Conclusions

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This chapter presented a framework for categorizing end user productivity contributions. The framework identified three separate forms of contributions based on a more general definition of productivity identified by the authors: direct impact, support impact and quality enhancement. Using the framework, an experiment was performed to determine if processor speed impacts end user effectiveness and/or efficiency productivity when using standard office productivity tools. Focusing on the direct impact and quality components, a study was performed that isolated end user productivity associated with a change in processor speed. The results of this study identify that an improvement in processor speed of 47% produced a direct productivity improvement of 4.4%. Based on these results, the unqualified business management's assumptions that technological improvements do in fact enhance worker productivity are supported. That is to say, the statement that "the amount of time utilized by the end user to enter or edit the data is negligible and thus has no effect on end user productivity" is incorrect. That even for applications with high end user interactions, such as word processing, processor upgrades can improve productivity. However, whether the increased productivity justifies the additional expenditure must be evaluated on an individual case. For example, using the experiment outcomes and assuming a minimum wage of $5.15 an hour and a 50-week year, the breakeven cost for the studied improvement would be approximately $450.00.

As processor technology continues to improve and applications become more and more processing intensive, the productivity of the end user seems to become increasingly tied to processor speed. However, assuming continued increases in processor speed, there are accompanying factors working to counteract the potential productivity increases. Things such as the Internet, graphics intensive end user interfaces, and more computationally demanding applications are becoming more predominant as increased processor speeds permit their adoption. Often the additional processing requirements support non-productivity enhancing amenities such as high order graphics. Given the continued changes in end user applications and tools, combined with constantly changing work environments and work activities, more research needs to be done to determine whether or not the continued technological changes improve the efficiency and/or effectiveness of the end user.

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