ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationship between organization and computer use. Computers have grown up within the existing managerial and organizational structure of the public services. The initiative for particular applications has nearly always come from those responsible for the activity in which the application lies. One feature is the effect computers have had in the way responsibility for tasks have been allocated between parts of the public sector. Within public authorities two developments have been particularly important in organizational terms. The first is the way management structures are being formed into new patterns, and the second is the influence of computer and management services staff groups on the whole structure. Computer use has led to centralization of responsibility in only a limited number of applications. As computer use is causing so many changes in public organizations, and acting as a catalyst for others, control of it is becoming increasingly important.
