ monitor,” and “display,” interchangeably without ever defining them.
Why are instructional manuals written so poorly? Among many reasons, three stand out:
1. Reference manuals are the last priority in the development process for hardware or software.
2. The manuals are often written by the engineers or technicians who designed the system or package.
3. Program or design changes often continue right up to the moment the product is released.
In the dog eat dog world of computers and software the bottom line is often getting to the marketplace first, or, failing that, getting there with a product that does more. The emphasis for the developers is on programming the product to do what they want it to and not necessarily on how easy it is for the consumer to figure out. For these reasons, seven or eight months might be How simple are the explanations and directions for reaching a specific goal? Are the vocabulary and sentence structure easy to follow? Is the use of terms consistent? Are all terms defined up front, and do the authors stick to the definitions? Is everything organized in a way that makes sense? Is there an explanation of what the product does and information on standard operations? Do the instructions follow the same steps a person using the program would? If illustrations are used, do they make sense and are they clearly labeled and relevant to their location in a manual? If special symbols are used in the program, are they clearly explained and consistently followed? Is there a complete table of contents and a thorough index? There’s no doubt that fear, from any of its many sources, can have a major impact on people’s use of personal computers. That fear can be overcome, however, with well planned strategies to introduce and train people on the systems. For those who believe that is sometimes an impossible task, consider the following quote:
I don’t see much use for these things in the majority of our lives. They will be too expensive for some, and too frightening for others. This is clearly an invention that is beyond the understanding and need of most common people. The year was 1905 and the writer, a newspaper columnist for the New York Herald, was describing the telephone.

 

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WHO HAS ACCESS TO PERSONAL COMPUTERS?

As we study the history of how personal computers arrived and were placed in most organizations, we can see a pattern emerging that is more reflective of political considerations than anything else. 

Personal computers are more likely to be given to managers and executives before others receive them in any great number. Sometimes this is part of an overall strategy designed to win n1iIlagement approval before bringing computers into an organization. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, many systems arrive because they are seen as nothing more than the latest management status symbol. Statistics collected by International Data Corporation suggest that only about 15 percent of these placements are accompanied by training. For most of these recipients, the hardware is delivered and set up, and users are provided with one or more software packages. After that, they’re on their own. Those who do get training generally experience it in the form of a one-day seminar conducted by an outside consultant. Left to their own devices, and hampered by work schedules, it is estimated that less than 10 percent of all managers and executives who initially are given a personal computer ever really use it themselves. This raises an important point: The people given personal computers today are not always the people who will use them tomorrow. A lot of the personal computers originally placed with managers or executives are finding their way rather quickly to the desks of secretaries or subordinates as Figure 2 illustrates. It is these people, by and large, who are being given the responsibility for developing and maintaining applications and programs. This is not to say that managers and executives shouldn’t be given personal computers. There is no question that one of the best ways to introduce new ideas and tools to a workplace is by gaining the understanding and commitment of those at the very top. The problem is that while managers and executives need access to the type of information that personal computers can provide, they don’t necessarily need to be developing that information themselves. Most simply don’t have the time to invest in learning everything about a particular software package and in developing their own programs. These are all things that can easily be delegated to lower ranking staff. Managers will most likely use computers primarily to review, manipulate, and compare information, examine what-if situations, prepare budgets, reports, and forecasts, make projections, and communicate with others. All the programs and information needed to perform these tasks will probably be worked on by those who report to the managers. If we are to believe predictions that there will be a personal computer on the desk of every manager and white-collar professional by the mid-1990s, then we can expect to see the number of new users grow significantly in the coming years. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the white-collar work force will expand from 50.8 million to 62 million by the end of the decade. This translates into some 13 million managerial and 19 million professional positions. These people will not he the only ones working with personal computers. Many systems will be placed with secretaries or clerical staff, and their numbers are forecast to swell to 22 million. Not all of these individuals will work with personal computers, of course, but the demographics suggest that there will be any number of different audiences requiring different types of training and support. The number of personal computers placed in organizations in the United States today doesn’t indicate the number of people working on them or trying to learn about them. A study conducted by the market research firm Future Computing and reported in their 1985 Survey of Personal Computers in Business revealed that a quarter of all personal computers in businesses are shared by as many as 10 employees. Projections from several research studies indicate that as more systems are purchased, this ratio will drop. Still, by 1990, over 40 percent of all personal computers used in business are expected to be shared by at least two or more employees. The training implications of these numbers alone are staggering, and suggest that many organizations will be dealing with significant backlogs of people who will be waiting for personal computer education. In the meantime, a lot of employees will be left to train themselves. The progression of personal computers into organizations has been described this way: “They are arriving in waves. The first wave belonged to the explorers. The people who were curious to see what they were. The tinkerers and experimenters. The second wave  are the pioneers. These are the people who want r need to find out how they can make personal computers function, and how to make them productive. The third wave, which is about to reach most organizations, is composed of people who don’t have any choice in the matter. They must learn how to use computers. These are the people who will require all the time and effort.”

 

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