Many organizations once employed huge numbers of clerks to perform data entry. As personal computers and online computing became more common, system users began assuming responsibility for data entry, and the ranks of data entry clerks shrank dramatically in most organizations.

Today the explosive growth of the Internet is having a similarly profound impact upon the organizational structure of most large companies and government agencies.

a. Research the transformation of responsibility for data entry, from data entry clerks to system users, that occurred in the 1980s and 1990s.

Discuss the issues faced by these organizations and their employees.

b. Research the transformation that is taking place today as the Internet facilitates the growth of customer-based data entry. What are the implications? What is the impact upon companies’ organizational structure, their employees, and their customers?

c. Research a large company or government agency in your area. Compare its organizational structure 25 years ago to 10 years ago and to today. What relevant changes did you find?

d. Research articles in business and IT journals regarding the impact technology is having upon organizations in the private and public sectors.
What are some of the predictions regarding what the next transformation in data entry will be? Do you think these predictions will come true?

e. Overall, are we better off or worse off for these changes?