Sources of personal computing problems

The rapid growth of personal computing in organizations has given rise to numerous problems of information management. Broadly these problems encompass the categories of evolvability and integration of systems, cost of computing, data integrity and security, and MIS department-user department relationships. A framework is proposed linking these problem categories and three organizational factors, viz., level of use of personal computing, extent of control over personal computing, and degree of support for personal computing. Correlational, regression, and moderated regression analysis techniques are employed to test a number of hypotheses relating the organizational factors and problems categories. Results indicate that control over personal computing is the strongest predictor of the extent of personal computing problems encountered and that, while various commonly used support measures are helpful in mitigating MIS-user relationship problems, they do not seem to be effective in dealing with other types of personal computing problems. Control is found to exert both a direct and an interactive effect on problem intensity. Implications of these findings for managing personal computing in organizations are noted.