Automation, a curse or a blessing?

Office automation is a highly challenging form of automation in terms of human development. People who work in offices have always been inclined towards (or should I say have always bowed to) the power of factual knowledge. Office automation provides new possibilities to that end, with powerful tools such as: your own little database, your own little spreadsheet in which you can record your own precious data or you own personal ingenuity. In other words, you are boss of your own workplace!

The power of office automation, however, only begins when we drastically change our views on the office. A reorientation from personal results to group results, possibly supported by groupware: a reorientation of business processes and a reorientation of the essence of communication. The challenge with office automation is to break through the circle of your own personal interest, that lies so closely around your own workplace, and step into the wider circle of the office. This will not only lead to a better and perhaps more flexible performance of the automated office, but it will also widen the horizon of our own personal development. After all, co-operation expands the mind.