Managers, spreadsheets and computing growth: contagion or control?
Authors: Mason, D.; Willcocks, L.
Journal: Information Systems Journal (1991)
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2575.1991.tb00031.x
<jats:p><jats:bold>Abstract. </jats:bold> It is widely accepted that managers do not make the most of the opportunities offered by information technology (IT). This study set out to investigate why by establishing what computing facilities managers actually use, and how they use them. The original hypothesis was that adoption of technology was limited by poor training and lack of interest in IT. We set out to establish empirical findings by interviewing managers face to face at their place of work. An exploratory investigation of this nature must adopt a non‐directive approach which is not amenable to questionnaire‐type survey techniques, and which produces ‘soft’ rather than quantitative data. As the ‘soft’ nature of the data ruled out strict statistical methods we used a ‘search and refine’ technique, to build a structure from all the information we received during the interviews until a clear body of results emerged and could be clarified and confirmed. The research broadly supports the lack of training hypothesis but finds that far from being uninterested, managers are very interested in using IT, but only where it is directly relevant to their own work. The study suggests tha…