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This is a first report on a long-term project concerned with the managerial implications of the development of advanced computer systems, for administrative purposes, in manufacturing firms. In this pilot stage, the management systems of two large firms—one in electrical components, the other in chemicals—were studied. The attitudes and behaviour of managers towards various aspects of computerization were analysed, and related to the structural characteristics of the two management groups. In respect of the latter, the guide-lines were the cosmopolitan/local continuum of A. W. Gouldner, and the organismic/mechanistic typology of T. Burns and G. M. Stalker. The data suggest that at least certain important components of both the cosmopolitan and organismic concepts are related to positive attitudes to computerization.