What effect do computers have upon quality of work, unemployment, organizational management, interaction with the public, and innovation within organizations? These are questions that are examined and discussed in this interesting article. Attewell and Rule give a comprehensive survey of the research that has attempted to investigate these questions over the years. They find conflicting results in many of the studies and note that a thorough investigation of these topics has not occurred.

The authors conclude that two problems are associated with research in this area. The first of these problems is to “determine, as far as possible, what particular cause-effect relations prevail in specific contexts.” The second problem is to “locate such cases as closely as possible within larger ranges of cases in which similar cause-effect relations can be expected to prevail.” Attewell and Rule say that in remedying this second problem a partial solution will be to use large samples. Extensive replication of research will be needed to characterize the effects of computing upon organizational life. This particular article should be of interest to computer professionals and scholars who are investigating this area.