Personal Computer Use at Navy Field Activities: A Productivity Study

Abstract

In the past, corporations justified investment in office automation (OA) by vague claims of increased productivity. Now, managers are reevaluating their productivity measurement systems in an effort to identify productivity gains resulting from OA. The purpose of this thesis is to present a methodology for determining the impact of OA on office productivity. This study examined the productivity of the Standard Automated Contracting System for Federal Agencies (SACONS), in a before/after quasi-experimental design that measured outputs (volume, quality of work), inputs (staff size, grade structure, overtime usage), and by-product social effects (morale, teamwork) using archival data. This framework, developed in a previous SACONS study, is used to analyze the strength of SACONS software. The results of this study were confounded by external events that adversely affected our results. Only the quality of work measure (Procurement Action Lead Time), which was reduced by 13 percent, showed a significant productivity gain. Further study of SACONS is necessary to determine its impact on office productivity. (kr)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1989
Accession Number
ADA222406

Entities

People

  • Lorraine S. Davis
  • Robert P. Murphy

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Automation
  • Computers
  • Contracts
  • Control Systems
  • Corporations
  • Databases
  • Engineering
  • Experimental Design
  • Information Science
  • Information Systems
  • Lead Time
  • Measurement
  • Personal Computers
  • Procurement
  • Standards
  • Surveys
  • United States

Readers

  • Defense Financial Management and Audit.
  • Life Cycle Cost Analysis
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.