This case dates back to the early days of computing and electronic word processing.however, the dynamics as still appropriate in today's world.

• What is the fundamental problem?
• What are three distinct alternatives focused on human resources, leadership, or decision making?
• What should we recommend?

The law firm of Smith, Burns, & Graulik handled most of the legal work small midwestern town. The firm employed three secretaries: Pam Henry, M Tarn, and Judi Maylocks. The three got along well. In fact, the office was k as the best place in town to work-until the technology in the office beg change. When Pam Henry, the oldest of the secretaries, joined the firm in 1955 workday consisted of responding to the call "Take a letter please, Mrs. He hurrying into one of the big offices, scribbling shorthand on a pad while boss dictated, then typing out the letter and submitting it for the boss's appr Quick and accurate at each step in the process, she became the most impo person in the office. In the 1970s, the firm hired Tarn and Maylocks and introduced a machine into the office: the dictaphone. The three secretaries spent most of days hooked up to an earphone, typing out the dictation that one of the law had recorded the day before. Tarn, who could not imagine himself jotting squig gles on a yellow -pad, liked the system. Maylocks, who had been an English major, complained about the lawyers' grammar and the long pauses on the tape. Henry hated the whole system. Her tape player never seemed to be functioning right, the volume was always too loud or too soft, and the contraption made her so nervous that her formerly perfect typing began to suffer. She still ran the office and made more money than the others, but she felt like a bumbling newcomer. Then, in 1984, the company purchased a personal computer. Henry would not go near it. Tarn tolerated it and learned how to type his letters on it. Judi Maylocks, in contrast, was fascinated by it. She created stock paragraphs-the kinds of paragraphs she had typed so often she knew them by heart-and saved them on disks so that she could construct certain kinds of letters or court documents almost instantly. She took the computer manuals home to read and learned to use the accounting software that came with the machine. Gradually the office became a very tense place. The three secretaries had always worked as a pool, each taking the next piece of work when she or he got done with the last one. Now the lawyers began asking Maylocks to do specific documents, because they knew she could turn them out in half the time it took the other two. They began to realize the value of all the material she had stored on disk, and they consulted her often, asking for copies of documents they had sent out months ago. They also began to appreciate the value of having all their accounts on the computer, available at any time, and of being able to save money by having their accountant check the books less often. All of this attention was not lost on Melvin Tarn and Pam Henry, who began to resent Judi Maylocks and her machine. Henry began to spend more of her time in the waiting room, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes, and Tarn sabotaged Maylocks' work on a couple of occasions so she would not seem so perky and efficient. Maylocks saw what was happening, and she tried to famil iarize the other two with the machine so she could spread the work out. But they perceived her efforts as attempts to impress them with her superiority, and they did not respond