End users can be classified into six distinct types. Each of them needs differentiated education, support, and control from the Information Systems function. To support a large number of their applications a new computing environment, “the third environment” must be developed by Information Systems (I/S) management. Close attention must also be paid by I/S management to the need to involve “functional support personnel” (end users in each functional area who spend most of their time programming and aiding other end users) in the I/S end user management process.

This article, written for a general audience, discusses the effects that information technologies are likely to have on corporate structure and management approaches. By dramatically reducing the costs of coordination and increasing its speed and quality, these new technologies will enable people to coordinate more effectively, to do much more coordination, and to form new, coordination-intensive business structures.

Management in the 1990s Sloan School of Management Massachusetts Institute of Technology---·I PP-EI II - Management in the 1990sManagement in the 1990s is an industry and governmental agency supported research program. Its aim is to develop a better understanding of the managerial issues of the 1990s and how to deal most effectively with them, particularly as these issues revolve around anticipated advances in Information Technology.Assisting the work of the Sloan School scholars with financial support and as working partners in research are: The conclusions or opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Massachussetts Institute of Technology, the Management in the 1990s Research Program, or its sponsoring organizations. IntroductionThis paper is deliberately narrowly focused. It does not deal with a large number of important issues in the fascinating and constantly evolving field of corporate strategy. It contributes, as do the other papers in this issue, to the mosaic which somehow defines the elusive concept of corporate strategy. As is so often true in emerging fields, no one has yet been able to define the concept and identify the elements in a way that is satisfactory to all people who consider themselves to be in the field. Nonetheless, the substantive work represented by all the articles in this issue attests to the constantly evolving nature of the field and each contributes to this evolution.The work discussed in this paper is a small piece of the strategic planning domain and deals not at all with the process of planning but rather with one piece of substantive content that organizations are using to create strategic moves that will help them deal successfully with the future. The work discussed here is part of a project that is ongoing in the Sloan School. It logically follows from Chandler's 5 classic study "Strategy and Structure" written at MIT in 1962. Chandler's book, which has been through eleven printings in the intervening years, is an example of the richness and complexity of the field of corporate strategy.-2-In this work, among other things, Chandler developed omne of the first notions of causality and balance in organizational processes and structure. He observed that in his sample of organizations the organization structure of the firm was changed to follow the strategy the firm was pursuing. For example, as executives at DuPont in 1919 decided on a strategy of aggressively extending their business out of munitions and into industrial chemicals they changed DuPont's organization structure and reporting relationships to reflect this strategic change.In a broadly analogous way, it is generally believed today that in successful firms, information technology should be managed to support business strategy and must fit the current organization structure.However, the main argument of this article is that this previously perceived one-way view is too limited. Beyond the use of information technology to support the existing busines...

In the past, research examining the work-related correlates of job satisfaction in programmer~analysts has focused on the relationship between characteristics of the job itself and job satisfaction. It is hypothesized that certain aspects of relationships with co-workers, project leaders, and users will also be significant correlates of job satisfaction. Specifically, the relationship between job satisfaction, role conflict, role ambiguity, and quality of leadership provided by supervisors and peers is examined. A questionnaire measuring job characteristics, role conflict and ambiguity, leaclership characteristics, and job satisfaction was administered to 118 programmer~analysts at four companies. The results indicate that both role and leadership variables correlated at least as highly with job satisfaction as job characteristics and that the addition of role and leadership variables to job characteristics significantly increases the explained variance in job satisfaction.

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