ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the impact of computers on management, starting with ways of using the computer and their bearing on managerial needs and problems at large. In studying the role of computers in management knowledge of the limitations imposed by computer techniques in use or likely to be developed during the next decade is clearly important. The chapter examines the computer's impact on management's tasks. It describes the growing use of information storage and retrieval systems; and the integration of systems and the evolution of management information systems. The chapter discusses the secondary effects and the impact of their use on the delicate relationship between the politician and the civil servant, the councillor and the paid official. There are in the public service a number of computer applications which can be classified as being primarily for information storage and retrieval purposes. The public services are growing increasingly dependent on computers.
