In fact, managing these systems has become such a headache that companies are willing to do anything to get the situation under control. The myth and allure of cost savings and platform homogeneity has resulted in a panic rush to a single standard. Nevertheless, Macintosh advocates have watched, in astonishment, as companies try to both manage their costs and computer complexity while simultaneously letting middle level IT managers build an empire and bleed the company's cash into their own domain. This internal power struggle and the process of managing the complexity of current-day PCs is such a full time job that it is no longer possible to grant individuals responsibility for their computing environment. Being a stakeholder in the computing experience is suddenly way, way down on the priority list.
Shifts Think back for a second.
What Apple computer, and later IBM, did was to create a tool of such compelling utility that companies in the early 1980s just had to let their employees use it. In the process, those employees exercised great creativity and responsibility in their choice of tools and their method of working. So the introduction of a new technology led, at first, to a revolution in the way employees worked. For the last 14 years, we have been refining and developing the results of this paradigm shift, but because companies have assumed the burden of financing this revolution, they have become more and more particular about how the computer is purchased, networked, and utilized. Workforce tasks are those tasks that directly support the mission of the company.