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We live at the first stage of a massive
explosion of information technology -- a transformation
on a scale previously matched only by the worldwide spread
of printing, the radio, and the automobile. Billions of
dollars have already been invested in computer hardware
and software. But the question still most often asked is
How, exactly, and when will we obtain tangible, measurable
results? After the flood of science-fiction predictions
about the future, here for the first time is the
authoritative account of how this technology will transform
our lives, by one of the leading strategists of the information
age.
The payoff will come, argues Paul Strassmann
in this myth-shattering book, not from the technology itself
(i.e., the placement of over 200 million electronic workstations
by the year 1999) but from people: Everything depends on
how we organize, educate, and train managers and employees;
how we design our working environment; how we justify and
monitor capital investment; how we deal with issues of morale,
motivation, privacy, and displaced employees; how we define
and measure productivity -- in short, how we use the new
technology to fulfill the prophecy of the information revolution.
Strassmann looks at information technology
from three perspectives: individual, organizational, and
societal. For the individual, he draws on documented studies
to prove the dramatic effect electronic workstations can
have on employee performance, attitudes, and behavior. For
the organization, he reveals his revolutionary techniques
for allowing managers to measure quantitatively whether
computers enhance productivity -- whether, in short, they
pay for themselves. And for society, he explains why no
business, no matter how extensively automated, will long
remain productive unless it understands the equally tangible
value of human capital in an information economy.
Managing technology, Strassmann demonstrates in this magisterial
work, means managing the people who use it.
Paul A. Strassmann is Vice President
of the Information Products Group at the Xerox Corporation.
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