Long ago managers did their work through people. People did their work through machines such as tractors, telephones and typewriters, machines that amplified their physical capabilities. Then engineers got workstations, analysts got 1-2-3 machines, and secretaries got word-processors to amplify their mental capabilities. But managers still do their work mostly through people.
That's changing now, as workstations and pcs become cheaper and powerful enough to handle applications oriented to softer tasks than numbers and word-processing, as a new generation of managers who can type shows up, and as communication among these machines supports group efforts as well as in- dividual tasks. Pcs are now a tool for management as well as for production and analysis.
