Employee Attitudes Regarding Electronic Mail Policies

Abstract

This study investigates employee attitudes toward e-mail and e-mail policies through a case study of e-mail users at a major university libmry. The study employs a triangulation methodology (interviews, questionnaires, and focus groups) to determine how the employees use e-mail, what problems they have with it, and how they feel about policies for e-mail management. Results indicate strong differences in attitudes based on job position (faculty, professional, and classified) and frequency of e-mail usage. Data indicate that those who use e-mail most frequently have more favorable attitudes about it than less frequent users. They are more opposed to policies that regulate their e-mail communication. Qualitative data indicate that employees generally prefer guidelines to restrictive policies for e-mail communication.

Intentional and unintentional consequences of substituting face-to-face interaction with e-mail: An employee-based perspective

“…The ability to leave a message, contact those outside the department, and gain an appreciation of the bigger picture increased organizational and departmental awareness. Participants became more engaged with others in the communication process and were consequently able to develop and maintain relationships that may not otherwise have occurred, which is consistent with the findings of Hacker et al (1998) who envisaged e-mail as a relationship-building tool. Although positive outcomes can be identified for communication, negative consequences were also apparent.…”

“…The second explanation concerns compensating for the lack of non-verbal cues by using more relational communication characterized through irony. In the sense of relationship building, some employees have found that being able to initiate contact with other employees via e-mail is much simpler (and perhaps more importantly, less intimidating) than using the telephone or introducing themselves to someone unknown (Hacker et al, 1998). The creation of relational communication is a key aspect when investigating how email and F2F communication complement each other or are divergent.…”

“…In spite of these, even before the advent of e-mail, most employees were calling for higher levels of communication in their organizations (Hargie and Tourish, 2000). Hacker et al (1998) suggested that e-mail can be used to overcome the time delays associated with F2F communication, and aid employees to seek and retrieve information and disseminate it to others. The question that this raises, in light of advancing CMC technology, is how organizations can utilize and integrate CMC with traditional F2F communication to maximize the benefits of both, while minimizing their drawbacks.…”

Understanding relationships among teleworkers' e-mail usage, e-mail richness perceptions, and e-mail productivity perceptions under a software engineering environment

“…Personal attributes are important indicators of technology adoption [10], [13], [23], [27], [36], [57], [60]. For instance, senior people may find it harder to adopt new technologies than younger people because of the substantial learning effort required [20], [57].…”

“…Rice and Shook [49] postulated the positive association between the usage of electronic messaging system (EMS) and quality of work, and between the usage of EMS and information processing efficiency. Professionals such as software engineers adopting e-mail to support their work may recognize e-mail as more productive than nonprofessionals do [27]. Therefore, we revisited the relationships by suggesting the following.…”