AN EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION OF THE DETERMINANTS OF ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY USE AND ITS IMPACT ON SUPERVISORSUBORDINATE INTERACTIONS

Continued advancement in computer and telecommunications technology provide new options for organizational restructuring and process redesign. A common area of activity is the use of a combination of computer and telecommunicalion technology to operate and effectively support remote work sites. This paper provides preliminary findings regarding the factors determining the use of electronic communications technology and the impact of its use on supervisor-subordinate communications where the supervisor is located a[ the core organization and the subordinate is located at a remote site. The sample consists of eighty-five subordinates and fifty-seven supervisors based on 360 questionnaires from three major public accounting firms. Results indicate that accessibility to the technology, a critical mass of communication partners, the social symbolism of the technology, and the organization of work are Ihe most important factors associated with communication media use. Electronic mail is highly dependent on network externalities and some of the more popular technologies such as voice mail and facsimile machines were used with equivalent frequency in core and remote localions. As predicted, supervisor-subordinate interactions were affected by the supervisor-subordinate relationship and the organization of work. 25

Systems analysis and design : best practices

xvii, 421, I-15 p. : ill. ; 26 cm

Note: An Economic Analysis of IS Budgets

This paper conducts an empirical analysis of information systems budget data focusing on the implications for the efficient production of information services. We use a model of the production of information services based on the economic theory of production to develop testable hypotheses for budget behavior. In particular, we focus on two important issues: (1) the allocation of the information systems budget to its two largest components---personnel and hardware, and (2) the existence of scale economies in the provision of information services. These issues are examined using budget data collected through a survey of information systems managers in Fortune 500 corporations. We find that the optimal ratio of personnel to hardware expenditures is independent of the scale of the information systems organization for a given set of prices, and that there are no measurable economies of scale in the provision of information services. The implications of the analysis for the management of information services are discussed.production of information services, Cobb-Douglas production function, information systems efficiency