Affiliations: [a] Dept. of Management Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada | [b] School of Public Administration, University of Victoria, P.O. Box 1700, Victoria, BC Canada V8W 2Y2
Note: [*] Equal authorship with names in reverse alphabetical order. This research was partially supported by the federal Department of Communications, Ottawa, Canada, Contract No. OSU80-00150.
Abstract: The paper presents a conceptual model of the office and describes a methodology derived from it. The method was applied in two offices, one at a very early and one at an advanced stage of automation. People in the more highly automated office were found to have relatively more task-dependent connections requiring mutual adjustment, to place more emphasis on social as opposed to standardization influences (rules and procedures) on task performance, to have a more positive view of others as sources of influence on performance, and to have fewer criticisms associated with automation.
Keywords: Office automation, task impacts, social impacts, systems approach
