Abstract
Local area networks (LANs) have gained popularity and are becoming an integral part of enduser computing strategies in an increasing number of firms. Therefore, from the firm’s management perspective, it becomes important to ascertain their impact on the users and their work environment. This research attempts to do this by collecting data from 107 local area network (LAN) users and 14 LAN managers in 14 organizations. The purpose of the research was to investigate users’ perceptions of the impact of LANs on their jobs and work. By factor analyzing the data, four key underlying areas emerged where the users perceived LANs had impact. They were: enhanced quality-of-work, improvements in work efficiency, job enrichment, and data/information shareability. The significance of these findings is discussed in the context of the management of end- user computing environment.