This article focuses on the impact of information technologies on the upstream and downstream flows of information. The authors distinguish between two types of decisions and two types of decision-making criteria and propose a four-part framework in which the essential messages of systematic management and scientific management are depicted. Two cases, concerning the introduction of a new information technology (punched-card machines) in two Dutch banks, are analyzed within the framework. It is demonstrated how the chances of success are increased by employing the new technology to enable employees at lower levels of the organization to be more, instead of less, concerned with and aware of the performance objectives of the firm as a whole.
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