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Coping with information overload in email communication: Evaluation of a training intervention
Abstract
The present paper introduces three facets of information overload in email communication: A large amount of incoming information, inefficient workflow, and deficient communication quality. In order to cope with these facets of information overload, a training intervention was developed and evaluated. Data were collected from 90 employees on several evaluation levels within a longitudinal evaluation design (one pretest double posttest design). The results reveal that the training contributed to an increase in knowledge and media competencies. We also found evidence for a transfer of training contents to the workplace. Finally, strain diminished on several dimensions. In particular, problems with media usage and work impairment decline significantly, an effect that was stronger for those participants who face a large amount of email at their workplaces.
... A survey by Edison Mail (2022) found that 66% of Americans reported feeling stressed due to the volume of email messages they receive, adding to the growing concern. This phenomenon of being inundated with a too many and low-quality emails is often referred to as high email load and has garnered significant attention in research (McMurtry, 2014;Soucek and Moser, 2010;Sumecki et al., 2011). ...
... This notion matches with Frese and Zapf 's (1994) classification of information load as an overtaxing regulation. Email load can be considered a special form of information load, but with a focus on electronic communication (Piecha and Hacker, 2020;Soucek and Moser, 2010). However, email load may also be classified as a regulation uncertainty in cases when incoming emails lack pertinent information and fail to align with salient work objectives (Burgess et al., 2005;Soucek and Moser, 2010), leading to ambiguity regarding their implications for one's work and how to effectively manage them. ...
... Email load can be considered a special form of information load, but with a focus on electronic communication (Piecha and Hacker, 2020;Soucek and Moser, 2010). However, email load may also be classified as a regulation uncertainty in cases when incoming emails lack pertinent information and fail to align with salient work objectives (Burgess et al., 2005;Soucek and Moser, 2010), leading to ambiguity regarding their implications for one's work and how to effectively manage them. Here, the lack of clarity and relevance, which are core characteristics of regulation uncertainties (Frese and Zapf, 1994), should be responsible for strain responses. ...
Introduction
High email load has been associated with impaired well-being because emails impose specific demands, disturb the workflow, and thereby overtax individuals’ action regulation toward prioritized goals. However, the causes and well-being-related consequences of email load are not yet well understood, as previous studies have neglected the interaction type and function of emails as well as co-occurring stressors as antecedents of high email load and have relied predominantly on cross-sectional designs.
Methods
In two studies, we aimed to clarify the nature of email load through the lens of action regulation theory. The first study, a two-wave investigation with a fortnightly interval, examined the lagged relationships among email load, work stressors, strain, and affective well-being. The sample included 444 individuals across various occupations and organizations, with 196 of them working from home or remotely at least part of the time. In the second cross-sectional study, we surveyed 257 individuals using a convenience sampling approach, 108 of whom worked from home or remotely at least partially. This study focused on evaluating how different email classes—distinguished by email interaction type (received vs. processed) and email function (communication vs. task)—serve as predictors of high email load.
Results
In Study 1, we found a positive lagged effect of high email load on strain, even when controlling for the co-occurring stressors time pressure and work interruptions. In addition, lagged effects of email load on time pressure and interruptions were identified, while no evidence was found for the reverse direction. The results of Study 2 suggest that only the number of communication-related emails received, but not the number of task-related emails received, or the number of all emails processed contribute to high email load.
Conclusion
Findings suggest that email load can be considered a unique stressor and that different classes of email need to be distinguished to understand its nature. Clarifying the sources of email load can help develop effective strategies to address it.
... Further, we added influencing factors that were mostly empirically tested, like occupation (e.g., sales) or context characteristics (e.g., Hunter & Goebel, 2008). Although, to our knowledge, only few intervention studies exist (e.g., Soucek & Moser, 2010), we added interventions as an influencing construct to our IO model, which should be empirically tested in future research. ...
... Given the likely negative consequences of IO, there are several studies and theoretical articles that focus on preventing the emergence of IO, for example, by creating a personal system for storing and retrieving information or time management trainings for individuals (Eppler & Mengis, 2004;Hemp, 2009;Ruff, 2002;Soucek & Moser, 2010). Some studies indicate that mutual or shared communication (e.g., between leader and employee) lowers the effects of IO on work life interference (Harris et al., 2015). ...
... Especially since high-school and college students show a lack of information literacy skills (Gross & Latham, 2012;Julien & Barker, 2009), future research as well as organizations should develop, conduct and evaluate trainings that help in dealing with information. Since first trainings showed success in preventing the emergence of email overload (Soucek & Moser, 2010), this is a promising approach to prevent the occurrence or perception of IO. Our results support this, as we found a negative relation of IO and self-efficacy. ...
In the information age we live in, we are constantly threatened by being drowned in a huge flood of information. Information overload (IO) describes this state where information can no longer be adequately processed by an individual. However, the danger posed by IO to individuals as well as organizations can still not be assessed properly due to a missing integration of previous findings. In this quantitative meta-analysis, we analysed the data of 133.011 people within 117 studies, and overall, 330 effect sizes. We performed multi-level as well as robust variance estimation analyses and found, among other things, positive correlations between IO and information avoidance, stress states, burnout and fatigue, and negative correlations between IO and performance and satisfaction. Explorative subgroup analyses revealed different moderating effects based on different vocational settings. Overall, the results of this meta-analysis indicate a negative relationship between IO and peoples’ behaviour and experience, which call for an evaluation of the exchange and handling of information. Across a wide range of studies and contexts, this meta-analysis reveals that IO may provoke the information fatigue syndrome that has been poorly considered to date, leading to severe consequences in both work and home contexts.
... Under conditions of global information "abundance" for man, the assessment of his adequacy, correctness and expediency for the further use both in his own life (Kovach, & Rosenstiel, 2011;Paul, & Nazareth, 2010;Soucek, & Moser, 2010), and in professional occupation becomes problematical (Oldroyd, & Morris, 2012;Smith, 2010;Levitin, 2014). Current empiric researches are evidence of the fact that not only persons but the whole companies face the problem of information overloads (Öhgren, & Sandkuhl, 2008;Shanker, & Richtel, 2011). ...
... Under conditions of global information "abundance" for man, the assessment of his adequacy, correctness and expediency for the further use both in his own life (Kovach, & Rosenstiel, 2011;Paul, & Nazareth, 2010;Soucek, & Moser, 2010), and in professional occupation becomes problematical (Oldroyd, & Morris, 2012;Smith, 2010;Levitin, 2014). Current empiric researches are evidence of the fact that not only persons but the whole companies face the problem of information overloads (Öhgren, & Sandkuhl, 2008;Shanker, & Richtel, 2011). ...
... These suggest to level the exposure to ICT to find a healthy balance while using modern technologies [24]. Another approach deals with individuals' coping strategies to decrease technostress [55,65]. However, coping is only necessary when technostress already occurs and exerts its negative effects on the person. ...
... We argue that effective strategies tackling the problem and the effects of technostress need to focus on the part before technostress ever evolves in the individual. Recent studies have taken this approach into account by examining possible moderators influencing the stressor-outcome relationship such as technology competence or technology self-efficacy [33,65,67,71]. There are also studies looking at the relationship between certain personality traits and technostress [37,40,47,67]. ...
... Therefore, it has become of interest to find and investigate the factors influencing these stress mechanisms, which are decisive for individual stress perceptions in association with technology use. One approach deals with individuals' coping strategies to decrease technostress [47,59]. However, coping is only necessary when technostress already occurs and exerts its negative effects on the users. ...
... Effective strategies tackling the effects of technostress need to focus on the part before technostress evolves in the individual. Recent studies have taken this approach into account by examining possible moderators influencing the stressor-outcome relationship such as technology competence or technology self-efficacy [22,59,61,67]. There are also studies looking at the relationship between certain personality traits and perceived technostress [28,32,38,49,58,61]. ...
... Aspects of overload and interruptiveness (both actual and perceived) were particularly associated with strain for workplace technology users (e.g. Harris et al., 2013;Galluch et al., 2015;Stich et al., 2019;Soucek & Moser, 2010). Reinke et al. (2016) helpfully distinguished between acute and chronic experiences of strain, emphasizing the difference between a momentary experience of stress and that which is accumulated at the end of the working day, and beyond. ...
... experimentation is encouraged) all having a negative relationship to technostress. Other studies found evidence for ICT support (Day et al., 2012), an e-mail training intervention (Soucek & Moser, 2010), and a workshop aimed at improving psychological resources (Chen et al., 2009) as inhibitors of the dark side effects. Evidence so far suggests a good level of support for the technoinhibitors as helping to moderate the dark side effects, lending encouragement to organisational efforts to educate and support workers around the digital workplace. ...
An intensification of digital working driven by Covid-19 has brought into sharp focus both the beneficial nature of digital workplace technologies and their potential dark side. Research has burgeoned in this area in recent years, but an integrated view across fields, technologies, dark side effects and outcomes is lacking. There are potential insights to be gained from compiling and comparing results and theoretical approaches. Following integrative review procedures, 194 studies were analysed to understand unintended negative consequences of a range of workplace technologies across disciplines and methodologies. The results demonstrate that considerable insight has been uncovered regarding certain dark side effects, stress in particular, in relation to e-mail and smartphones. However, a broader view of how they might manifest in relation to employees' holistic digital experience of work beyond certain information and communication technologies (ICTs) is lacking, including a clear picture of objective demands of the technology with which these effects are associated. Much remains to be understood across the full range of dark side effects in relation to the digital workplace including the associations between them and how they relate to cognitive and affective outcomes. The importance of both theoretical rigour and diversity is highlighted.
... Given the likely negative consequences of IO, there are several studies and theoretical articles that focus on preventing the emergence of IO, e.g. by creating a personal system for storing and retrieving information or time management trainings for individuals (Eppler & Mengis, 2004;Hemp, 2009;Ruff, 2002;Soucek & Moser, 2010). Some studies indicate that mutual or shared communication (e.g. between leader and employee) lowers the effects of IO on work life interference (Harris et al., 2015). ...
... Especially since high-school and college students show a lack of information literacy skills (Gross & Latham, 2012;Julien & Barker, 2009), future research as well as organizations should develop, conduct and evaluate trainings that help in dealing with information. Since first trainings showed success in preventing the emergence of e-mail overload (Soucek & Moser, 2010), this is a promising approach to prevent the occurrence of IO. ...
... Secondly, HR and learning personnel may use these findings to consider policies and training options that would support end-users of the digital workplace to better access, manage and consume information in a way that is conducive to well-being as well as productivity. This aligns with evidence that dark side effects of digital working can be mitigated through appropriate training and guidance (e.g., S. Chen et al., 2009;Soucek & Moser, 2010). Improving information literacy among employees may be particularly apt (e.g., Bawden & Robinson, 2020;Elciyar, 2021). ...
Plain language summary
Impacts to employee well-being due to information in the digital workplace
With growing numbers of workers relying on the digital workplace to get work done, attention is increasingly focused on the well-being impacts of digital working. This study explored stress, burnout and mental health issues that can arise for employees as a result of demands they experience when using technology at work. A total of 142 workers were surveyed about stress, overload, anxiety, and Fear of Missing Out relating to technology use. They were also asked about negative well-being impacts namely exhaustion and mental health issues. Results indicated that the fear of missing out on information is a risk factor for employee mental health and, along with information overload, may lead to greater exhaustion. In addition, both of these information related issues were found to elevate digital workplace stress, further impacting well-being negatively. The results suggest that organizations need to optimize the flow of work-related information in the digital workplace and support employees to leverage information effectively.
... To combat information overload, prioritizing individual solutions is key (Landale, 2007). Training can effectively enhance personal resources to prevent information overload (Soucek & Moser, 2010). Improving self-efficacy and acquiring various skills can enhance this capability. ...
The exponential growth of digital information has led to the pervasive problem of information overload, affecting decision-making, productivity, and well-being. This article reviews the existing literature on the various effects of information overload, its underlying causes, and strategies for managing it. A scoping review of English literature up until January 2023 was conducted using Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, and Emerald. The findings reveal that information overload is caused by personal factors, information characteristics, task parameters, organizational parameters, and information technology parameters. The effects include poor decision-making, decreased productivity, and cognitive pressures. Strategies for managing information overload include learning multiple skills and using filtering, prioritizing, and technology tools. This article provides a foundation for future research and interventions in this area.
... With the increasing popularity of social media, it is easy for people to express their opinions on a platform, and this contributes to the large quantity of information that is accumulating on social media. 41 Users tend to receive too much information, which results in a problem of information overload. Although the push algorithms of social media have become more sophisticated and increasingly cater to personalised user needs, the homogenisation of the information users receive can trap them within an information bubble, making it challenging to access the differentiated information they require. ...
Objective
In recent years, social media platforms, such as TikTok and RedBook, have emerged as important channels through which users access and share medical information. Additionally, an increasing number of healthcare professionals have created social media accounts through which to disseminate medical knowledge. This paper explores why users obtain their medical information from social media and how the signals transmitted by social platforms affect use behaviours.
Methods
We combined the elaboration likelihood model and signal theories to construct a comprehensive model for this study. We used simple random sampling to investigate users’ behaviours related to social media usage. A total of 351 valid questionnaires were completed by people in Mainland China. The participants were enthusiastic about social media platforms and had searched for health-related information on social media in the past three months. We analysed the data using partial least squares structural equation modelling to investigate the influence of two pathways and two signals (objective and subjective judgement pathways and positive and negative signals) on social media use behaviours.
Results
When seeking medical information on social media, users tend to rely on subjective judgment rather than objective judgment, although both are influential. Furthermore, in the current era, in which marketing methods involving big data algorithms and artificial intelligence prevail, negative signals, such as information overload, have a more pronounced impact than positive signals.
Conclusions
This study demonstrates that the subjective judgment path has a greater impact on users than the objective judgment path. Platforms are encouraged to focus more on users’ emotional needs. The paper also discusses the negative impact of information overload on users, sounding an alarm for enterprises to control their use of homogeneous information resulting from the excessive use of big data algorithms.
... A logical emerging issue, therefore, is how accountants can efficiently and effectively cultivate the DT competencies required to effectively use new DT tools and to perform new digital and digitally enhanced roles and activities. Further compounding this issue, information systems and learning science researchers have noted that addressing such an issue can be challenging and beset with the risks of likely overwhelm and ultimate capitulation (e.g., Rong & Grover, 2009;Soucek & Moser, 2010;Zerr et al., 2018). ...
The digital transformation of accounting depends, in large part, on accountants being able to continuously upgrade their digital technology competencies in line with ongoing and accelerating digital technology changes. Doing so is critical to accountants being able to deliver digitally transformed or transforming accounting roles, processes/workflows, and value outputs. However, an apparent inference from information systems and learning science researchers is that accountants’ attitudes to new technology and technology-related issues could be barriers to the efficient and effective attainment of required digital technology competencies. Combining survey research and quantitative content analysis, we investigate the nature and prevalence of accountants’ attitudes to new technology. We then discuss the implications of these attitudes and their prevalence for the required upgrading of accountants’ digital technology competence and for efforts to digitally transform accounting practice. Our research is related to research on the digital transformation of accounting, research on the expectation–performance gap in accounting education, and research on effective strategies for translating required technology competencies into accounting practice.
... Email's ubiquity in healthcare does not necessarily translate into skilled use (De Gagne 2020). Email training that included instruction on the functions of email apps that are useful for filtering and sorting a high volume of email, together with demonstration of the principles of effective personal workflow, was found to increase knowledge and competency (Soucek 2010). ...
Email is a major means of communication in healthcare and it facilitates the fast delivery of messages and information. But email's ubiquity has brought challenges. It has changed the way we get things done, and working days can be dictated by the receipt and reply of multiple email messages, which drown out other priorities. This article examines email's advantages and disadvantages and, with a focus on healthcare professionals, examines what individuals and organisations can do to ensure email works for us, rather than – as can seem the case – the other way around.
... For neurotic students who were more prone to SIRS, it was necessary not only to alleviate their PIO, but also to provide positive psychological exercise to enhance the individual's ability to adapt to environmental changes and ultimately alleviate SIRS (Matz et al., 2020). Soucek and Moser (2010) suggested that necessary training interventions for neurotic students can contribute to the improvement of students' knowledge and media competence, and Ellwart et al. (2015) provided a structured online team adaptation procedure to deduce information overload. Moreover, these two interventions have been verified to have a certain effect on reducing PIO. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected university students’ learning and social interaction to a large level, causing different degrees of negative emotions and made them extremely sensitive to smartphone information. However, little is known about the link between personalities, perceived information overload (PIO) and smartphone immediate response syndrome (SIRS) during students' learning process in this specific emergency social context. Therefore, based on the person-environment fit model, this study investigated 482 university students from mainland China during the epidemic by a snowball sampling approach, and analyzed the relationship between their personalities, PIO and SIRS by structural equation modeling. Results indicated that individuals with extraversion and neuroticism formed SIRS from different psychological paths. PIO plays a partial mediating role between neuroticism and SIRS and a fully mediating role between extraversion and SIRS. These findings validate the association among individual personality, PIO and SIRS in the non-conventional environment and highlights the difference exist in cellphone-related psychological path between extraverted and neurotic students. Therefore, it is recommended that PIO should be controlled in a targeted manner for individuals with different personality and guide them using cellphones rationally during the epidemic.
... Although learning in a synchronous environment has several advantages, the time zone disadvantage is frequently noted in this area (Vutborg et al., 2011). While asynchronous communication allows learners with different native languages and cultures to be more reflective (Ellis, 2001) and generate responses at their own pace (Holmberg et al., 2005), yet Mackay (1988) and Soucek and Moser (2010) argue that asynchronous communications can often result in "information overload," creating its own set of issues. Finally, given the shift in technology usage over the past twenty years, one must consider that access to media rich technologies can dramatically enhance the international collaboration format. ...
With the ever-growing presence of online collaborative learning spaces, research on how to develop international global environments to facilitate learning has become increasingly important. Unfortunately, quantitative research is somewhat limited in exploring which specific factors contribute to student satisfaction with international collaboration online learning activities (ICOLAs). The issues of this gap in the literature are a lack of clarity on how students engage with ICOLAs and which specific factors predict student satisfaction outcomes. This study explores the relationships between common constructs identified from prior research and satisfaction with ICOLAs. Trust, cohesion, commitment, and social presence measures were completed by 35 students in separate educational technology courses facilitated by two separate universities located in different countries-collection occurred over the span of three semesters. Results of a Bayesian multiple regression analysis revealed that about 66% of the student variability in satisfaction with online learning environments is accounted for by the trust, cohesion, commitment, and social presence variables along with age and gender. Cohesion and commitment both increased satisfaction with ICOLAs with a posterior probability greater than 97.5%. These findings illuminate the importance of building trust between interaction partners in ICOLAs, which suggests that international program partnerships should focus on creating friendships, increasing immediacy in online interactions, and building social presence.
... . /frai. . It helps to reduce information overload, limits distractions, enables working in an effective, focused, and goal-oriented manner (Edmunds and Morris, 2000;Hair et al., 2007;Dabbish and Kraut, 2010;Soucek and Moser, 2010;Niessen et al., 2020b), and saves energy (Rong et al., 2016). However, often people do not delete irrelevant files, as deleting tends to be a decision under uncertainty, is effortful, and takes time. ...
In the digital age, saving and accumulating large amounts of digital data is a common phenomenon. However, saving does not only consume energy, but may also cause information overload and prevent people from staying focused and working effectively. We present and systematically examine an explanatory AI system (Dare2Del), which supports individuals to delete irrelevant digital objects. To give recommendations for the optimization of related human-computer interactions, we vary different design features (explanations, familiarity, verifiability) within and across three experiments (N1 = 61, N2 = 33, N3= 73). Moreover, building on the concept of distributed cognition, we check possible cross-connections between external (digital) and internal (human) memory. Specifically, we examine whether deleting external files also contributes to human forgetting of the related mental representations. Multilevel modeling results show the importance of presenting explanations for the acceptance of deleting suggestions in all three experiments, but also point to the need of their verifiability to generate trust in the system. However, we did not find clear evidence that deleting computer files contributes to human forgetting of the related memories. Based on our findings, we provide basic recommendations for the design of AI systems that can help to reduce the burden on people and the digital environment, and suggest directions for future research.
... Past research has highlighted digital competence as a valuable resource to cope with the changing demands in a digitalized work setting (Ala-Mutka, 2011;Ferrari, 2012;Ferrari et al., 2012). Furthermore, digital competence has been explored as a moderator of the technology-related distress-outcome relationships (Soucek & Moser, 2010;Tarafdar et al., 2015). ...
... However, research has found that large amounts of digitalized information (e. g., emails, files, newsletters) can be perceived as an information overload, which in turn challenges employees' attentional capacity; it is positively related to stress and negatively related to physical health, job satisfaction, perceived control, and decision making (e. g., Dabbish & Kraut, 2006;Edmunds & Morris, 2000;Eppler & Mengis, 2004;Hair, Renaud, & Ramsay, 2007;Soucek & Moser, 2010). Thus, working in a focused and goal-oriented manner requires not only storing all relevant information internally (in one's memory) or externally (on a computer) to guarantee its timely access, but also largely ignoring or forgetting task-irrelevant thoughts and even deleting redundant or unwanted digital objects such as files or emails. ...
This dissertation concerns thought control activities in everyday working life. Given the almost unlimited availability of information in the digital age, combined with the increasing complexity of tasks and projects, exerting thought control is becoming more and more important. Stopping distracting thoughts and regaining control over one’s mind is therefore an important strategy for maintaining attentional and emotional control. While previous research on thought control has mostly been conducted in the laboratory and mainly dealt with the process itself, I seek to transfer such research into everyday working life and investigate it in an embedded manner – including variables that precede, moderate, and follow thought control activities. As individual thought control ability has been identified as a key variable theoretically and empirically, particular attention is paid to its assessment. Within the scope of my dissertation project, four studies were conducted. The first study demonstrates the importance of limiting the quantity of unnecessary external (e.g., outdated files) and internal (e.g., distracting thoughts) information by first reviewing the literature on intentional forgetting and thought control. In a second step, the reviewed literature is used to identify mechanisms of action for a conceptual prototype of a computer-based assistive system to support employees in managing irrelevant external information. Thirdly, to more deeply address internal processes in dealing with distracting thoughts, we conducted a qualitative critical incident study to examine why (functions and consequences) and when (situational predictors) employees typically want to control their thoughts in the work context. Sixty-five participants told stories of incidents in which they were motivated to forget at work and answered further prompts, which were then clustered into categories. The main situational predictors of exerting thought control identified were related to specific working conditions (e.g., time pressure, breaks), task characteristics (e.g., complexity, novelty), and social interactions. The main observed functions and consequences of thought control in the workplace were emotion regulation, maintenance of attentional control, maintenance of social relationships, preservation of self-image, knowledge acquisition, and goal attainment. These results shed light on why and where thought control activities are important in everyday working life, and thus provide a basis for further empirical and practical implications. Study 2 addresses the predictors more deeply and investigates how different personal and situational variables relate to thought control activities in the work context. Specifically, it examined how time pressure, task complexity (empirically identified situational variables from Study 1) and individual differences in thought control ability (personal variable) relate to the activation and perceived effort of thought control processes. A laboratory task assessing 143 employees’ ability to suppress unwanted thoughts (think/no-think paradigm) was combined with a five-day experience sampling study in the work context. Multilevel analyses revealed positive effects of task complexity and thought control ability on the activation of thought control, but underlined the importance of considering person-situation interactions with regard to time pressure: Employees engaged more often and more intensively in thought control activities at moderate levels of time pressure, but only when they had a higher ability to control their thoughts. In contrast, for employees with lower thought control ability, increasing time pressure was negatively related to the activation of thought control activities. Thus, individual thought control ability plays a decisive role in determining the impact of situational variables. Study 3 focuses on the consequences of thought control activities in the work context. Building on the results of Study 1, we examined the protective function of thought control activities for affect (emotion regulation), task focus (attentional control), and self-esteem (preservation of self-image). Individual differences in thought control ability were again considered in all assumed relationships, and we also examined possible mediating roles of negative affect and task focus on self-esteem. Data analyses relied on the same study setup and sample as Study 2 (N = 143 employees). Multilevel modeling results showed that individuals with lower thought control ability experienced higher negative affect and subsequently lower self-esteem after performing thought control activities, whereas individuals with higher ability did not. These findings underline the generally protective nature of thought control ability, but also point to possible detrimental aspects of unsuccessful thought control attempts. Thus, the benefits of thought control activities highly depend on their actual success. As thought control ability was found to be a central moderator variable both in predicting thought control activities (Study 2) and in their consequences (Study 3), Study 4 fully concentrates on the assessment of this construct. We compared task-based (think/no-think paradigm) and different self-report questionnaire measures within a meta-analytic framework (k = 20; N = 1,194). The overall correlation of r = .07 between the two types of measures was small and did not differ significantly from zero, and none of the contemplated moderators (age, gender, publication status, presentation order, type of self-report questionnaire) mattered. The results of an additional robust Bayesian meta-analysis tend to point to a null model rather than one with a medium effect size, but do not provide definitive evidence. Thus, it seems to be the case that task-based and self-report measures of thought control ability do not substantially overlap. This finding is discussed with respect to systematic differences in the underlying psychological processes captured by the two measures. The present dissertation contributes to the literature on thought control in several ways. It addresses thought control activities in an embedded manner by examining their predictors (Study 1, Study 2) as well as their consequences (Study 1, Study 3). Moreover, the whole process is investigated in an applied setting, which increases the external validity of the findings and connects laboratory research to everyday working life (Studies 1 – 3). Particular attention is drawn to individual differences in thought control ability, which were addressed theoretically (Study 1), empirically (Study 2, Study 3), and methodologically (Study 4). Overall, the results of the four studies suggest that intentional thought control activities are not only a laboratory phenomenon, but also play a protective role in everyday working life – especially in demanding situations. Thereby, the individual ability to control thoughts is involved in several processes and thus deserves particular attention in both future research and potential practical interventions.
... It is negatively related to productivity and commitment. The communication in virtual settings is found to be a major source of conflict as the message senders are often not trained to communicate in these environments (Soucek and Moser, 2010). The receiver decodes the message without having visual cues and an opportunity to get clarifications from the sender (Friedman and Currall, 2003). ...
Based on organizational socialization frameworks used to study newcomers' journey of adaptation from outsiders to insiders, this study develops an evolutionary model to examine their socialization in virtual settings. Extending the existing literature, the proposed model views organizational socialization as a cumulative process that allows the impact of pre-entry variables on accommodation and outcomes. Longitudinal design is used to measure the impact of key socialization factors on newcomers' productivity and commitment by controlling for entry-level perceptions. The virtual setting chosen for this study is the academic units at a premium Business school with multiple campuses in India. Ordinary Least Square (OLS) hierarchical linear regression modeling is used to analyze time-lagged study data of 373 Master of Business Administration (MBA) students. The study reports some unique aspects of newcomers' socialization in a virtual environment, and explains how and why some influential socialization factors might show varying effects if traditional physical settings are missing. Contesting the findings of previous studies, results of this study reveal that in virtual socialization process, pre-entry experience emerges as a strong predictor of accommodation for newcomers. However, dissemination of pre-entry information solely through advanced communication technologies might not produce desired results, unless complemented by face-to-face contact with peers and other stakeholders. Overall, this study offers a cumulative view of socialization in virtual settings in which early stages exert influence over later stages even after intervening variables are controlled.
... Most contingencies for the mediated effects through knowledge characteristics strengthen virtual work's negative effects on information processing demands and involve individual attributes and contextual factors that influence how individuals manage the features of virtual work that potentially create these demands. For example, individuals with poor self-management skills may be less effective at handling accumulated emails in asynchronous work (Soucek & Moser, 2010) and dealing with the challenges of coordinating work with team members in different time zones (Nurmi, 2011). In addition, Type Social characteristics. ...
Virtual work arrangements whereby dispersed employees interact with each other using technology-mediated communication can both positively and negatively impact their psychological well-being. Yet, research on these dual effects in different virtual work research domains (e.g., telecommuting, virtual teams, and computer-mediated work) is not wellintegrated, which limits insights into how their findings overlap and inform each other. Using a work design theoretical lens to synthesize findings from 115 empirical articles, we develop an integrative framework that advances understanding of how virtual work both helps and harms well-being. The framework explicates different pathways linking subdimensions of technology dependence and dispersion—two core dimensions underlying different types of virtual work—to well-being through employees’ perceived work characteristics. We identify four technology dependence and three dispersion subdimensions that differ in their degree of positive versus negative impact on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being outcomes as well as in the work characteristics that explain these effects. These findings suggest that employees’ well-being experiences in virtual work depend on the subdimensions involved. Our analysis also shows that the same subdimension can influence well-being both positively and negatively. Across the subdimensions, a dominant set of work characteristics in four categories (task, knowledge, social, and work context) explain these opposing effects moderated by contingencies related to the individual, team, organization, and external context. These multilevel contingencies point to potential interventions for enhancing the benefits and mitigating the downsides of virtual work for employee well-being. Based on these insights, we develop a future research agenda and discuss practical implications.
... Most contingencies for the mediated effects through knowledge characteristics strengthen virtual work's negative effects on information processing demands and involve individual attributes and contextual factors that influence how individuals manage the features of virtual work that potentially create these demands. For example, individuals with poor self-management skills may be less effective at handling accumulated emails in asynchronous work (Soucek & Moser, 2010) and dealing with the challenges of coordinating work with team members in different time zones (Nurmi, 2011). In addition, Type A personalities and workaholics are more prone to staying constantly connected to work in arrangements that offer flexible connectivity (Mazmanian et al., 2013). ...
... Training helps employees to use complicated systems effectively and reduce information overload (K. J. Harris et al., 2015;Soucek & Moser, 2010). Training educates employees about new technology and they gain new skills. ...
Information and communication technologies have changed and created a ubiquitous work environment for employees to work at any place and at any time. But it also caused technology overload for them. This study aims to evaluate the previously published literature to examine the effects of technology overload in the workplace. This systematic literature review employed a qualitative research design and reviewed articles on technology overload from the workplace perspective. N-Vivo, a qualitative software, was used to create and analyze codes and themes. This study looked at factors that create technology overload such as interruption overload, work-life conflict/work-family conflict, stress, social network service addiction/email addiction, social overload, and lost productivity. This study also established the challenges that knowledge workers/employees have to face at the workplace. Results indicate that self-efficacy, training, and time management are the key strategies to overcome technology overload. This study would contribute to the literature by examining the technology overload in the workplace. It will increase the employees’ awareness of strategies to overcome technology overload. It reviewed only empirical studies published about technology overload from the employees’ perspective. Future research may be conducted focusing on the employers’ perspective regarding technology overload. It has implications for the administration of the workplace to conduct training for the employees before the implementation of new technology. Organizations should establish laws for timings after work hours and disconnection from the internet at home to reduce technology overload.
... One of the reasons for this overload is that current email clients do not provide an inbox structure that facilitates email prioritization, information structuring and workflow management (Szóstek, 2011). Soucek and Moser (2010) also found out three reasons for information and communication overload in the use of email: large amount of information received, inefficient workflow and poor communication quality. Jackson and Farzaneh (2012) concluded that information and communication overload can lead to reduced productivity and performance, learning and innovation difficulties and, consequently, affect decision making, well-being and high costs for organizations. ...
This paper presents part of a research project on the use of information technology by students and teachers to communicate with each other in online community contexts of higher education institutions. The part of this project which investigated whether the number of messages exchanged, and the effort required to process them are a source of communication overload is the focus of the paper. The research was conducted at a Portuguese university, was supported by an analysis model, and data were collected through an online questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and inference tests were used to analyse a validated data sample of n = 570 students and n = 172 teachers. The results show that students and teachers generally perceive communication overload when using communication technologies to communicate with each other. This perception is particularly relevant when using email, and inference tests show that it is higher for teachers than for students
... Factors that decrease or inhibit the extent of these negative outcomes include IS management mechanisms such as literacy facilitation, technical support, end user involvement, innovation support, co-worker support, and support manuals (Day et al., 2012;Fuglseth & Sørebø, 2014;Ragu-Nathan et al., 2008;Soucek & Moser, 2010;Sykes, 2015;Yan et al., 2013). ...
Technostress—defined as stress that individuals experience due to their use of Information Systems—represents an emerging phenomenon of scholarly investigation. It examines how and why the use of IS causes individuals to experience various demands that they find stressful. This paper develops a framework for guiding future research in technostress experienced by individuals in organizations. We first review and critically analyse the state of current research on technostress reported in journals from the IS discipline and the non‐IS disciplines that study stress in organizations (eg, organizational behaviour and psychological stress). We then develop our framework in the form of the “technostress trifecta”—techno‐eustress, techno‐distress, and Information Systems design principles for technostress. The paper challenges 3 key ideas imbued in the existing technostress literature. First, it develops the argument that, in contrast to negative outcomes, technostress can lead to positive outcomes such as greater effectiveness and innovation at work. Second, it suggests that instead of limiting the role of IS to that of being a stress creator in the technostress phenomenon, it should be expanded to that of enhancing the positive and mitigating the negative effects of technostress through appropriate design. Third, it lays the groundwork for guiding future research in technostress through an interdisciplinary framing that enriches both the IS and the psychological stress literatures through a potential discourse of disciplinary exchange.
... Since there is different types of information across multiple stakeholders (Tang, 2016), communication itself causes information overload (Ellis & Shpielberg, 2003) and role overload (Cullen, Gerbasi, & Chrobot-Mason, 2018), which prevents employees from being able to comprehend the information and use it effectively. Training programs should be an intervention for addressing communication's negative aspect since training equips employees with the ability of processing information processing, which addresses the risk of information overload, deficient communication quality and role conflict (Back et al., 2011;Soucek & Moser, 2010). Thang and Fassin (2017) also noted that the insignificant effect of communication is attributed by the inclusion of other internal marketing component(s), which was considered more important than communication. ...
Entailing a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, this study explored alternative configurations leading to high-level work-family facilitation among 142 and 127 flight attendants employed respectively in Asian airline companies in Taiwan and Vietnam. Results revealed three paths in Taiwan and two paths in Vietnam that explained high work-family facilitation levels. A welfare system and compensation were identified as core facilitating conditions in Taiwan and Vietnam, respectively. The findings offer theoretical insights and practical guidelines to advance understanding of the complex interactions of internal marketing dimensions on work-family facilitation and suggest new directions for future research.
... Positive effects resulting from a better integration of work and nonwork domains, such as higher work-and life-satisfaction (e.g., [2,53,91]), are reported as well as a negative effects, e.g. impaired recovery and exhaustion [35,104], distress [12,41,81,113], cognitive and emotional irritation, or other health complaints [14,60], resulting from work-life-conflict or (expected) permanent availability. Independent from research on blurring boundaries, flexible work schedules constantly showed a negative relation to social support and job satisfaction in data from the European working condition survey, but this same survey also showed that a higher frequency of Internet use is positively associated with employees' cooperative and self-improvement behavior, as well as job satisfaction [76]. ...
Background
Evolving digitization has an impact not only on the organization of work, but also on the health of employees. Dealing with new technologies, integrating new processes and requirements into work, and restructuring tasks among others are demands that can be stressful and impair health.
Objectives
Our aim was to identify (clusters of) working conditions associated with digitally connected work and to analyze their relations with strain, that is, health and well-being outcomes.
Methods
Between May and October 2019, a search string was used to systematically search six databases (EMBASE, Medline, PSYNDEX, PsycInfo, SocIndex, WISO) for German and English texts according to the PEO scheme. The methodological quality was assessed using the Quality Assessment Tool for Studies with Diverse Design.
Results
14 studies were identified. Despite the search string containing latest technologies, we identified mostly studies from the 1980s/90s. To aggregate findings, a categorization of work factors (cognitive demands, social factors, organizational factors, environmental factors) and health factors (motivation/satisfaction, reduced well-being/affective symptoms, physiological parameters/somatic complaints) is introduced. The most frequently identified work factors belong to the category of cognitive demands. For health factors, motivation/satisfaction was identified most often. 475 associations were found in total.
Conclusions
This systematic review provides an overview of work and health factors that have been studied between 1981 and 2019. Recent texts frequently study individualized health factors (e.g., life satisfaction) whereas objective physiological measurement data and objective survey methods such as workplace analysis are not used. This latter approach was predominantly found in the older studies. In order to obtain a comprehensive picture, however, it is worthwhile to use a combination of these subjective and objective approaches for future studies in this field.
... In addition, these firms may use email communication networks as their main informal organisational structures. Soucek and Moser (2010) pointed out three aspects of information overload in email communication, including the huge amount of incoming information, inefficient workflow, and low communication quality. As workplace communication rapidly develops, email is not an effective way of communication. ...
Although small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) constitute a majority of firms, they still have little knowledge about environmental issues and generally encounter difficulties when integrating environmental aspects into their activities. Similar arguments are also highlighted by Ha et al. in the case of Vietnam. This paper, therefore, builds a guideline for promoting SMEs’ organisational environmental innovation adoption based on Environmental Standard Certification (ESC) by investigating the effects of R&D, networking, and leadership roles in Vietnam. By using SME survey data in Vietnam from 2011 to 2015, the empirical results show that R&D spending and organisational capabilities proxied by already owning ESC are positively associated with green innovation implementation. We also find that either collaboration with different partners, including competitors, banks, and public agents or communication networks, affects firms’ decisions on green innovations. The demographic characteristics of managers such as gender, educational level, and knowledge about the environmental laws play determining roles in these decisions. Finally, we advanced the literature by indicating the moderating effects of men in leadership roles and leaders with better related knowledge on the impacts of firms’ internal resources (R&D) and firms’ international orientation (export).
... CC recipients may also be overloaded and have to ignore information, resulting in "information bankruptcy" (Whittaker et al. 2007). Overall, our findings recommend project-level email policies to guide information sharing, for example, using colors distinguish importance (Soucek and Moser 2010). Core members appear to be able to diffuse important information and facilitate coordination, but with possibly a high demand on their time and interactive capacity. ...
Architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) project teams have a segmented organizational structure with subgroups, for example, designer, contractor, and owner. AEC projects are challenging to collaborate because they require those in different subgroups to address uniquely defined technical and functional contexts. The AEC industry often seeks integrated collaboration through organizational integration because the literature assumes that organizational structure determines collaboration structure. This study uses a network perspective to identify the inconsistency between the organization and collaboration networks through the data of email records from a $20 million AEC project with a typical fragmented organization. The analytical focus is on two network configurations: (1) a community structure through which subgroups are defined to attend to specific aspects of the project and then coordinated through ties between members of different teams; and (2) a core-periphery structure in which a relatively small number of members interact frequently in the core and then coordinate as each member of the core interacts with specific members of the periphery. Results provide evidence of integrated collaboration in fragmented project organization, indicating organizational integration is not a must to achieve integrative collaboration. The findings suggest implications to facilitate integrative collaboration: (1) efforts should focus on collaboration behaviors, (2) subgroups should adopt a dual-lead pattern, (3) subgroups should encourage non-high-profile members to function as cores, and (4) subgroups should ensure information sharing and prevent information overload.
... In general, the Average Response Time was not significantly associated with an innovative behavior also for the other two types of innovators. This is probably due the fact that the volume of incoming email affects behaviors of recipients and the length of time it takes to reply (Soucek & Moser, 2010). Researchers who are focused on publishing, designing their products or submitting their proposals need time to study, reflect and connect with other people (not necessarily online), so their attention might be spread across many tasks, increasing the time they respond to emails. ...
We propose a novel method for finding the most innovative people in an organization, using email to analyze structure and dynamics of the organization's online communication. To illustrate our approach, we analyzed the email archive of 2000 members of the R&D department of a US multinational company. We use metrics of social network analysis extended with meta-data of interaction dynamics to calculate features for individual employees: their network positions, messages sent and received, pings to others and response times. We find a distinction between innovation group leaders and subject matter experts focused on publishing papers and patents. Innovation administrators have a higher number of direct contacts, are more committed in conversations and receive more messages than they send. We also found significant differences between innovators oriented towards internal awards and innovators more concerned with external recognition of their work.
... Insgesamt beschränkt sich ein Großteil der Studien auf E-Mail-bedingte Informationsüberlastung. Zwar belegen zahlreiche Studien, dass E-Mails oft prioritäre Ursache von Informationsüberlastung sind (z. B. BURGESS et al., 2005;CARLEVALE, 2011;EDMUNDS et al., 2000;SOUCEK et al., 2010), mit Zunahme der Vernetzung durch geteilte Informationsspeicher-und -verarbeitungsmedien steigt jedoch die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass weitere digitale Informationstechnologien Ursache informationeller Überlastung sind. ...
In diesem Abschlussbericht sind die Befunde des Projekts "Informationsflut am Arbeitsplatz - Umgang mit großen Informationsmengen vermittelt durch elektronische Medien" dargestellt.
Das Projekt zielte auf die Ermittlung der Bedingungen und beanspruchungsbezogenen Wirkungen von erlebter Informationsflut (i.S.v. Informationsüberlastung) beim Umgang mit großen Informationsmengen, die bei der Arbeit mit digitalen Medien auftreten. Die Studie wurde im Dienstleistungsbereich (Verwaltung, IT-Entwicklung und -Service sowie Forschung und Entwicklung) durchgeführt. Gewählt wurde ein multimethodales Vorgehen, das einen systematischen Literaturreview, eine Interview-, eine Befragungs- und eine Tagebuchstudie sowie 18 betriebliche Gestaltungsworkshops und einen betrieblich übergreifenden Workshop mit betrieblichen Vertretern umfasste. Merkmale am Arbeitsplatz mit Einfluss auf die Informationsüberlastung, sind (a) die Menge der für die Tätigkeitsdurchführung relevanten Informationen, (b) die Auftragsmenge, die aus den Informationen resultiert, (c) Unterbrechungen durch eintreffende Informationen und (d) die Qualität der Informationen (z. B. Verständlichkeit). Weiter bestimmen Anforderungen aus Arbeitsaufgabe und der Arbeitsorganisation das Informationsaufkommen, wie die Auftragsvielfalt, die zeitliche Parallelität von Aufträgen, die Zeitbindung und die Organisation der Zusammenarbeit mit anderen Personen. Daneben zeigen auch die Art und Vielfalt der eingesetzten digitalen Medien, die organisationalen Umgangsweisen (z. B. die Informationsverteilung im Unternehmen) und individuelles Verhalten der Beschäftigten Zusammenhänge mit Informationsüberlastung.
Informationsüberlastung lässt sich als ein multikausal verursachtes Phänomen verstehen, das Auswirkungen auf das Befinden und die Arbeitsleistung hat. Mit den betrieblichen Partnern ließen sich 12 Handlungsfelder ermitteln, auf deren Basis organisationale und informationstechnologische sowie individuelle Gestaltungsansätze entwickelt wurden.
Die Gestaltungsansätze für einen adäquaten Umgang mit Informationen bei Nutzung digitaler Medien folgen dem Leitgedanken einer menschengerechten Arbeitsgestaltung. Insbesondere die verhältnispräventive Gestaltung wird hervorgehoben ohne deren Verbindung zu verhaltenspräventiven Ansätzen zu vernachlässigen.
Die digitale Transformation beeinflusst die Ergotherapie (ET) auf mehreren Ebenen. Technostress (TS) und Digital Burnout (DB) entstehen durch eine Überforderung im Umgang mit Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien (IKT) und wirken sich auf die Arbeitszufriedenheit von Fachkräften, die therapeutische Beziehung und die Betätigungsmöglichkeiten von Klienten aus. Der vorliegende Artikel definiert TS und DB, beleuchtet diese Phänomene aus einer multiperspektivischen Sicht und spiegelt den aktuellen Stand der Wissenschaft wider. Dabei werden Implikationen für die ET abgeleitet, um die Herausforderungen der digitalen Transformation zu adressieren.
The digital transformation significantly influences occupational therapy (OT) acrossvarious levels. Technostress (TS) and digital burnout (DB) emerge as consequences ofexcessive demands in managing information and communication technologies (ICT),negatively impacting job satisfaction among professionals, the therapeutic alliance, andclients' engagement in meaningful activities. This article provides a conceptual definitionof TS and DB, examines these phenomena through a multidisciplinary lens, andsynthesizes the current state of research. Based on these findings, implications for OTpractice are proposed to address the challenges associated with digital transformation.
Human behavior in cyber space is extremely complex. Change is the only constant as technologies and social contexts evolve rapidly. This leads to new behaviors in cybersecurity, Facebook use, smartphone habits, social networking, and many more. Scientific research in this area is becoming an established field and has already generated a broad range of social impacts. Alongside the four key elements (users, technologies, activities, and effects), the text covers cyber law, business, health, governance, education, and many other fields. Written by international scholars from a wide range of disciplines, this handbook brings all these aspects together in a clear, user-friendly format. After introducing the history and development of the field, each chapter synthesizes the most recent advances in key topics, highlights leading scholars and their major achievements, and identifies core future directions. It is the ideal overview of the field for researchers, scholars, and students alike.
Human behavior in cyber space is extremely complex. Change is the only constant as technologies and social contexts evolve rapidly. This leads to new behaviors in cybersecurity, Facebook use, smartphone habits, social networking, and many more. Scientific research in this area is becoming an established field and has already generated a broad range of social impacts. Alongside the four key elements (users, technologies, activities, and effects), the text covers cyber law, business, health, governance, education, and many other fields. Written by international scholars from a wide range of disciplines, this handbook brings all these aspects together in a clear, user-friendly format. After introducing the history and development of the field, each chapter synthesizes the most recent advances in key topics, highlights leading scholars and their major achievements, and identifies core future directions. It is the ideal overview of the field for researchers, scholars, and students alike.
Augmentation-based artificial intelligence (AI) artifacts are increasingly being incorporated into the workplace. The coupling of employees and AI tools, given their complementary strengths, expands and expedites employees’ access to information and affords important learning opportunities. However, existing research has yet to fully understand the learning-based benefits and challenges for employees in augmentation. Integrating insights from AI augmentation literature and cognitive load theory, we conducted a daily diary study to understand employees’ experience using augmentation-based AI at work on a daily basis. We theorized and found that, on the one hand, frequent usage of augmentation-based AI during a workday was associated with greater knowledge gain and subsequently better task performance at the end of the workday. On the other hand, using augmentation-based AI frequently also led employees to experience information overload, which in turn impaired their performance and recovery at the end of the workday. In addition to elucidating the countervailing mechanisms, we identified employee openness to experience as a dispositional factor, and positive affect as a momentary state that shaped the effects of using augmentation-based AI over the workday. Our research has implications for understanding AI augmentation dynamics from a learning-based perspective, as well as AI’s impact on employees at large.
Digital technologies, although enhancing productivity and communication, also contribute to technostress at work. This study addresses the fragmentation in existing models of hindrance technostressors by proposing a unified hierarchical model of digital hindrance stressors tailored to contemporary digital work environments. The research synthesizes various existing models and uses a mixed-methods approach, including a qualitative prestudy and extensive surveys with more than 5,800 participants to identify and validate 12 first-order and 5 second-order digital hindrance stressors. The new model offers both detailed and streamlined measurement tools, enhancing its applicability in diverse organizational contexts. For practitioners and policymakers, this study provides a comprehensive framework to assess and mitigate the adverse impacts of digital stressors. The unified model allows organizations to understand specific stressors their employees face and implement targeted interventions to improve well-being and productivity. By using this model, occupational health professionals can better address the psychological and physical health implications of technostress. Moreover, the findings offer actionable insights for designing digital work environments that minimize stress and foster a healthier, more productive workforce. This research bridges the gap between theoretical technostress models and practical applications, guiding effective strategies for managing digital workplace stress.
The continuous use of IT, even beyond regular office hours, is considered a cause of technostress, which impairs the health and performance of employees. To mitigate technostress, European countries have established the right to disconnect, and many organizations are struggling to identify and implement other effective measures. Based on a qualitative study (N=30) with 23 IT workers, five managers, and two CIOs, this study identifies eight technological, social, and cultural measures to mitigate common techno-stressors. By focusing on the employees' perspective, the results reveal the extent to which the measures actually work, showing that well-intended countermeasures, such as email restrictions, might have unintended negative and even harmful side effects. Our analysis shows that mitigation measures seldom work in isolation and without spillover effects. We conclude that although technostress mitigation is complex and mitigation measures adopted in isolation can fail and sometimes cause additional harm, employees still appreciate the effort.
We are now exposed daily to more information than we can process and this has substantial costs. We argue that the information space should be recognized as part of our environment and call for research into the effects and management of information overload. (full text preview: https://rdcu.be/dx2Vu)
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In the last 25 years, work‐email activity has been studied across domains and disciplines. Yet, despite the abundance of research available, a comprehensive, unifying framework of how work‐email activity positively impacts both well‐being and work‐performance outcomes has yet to emerge. This is a timely and significant concern; work‐email is the most prominent and popular form of work communication but it is still unclear what people need to do to be effective emailers at work. To address this, we undertook a rigorous cross‐disciplinary systematic literature review of 62 empirical papers. Using action regulation theory, we developed a multi‐action, multi‐goal framework and found four ‘super’ actions that consistently predict effectiveness (positive well‐being and work‐performance outcomes). These actions involve: (i) communicating and adhering to work‐email access boundaries; (ii) regularly triaging emails (iii) sending work‐relevant email and (iv) being civil and considerate in work‐email exchanges. We found that super actions are engaged when workers have the resources to appropriately regulate their activity, and can attend to their self, task and social needs. Our framework synthesizes a broad and disparate research field, providing valuable insights and guiding future research directions. It also offers practical recommendations to organizations and individuals; by understanding and encouraging the adoption of work‐email super actions, effective work‐email practices can be enhanced.
Information overload is a problem that is being exacerbated by the ongoing digitalization of the world of work and the growing use of information and communication technologies. Therefore, the aim of this systematic literature review is to provide an insight into existing measures for prevention and intervention related to information overload. The methodological approach of the systematic review is based on the PRISMA standards. A keyword search in three interdisciplinary scientific databases and other more practice-oriented databases resulted in the identification of 87 studies, field reports, and conceptual papers that were included in the review. The results show that a considerable number of papers have been published on interventions on the behavioral prevention level. At the level of structural prevention, there are also many proposals on how to design work to reduce information overload. A further distinction can be made between work design approaches at the level of information and communication technology and at the level of teamwork and organizational regulations. Although the identified studies cover a wide range of possible interventions and design approaches to address information overload, the strength of the evidence from these studies is mixed.
In the field of work and organizational psychology, verbal questionnaires provide a solid and valid foundation for the assessment of working conditions and employees’ attitudes. In the view of practitioners, these instruments are often too long, requiring a lot of time to complete, and employees might resist the invitation to participate in frequent surveys. To address these drawbacks, we present an alternative approach and describe the development of pictorial scales for the assessment of work intensity. Pictorial scales provide a simple and inviting format for the assessment of work intensity, and therefore, are a suitable instrument for practice-oriented formats such as interviews or workshops. Moreover, pictorial scales have advantages in repeated assessments such as in diary studies.
The quote, illustrating how remote communications had been envisioned before World War II, is part of the verbiage on the back of collectable cards and stickers published by the German company Echte Wagner back in 1930. The quoted verse is part of a card that vividly portrays two women sitting outdoors while chatting to presumably their family members using portable monitors (Mann, 2021). Shortly after the first publicly demonstrated one-way videophone call in 1927 by then US Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover (Schnaars & Wymbs, 2004), the Echte Wagner’s futuristic projection of videotelephony illustrated how individuals would be able to converse and exchange information with the use of a live video. Inspired primarily by these ideas, a closed-circuit videophone experiment took place in 1936, 6 years after the release of Echte Wagner’s cards, by a German visual telephone system called Gegensehn-Fernsprechanlagen. That video call connected the Minister of Post, Paul von Eltz-Rübenach, who was stationed in Berlin, and Leipzig’s mayor, Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. By mid-1938, said videophone system had expanded from Berlin and Leipzig to the cities of Nuremberg and Munich and was made available to the German public through specially designed videophone booths that enabled rudimental videocalls between the four cities (Burns, 1995). Lewis and Cosier (1997) see this historical development as a major milestone for kindling society’s interest in developing telepresence systems – and subsequently, virtual-world multimedia environments – that enable individuals to interact remotely.
Email is the communication application most widely used in organizations. Its use in the workplace has increased fourfold since 2006. Yet, email is associated with a number of negative aspects, most prominently 'email overload', defined as an individual's perception of being overwhelmed by emails that s/he considers too numerous to handle. Email overload is a theoretically interesting phenomenon because of its adverse organizational outcomes. Moreover, it continues to be vexing in practice because it has proved intractable to manage. We problematize the current understanding of email overload as being due to lack of understanding of its technology fit-related antecedents and job-related outcomes, and then investigate how email overload is influenced by a lack of fit between the communication applications that the organization provides to individuals and those that (1) they want, and that (2) are suitable for their tasks. We hypothesize that such lack of fit leads to email by default, defined as the perception of email being used improperly, when other communication applications would be better suited. Email by default is then hypothesized to lead to email overload. We further investigate job-related outcomes of email overload. To achieve this, we conducted a two-stage, multi-method empirical study in a large manufacturing organization in a sequential research design, where the first study (qualitative-interviews) informed the second (quantitative-survey). Our results support the hypothesized relationships. The paper theoretically broadens the scholarly discourse on email overload to include novel antecedents and outcomes in the ongoing quest to establish a more complete understanding of this phenomenon.
During the second week of March 2020, work shifted from the county extension office to home during the Coronavirus pandemic. During COVID-19, workers were shifted into new all-digital work environments without establishing boundaries that melded the work and home environment into one (Katsabian, 2020). While this shift to remote work was possible due to technology, work-life boundaries became even blurrier. Professionals who do not have good boundaries find themselves always connected to both spheres of work and home because of their digital devices (Richardson & Rothstein, 2008). OSU Extension professionals not only made the switch to remote work from home, but they had to adjust to an all-digital 4-H program delivery at the same time. By rapidly shifting to digital work, 4-H professionals had to adapt to this change. The Change Style Indicator (Musselwhite & Ingraham, 1998) assessment classifies a person as a Conserver, Pragmatist, or Originator. Conservers prefer gradual change. Pragmatists desire change that serves a function. Originators are the most adept to change and favor quicker, more expansive change. These preferences to change would have impacted their approach to dealing with the pandemic and remote work. This study explored the adaptation of county-based OSU Extension 4-H Youth Development professionals to an all-digital environment during the virtual work period of COVID-19. Specific objectives included: (a) to describe the population by their Change Style Preferences, (b) to describe the adaptations to the all-digital work environment, (c) to describe the types of digital tools used, (d) to describe the types of digital skills learned, (e) to describe the types of digital youth development programming implemented, to describe the types of digital youth development strategies generated, and (f) to explore these selected variables (a-e) and their relationship to the Change Style Preferences. Data were gathered in two parts. The Change Style Indicator assessment was used to sort how each employee ordered along the change preference scale in part one. A follow-up survey assessed adaptations to remote work, digital tools, skills, programs, and strategies used by staff during the all-digital period. The population of 98 Ohio 4-H professionals completed both parts of the survey. There were several key findings found during the remote work period during COVID-19. Over half of the population had a Change Style Preference of a Conserver. Change Style Preferences had little or no relationships with how 4-H professionals adapted to this all-digital environment. Colleagues indicated that they depended upon each other for support. Almost all of the 4-H professionals used time during the spring to learn new skills or improve existing skills. Staff also waited to alter 4-H programming due to the constant changes related to the pandemic. A majority of the respondents indicated that they could reach new youth audiences and collaborate with other colleagues because of remote work. Ohio 4-H professionals would continue using digital youth development strategies beyond the pandemic. This research played a unique role in capturing an all-digital 4-H programming period when there was no in-person programming or access to the physical office. The shift to a digital-only environment was one of the most significant changes to the work environment for Ohio 4-H Professionals and around the world. The focus on this period does not limit future research opportunities. Technology does not go away in the future, as new digital innovations will replace the present ones.
This article examines the factors explaining whether or not Swedish social workers experience technostress, and highlights examples of situations when social workers experience it. The article draws on a web survey (N = 523) via a quantitative analysis of responses and a qualitative analysis of answers to an open-ended question. Approximately one-third of social workers surveyed experienced technostress either often or quite often. The binary logistic regression analysis shows that technostress is mostly a question of social workers already exposed to high workloads and high levels of general job stress. Also, the feeling of not being able to leave the job at the end of the day correlates positively with technostress. Malfunctioning technology, duplication of work, email ‘bombs’, information overload, and the fact that technology tends to set the terms of the social work, instead of the opposite, were some of the examples of situations where Swedish social workers experienced technostress. These results suggest that technology risks add new ‘invisible’ work tasks that are time-consuming. One possible explanation why so many social workers experienced technostress is that the technology that has been implemented has increased the workload instead of decreasing it and that there is a lack of procedures, strategies, and sometimes even skills to manage the technology. The results provide useful insights for social work practice concerning how social workers experience technostress. Going forward, technostress as a working environment problem should be included in systematic management of the work environment.
In this article, several potentially negative effects of the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) are studied. Some of their interactions are examined, namely the dependence on electronic mail (email), information overload and technostress. A re search model is developed for this purpose, demonstrating that email dependence leads to information overload and represents an antecedent factor of two technostress generators: techno-overload and techno-invasion. In addition, information overload has a perceived negative impact on ICT-enabled productivity and ICT-enabled innovation, while positive (techno-eustress), negative (techno-distress) or neutral (no-technostress) effects on these two factors could be observed. These results and their theoretical and managerial implications are discussed and put into perspective with regard to the gender and the generation to which users belong. Our research contributes therefore significantly to the emerging stream of research on the ‘dark side’ where positive, negative or neutral effects of ICT usage could emerge.
The use of information and communication technology (ICT) in the workplace has gained considerable research attention in the occupational health field due to its effects on employee stress and well-being. Consequently, new ICT-related constructs have proliferated in occupational health research, resulting in a need to take stock of both potential redundancies and deficiencies in the current measures. This paper disentangles ICT-related constructs, developing a taxonomy of ICT-related constructs in terms of ICT demands, resources, motivation, use, and strains. We then integrate this taxonomy with stress and motivation theories to identify three key implications for ICT and workplace health research and practices in terms of providing suggestions on understudied areas for building better theories, highlighting important psychometric issues for building better constructs and measures, and offering recommendations for building better interventions. This review aims to serve as a guide for researchers to move forward with the current state of research and provide recommendations for organizations in terms of both potential repercussions and best practices for ICT use in the workplace.
Information overload has always been a challenge for businesspeople as well as professionals from other types of organizations. And today with search algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) such an ever-present part of daily life and media consumption, the challenges in learning how to filter information for oneself for effective processing, interpretation and analysis have only increased. This article presents several frameworks that were created for instructing students to assist with addressing this. They were tested and refined over four years in a core MBA course focused on decision making and project-based work. They include ways to conceptualize the broad areas of information available for business decision making as well as how to identify information by thinking about who is producing it, why they are producing it and who their key customers are. Other frameworks presented deal with ways to identify pertinent information and how to process and work with it as part of a research investigation. These frameworks are presented as tools that can be used by business school instructors, but certainly have a broader application as useful guidelines for anyone hoping to be a better collector and processor of relevant information for decision making and project work.
PIM includes three areas of special importance: task management, personal archiving, and contact management. We explore how and why email is currently used to support these PIM functions, and the problems arising from using email for PIM. We evaluate new technological approaches that address these problems and identify their limitations. We conclude with a discussion of outstanding issues email generates for PIM relating to inter-personal information management, and discuss future trends in email and PIM. Email as the critical site for PIM For many people in organisations, work is interpersonal rather than solitary, and email is the main conduit through which their work and information are distributed. They tend to 'live' in email, as evidenced by the sheer amount of time they spend using it, and their evaluation of its importance for everyday work (Bellotti, et al., 2005). Email's role as conduit naturally leads it to be used for three key PIM functions: task management, personal archiving and contact management. Task management involves reminding oneself about current tasks, tracking task status and maintaining information relevant to those tasks. Email's conduit function leads many people to exploit the inbox for task management. They leave information about current tasks in the inbox, knowing that when they access it to pick up new messages, they will be reminded about those tasks (Jones et al., 2001; Whittaker, 2005). They even send themselves email to create a message in the inbox as a reminder and perhaps a link to useful information. Some users also organise emails that relate to current tasks into active folders, returning to these folders when they need to deal with those tasks (Bellotti et al., 2005).
According to social constructivist theories of communication technology in organizations, work group members share identifiable patterns of meaning and action concerning communication technology. Empirical evidence of these patterns was found in a study of electronic mail use among a group of scientists and engineers. Social influences on technology-related attitudes and behavior were consistently stronger when individuals were highly attracted to their work groups. for individuals with low attraction, the specific patterns of influence were consistent with predictions from conformity research for compliance effects only; for those with high attraction, both compliance and internalization effects emerged.
Knowledge-intensive firms are composed of multiple communities with specialized expertise, and are often characterized by lateral rather than hierarchical organizational forms. We argue that producing knowledge to create innovative products and processes in such firms requires the ability to make strong perspectives within a community, as well as the ability to take the perspective of another into account. We present models of language, communication and cognition that can assist in the design of electronic communication systems for perspective making and perspective taking. By appreciating how communication is both like a language game played in a local community and also like a transmission of messages through a conduit, and by appreciating how cognition includes a capacity to narrativize our experience as well as a capacity to process information, we identify some guidelines for designing electronic communication systems to support knowledge work. The communication systems we propose emphasize that narratives can help construct strong perspectives within a community of knowing, and that reflecting upon and representing that perspective can create boundary objects which allow for perspective taking between communities. We conclude by describing our vision of an idealized knowledge intensive firm with a strong culture of perspective making and perspective taking, and by identifying some elements of the electronic communication systems we would expect to see in such a firm.
ABSTRACT It is widely acknowledged,that many,professionals suffer from “e-mail overload.” This article presents findings from in-depth fieldwork that examined,this phenome- non, uncovering six key challenges of task management in e-mail. Analysis of quali- tative and quantitative data suggests that it is not simply the quantity but also the col- HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION, 2005, Volume 20, pp. 89–138 Copyright © 2005, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Victoria Bellotti is a social scientist with an interest in computer-mediated com-
This paper introduces the concept of information richness, and proposes three models of information processing. The models describe (1) manager information behavior, (2) organizational mechanisms for coping with equivocality from the environment, and (3) organizational mechanisms for internal coordination. Concepts developed by Weick (1979) and Galbraith (1973) are integrated into two information tasks: equivocality reduction and the processing of a sufficient amount of information. The premise of this paper is that the accomplishment of these information tasks and the ultimate success of the organization are related to the balance of information richness used in the organization.
Several attributes of communication media influence the costs of their use and utility, and these in turn have the potential to influence their patterns of use and organizational consequences. The goal of this paper is to examine some of these media attributes and their consequences in a large international firm. The data come from a survey of 973 employees of a multi- national corporation. They show that the distinguishing attributes of different media are not dominant: people whose jobs require substantial communication are likely to communicate heavily using all media available to them. The best predictor of which medium is used is the extent to which the medium can put people into contact with their important communication partners. When the job is the unit of analysis, the data from this survey do not support the media richness hypothesis - that use is determined by the fit between the richness of a medium and the degree to which people have complex, ambiguous, or social jobs. Yet when one takes a single conversation as a unit of analysis, the data show that media differing in interactivity and expressiveness are valuable for different tasks. Employees who use electronic mail extensively are better informed about their company and more committed to its management's goals. One reason for their superior knowledge about the organization seems to be that electronic mail promotes 'information spillover' from a focal recipient to others less directly interested in a message, without subjecting these marginal parties to the burdens of interruption and information overload.
E-mail research encompasses a vast and diverse body of work that accumulated over the past 30 years. In this article, we take a critical look at the research literature and ask two simple questions: What is e-mail research? Can it help us reinvent e-mail? Rather than defining an overarching framework, we survey the literature and identify three metaphors that have guided e-mail research up to this day: e-mail as a file cabinet extending human information processing capabilities, e-mail as a production line and locus of work coordination, and, finally, e-mail as a communication genre supporting social and organizational processes. We propose this taxonomy so that designers of future e-mail systems can forge their own direction of research, with knowledge of other directions that have been explored in the past. As an illustration of the possible future work we want to encourage with this review, we conclude with a description of several guidelines for the reinvention of e-mail inspired by our journey through the literature.
Three approaches to computer training (behavior modeling, self-paced study, and lecturing) and a no-training control condition were compared concerning their relative performance across an array of evaluation measures in a field experiment. Learning theories of K. Lewin (1951) and D. A. Kolb (1984) were used to provide theoretical bases for the training approaches and the measures of learning. Trainees were 160 novice computer users from the U.S. Naval Construction Battalion at Gulfport, Mississippi. Measures of cognitive learning and skill demonstration were highest for behavior modeling, followed by the self-paced condition. Results were similar for measures collected immediately after training and 1 month after training. Satisfaction with the computer system I month after training was also highest for behavior modeling. Implications are discussed, especially those pertaining to transfer of cognitive and skill-based learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A comprehensive worksite stress management program consisting of self-management training and a stressor reduction process was evaluated in a pre-post, treatment-control design in four comparable facilities. Results showed that over a 3-month period those individuals attending self-management training improved on emotional well-being measures. Organizational data suggested that their work-units' productivity increased and absenteeism decreased over the same period. Results support the value of combining self-management training and stressor reduction to produce positive individual and organizational outcomes.
This paper reviews the literature on the problem of information overload, with particular reference to business organisations. The literature reveals that although the problem of information overload has existed for many years, in recent years the problem has become more widely recognised and experienced. Both perceptions and the actual effects of information overload have been exacerbated by the rapid advances made in information and communication technology, although it is not clear cut as to whether the Internet has worsened or improved the situation. A theme stressed in the literature is the paradoxical situation that, although there is an abundance of information available, it is often difficult to obtain useful, relevant information when it is needed. Some solutions put forward to reduce information overload are: a reduction in the duplication of information found in the professional literature; the adoption of personal information management strategies, together with the integration of software solutions such as push technology and intelligent agents; and the provision of value-added information (filtered by software or information specialists). An emphasis is placed on technology as a tool and not the driver, while increased information literacy may provide the key to reducing information overload.
Email is one oftl~ most successful computer applicmiom yet devised. Our empin~:al ct~ta show however, that althongh email was origiraUy designed as a c~nmunica/ons application, it is now used for ~tional funaions, that it was not designed for, such as tab management and persona/ afoOt/v/rig. We call this ernt~l oveHoad We demonstrate that email overload creates problems for personal information manageaa,cnt: users eden have cluttered inboxes cor~mining hundreds of n~:age~¢, incl~rling outstanding tasks, partially read documents and conversational threads. Furthermore,, user attemt:Xs to rationalise their inbox~ by ~ing are ~Ron unsuccessful, with the consequence that important rr~ges get overlooked, or "lost" in archives. We explain how em~l over/oad/ng arises and propose technical solutions to the problem.
Almost every office worker can relate to feelings of email overload and stress, but in reality the concept of email strain is not well understood. In this paper, we describe a large-scale nationwide organizational survey examining the relationship between email use and feelings of email overload and task coordination. We found that higher email volume was associated with increased feelings of email overload, but this relationship was moderated by certain email management strategies. The contribution to the field of CSCW is a better understanding of the concept of email related stress, and initial scale development for the assessment of email-related overload and perceptions of the work-importance of email.
Unless computer-mediated communication systems are structured, users will be overloaded with information. But structure should be imposed by individuals and user groups according to their needs and abilities, rather than through general software features.
A field study was conducted using a questionnaire and interview:; concerning how electronic mail (E-mail) is used as a work tool for communication. The questionnaire, distributed electronically within a large organization, showed that employeessending and receiving large numbers of E-mail messages are not the same employees having problems handling E-mail. Managers seem to have problems to a larger extent than members of other workgroups. Interviews were then conducted with 10 employeesse- lected by strata from the questionnairestudy. Strata were based on thevariablesof job category, number of E-mail messages sent and received per day, an.3 E-mail handling problem. The interviews showed that, although employees continually entered the E-mail program, they did not see this action as disruptive of other work activities; in- stead, they saw it ashaving apositiveeffect. E-mail handlingproblemscorrelated with the number of messages stored in the inbox (.72). Employees felt a shortageof time for handling E-mail and gave examples of communication problems. Regardless of the number of messagesin theinbox and whether employees felt a time shortage, employ- ees had difficulty organizing stored messages within folders and catalogues.
Computer skills are key to organizational performance, and past research indicates that behavior modeling is a highly effective form of computer skill training.The present research develops and tests a new theoretical model of the underlying observational learning processes by which modeling-based training interventions influence computer task performance.Observational learning processes are represented as a second-order construct with four dimensions (attention, retention, production, and motivation).New measures for these dimensions were developed and shown to have strong psychometric properties.The proposed model controls for two pretraining individual differences (motivation to learn and self-efficacy) and specifies the relationships among three training outcomes (declarative knowledge, post-training self-efficacy, and task performance).The model was tested using PLS on data from an experiment (N = 95) on computer spreadsheet training.As hypothesized, observational learning processes significantly influenced training outcomes. A representative modeling-based training intervention (retention enhancement) significantly improved task performance through its specific effects on the retention processes dimension of observational learning.The new model provides a more complete theoretical account of the mechanisms by which modeling-based interventions affect training outcomes, which should enable future research to systematically evaluate the effectiveness of a wide range of modeling-based training interventions.Further, the new instruments can be used by practitioners to refine ongoing training programs.
Describes some of the issues raised by electronic communication, including time and information-processing pressures, absence of regulating feedback, dramaturgical weakness, paucity of status and position cues, social anonymity, and computing norms and immature etiquette. An empirical approach for investigating the social psychological effects of electronic communication is illustrated, and how social psychological research might contribute to a deeper understanding of computers and technological change in society and computer-mediated communication (CMC) is discussed. A series of studies that explored how people participate in CMC and how computerization affects group efforts to reach consensus is described; results indicate differences in participation, decisions, and interaction among groups meeting face to face and in simultaneous computer-linked discourse and communication by electronic mail. Findings are attributed to difficulties of coordination from lack of informational feedback, absence of social influence cues for controlling discussion, and depersonalization from lack of nonverbal involvement and absence of norms. (103 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Email serves as an information conduit — acting as a delivery channel for different types of information, including documents, slide, contact information, and schedules. Its use as a conduit naturally leads to its being used for key PIM functions. People use their inboxes as to-do lists to manage current tasks, their email folders as a repository for archival information, and their email address books to find contacts. They even use email to find and schedule calendar appointments. Despite its success, there are significant problems with email. This chapter will illustrate how many of email's PIM problems stem from its conduit function. It discusses how people use email to manage their personal information and describes the tools that can support such behavior. We look at important aspects of PIM through the lens of email: allocating attention, deciding actions, managing tasks, and organizing messages into folders.
Email's role as conduit leads to it being used for three key functions in personal information management (PIM), that are task management, personal archiving, and contact management. Information may be left in Email due to the effort involved in relocating it to a separate application or to the feeling that is more meaningful and accessible in email. Email is an important information repository for personal information, where the user can access archive information through folders, search and sort. Users trying to retrieve archival or contact information first delivered in email often use associative reminding based on indirect social and temporal cues. Email information may lack adequate context, making it more difficult to process. Centralization and data extraction are two technical approaches to address the challenges of using email to process, capture, store, and retrieve personal information.
This chapter discusses use of computer networking in organizations. The networked organization differs from the conventional workplace with respect to both time and space. Computer-based communication is extremely fast in comparison with telephone or postal services. People can send a message to the other side of the globe in minutes; each message can be directed to one person or many people. Networks can also essentially make time standstill. Electronic messages can be held indefinitely in computer memory. People can read or reread their messages at any time, copy them, change them or forward them. Managers are often attracted to networks by the promise of faster communication and greater efficiency. Many organizations have adopted internal networks that link anywhere from a few to a few thousand employees.
E-mail is the primary communication vehicle for the information superhighway. Unfortunately, e-mail education is focusing on the hardware and software issues without regard for the requisite communication skills. To be effective electronic communicators, students need training in understanding the electronic organizational hierarchy and electronic communication volume and costs; selecting the appropriate media; and evaluating message permanence, security, ownership, and privacy. Including targeted exercises in the business communication class can enhance students' understanding of e-mail.
This paper reviews the literature on email (including computer conferencing) and discusses the most important current issues in the field. Though it will be of interest to researchers working specifically in the email field, it is intended mainly as a summary for IS researchers in other areas. Email research is part of a wider field, computer-mediated communication (CMC), which includes some areas not covered here, such as the Internet, video conferencing and EDI. Most research on email has concerned itself with the issues of media choice and media effects. Despite a great deal of published work though, the field still has an unsatisfactory, piecemeal feel to it. Much of the work that has been published is unsatisfactory in being based upon unrealistic, laboratory-like simulations, and a positivist epistemology. Most of the work concerns the use of email and the effects of using email on individuals and groups; little has been done on the effects at an organizational level. The paper concludes with some suggestions for future avenues of research.
As new technologies that support managerial communication become widely used, the question of how and why managers, especially senior managers, use them increases in importance. This paper examines how and why managers use electronic mail. Today, one of the more influential theories of media choice in organization and information science is information richness theory, which has stimulated much empirical research on media selection and has clear implications for how managers should use media. Despite numerous modifications and elaborations, information richness theory remains an individual-level rational choice explanation of behavior, and as such it differs fundamentally from theories that emphasize the social context of managers' communication and media choice behavior. While the weight of informed opinion seems to be shifting toward social theories of media selection and use, much empirical research continues to test individual-level rational choice models.
A multi-method investigation was designed to assess the power of information richness theory, relative to alternative social theories, to explain and predict managers' use of email. Managers were found to perceive various media in ways that were relatively consistent with information richness theory, but to use email more and differently than the theory predicted. In particular, effective senior managers were found to use email heavily and even for equivocal communications tasks. These results cannot be explained by information richness theory or by simple modifications of the theory. Rather, they suggest that the adoption, use, and consequences of media in organizations can be powerfully shaped by social processes such as sponsorship, socialization, and social control, which require social perspectives to understand them. These processes can result in differences across organizations and other social units in the patterns of using traditional media like the telephone, but such differences are even more likely for new media, like electronic mail.
Extending the ARPANET technology of an asynchronous, packet-switched "electronic mailbox," the Corporate Information Systems department introduced a pilot mail service within Digital Equipment Corporation which has now grown into a full-fledged production system with some 6,000 users ᾢ and is still growing. The architecture for the Electronic Mail System (EMS) is based on a multimode network of dedicated minicomputers. Technical, administrative and human factors, and cost considerations were recorded throughout the pilot and production period. Lessons learned have highlighted the need for better network engineering, capacity planning, and operational policies/procedures. User surveys were used to capture demographic data and reaffirmed the highly favorable impact on personal productivity and each manager's effectiveness. Recommendations are offered on how to plan for a pilot and to assure a smooth transition to production service.
Users' comparisons between computer-mediated communication (CMC) and other forms of communication are of theoretical interest and have important implications for system design and implementation. This paper outlines the prevalent systems-rationalist perspective on CMC, which sees the medium primarily as an efficient channel for information transfer in specific organizational tasks, and critically reviews the evidence that studies of users' perceptions and media preferences offer for this generalized view. In advocating a widening of our perspective on CMC, a field study is described in which electronic mail users within a large commercial telecommunications company were invited to compare eight different communication activities, using repertory grid technique. From a total of 91 user-generated constructs, five principal dimensions were identified that accounted for users' discriminations among the different activities. Electronic mailing was construed as being similar to written activities (such as note-writing) on some dimensions (e.g., ‘ asynchrony’, ‘ emotional quality’ but similar to spoken, face-to-face communication on other dimensions such as ‘ spontaneity’. The results suggest that the group of users construed CMC mainly in terms of its attributes as a medium for conversation and social interaction. There was no evidence of spontaneous task-related media comparisons. These results together with findings from other studies are discussed in terms of rationalist and symbolic interactionist perspectives on CMC. Implications for system design are also considered.
The growth of computers and communications during the last several decades has caused great concern about information overload, a state in which the amount of information that merits attention exceeds an individual's ability to process it. Paradoxically, technology has also been called upon to provide mechanisms that enable us to cope with the information glut that it has helped generate. Groupware constitutes such a technology. It simultaneously increases both the volume of communication that managers have to deal with and the degree of control they have over the information they consider. We investigated how information load, human processing capacity, and control over communication interact in a groupware mediated environment and the net effect of these factors on information overload. Our longitudinal study at a large insurance company provided evidence that both the amount of information and control over it increase with the adoption of a groupware technology. Information overload did not overtly manifest itself in this organization, leading to the possibility that humans' tendency toward selectivity protects them from being overwhelmed by information. This selectivity may, however, inhibit the potential positive effects that groupware was designed to deliver.
Interruptions are a common aspect of the work environment of most organizations. Yet little is known about how intemptions and their characteristics, such as frequency of occurrence, influence decision-making performance of individuals. Consequently, this paper reports the results of two experiments investigating the influence of interruptions on individual decision making. Interruptions were found to improve decision-making performance on simple tasks and to lower performance on complex tasks. For complex tasks, the frequency of interruptions and the dissimilarity of content between the pri-mary and interruption tasks was found to exacerbate this effect. The implications of these results for future research and practice are discussed.
In this paper, we proffer new theoretical ideas regarding how the structural features of e-mail make it more likely that disputes escalate when people communicate electronically compared to when they communicate face-to-face or via the telephone. Building upon Rubin, Pruitt, and Kim's (1994) conflict escalation model, we propose a new conceptual framework that articulates: (1) the structural properties of e-mail communication, (2) the impact of these properties on conflict process effects, and (3) how process effects, in turn, trigger conflict escalation. Propositions specify the nature of relationships among process effects and the components of conflict escalation. We also discuss how the extent of familiarity between individuals acts as a moderator of these relationships. Our conceptual framework, the dispute exacerbating model of e-mail (DEME), is designed to be a foundation for future empirical research.
The purpose of the study is to examine how e-mail affects work performance. E-mail communication studies have aroused both praise and query regarding the suitability, appropriateness and effectiveness of electronic messages in information management. Less is known about the effects of e-mail on work performance. We consider (1) which e-mail features affect work performance; (2) whether these features are differentially associated with positive (work effectiveness) or negative (stress and distress) side-effects; and (3) whether individual- and organizational-level characteristics are associated with positive and/or negative work performance. Using a secondary level analysis based on the Pew and American Life sample we show that extent, content, and increased volume of e-mail are (a) more frequently reported by managers than by non-managers (b) age, gender, marital status and education can become a critical issue (c) the amount of e-mail received and sent is positively related to work performance. These findings suggest that assessing the costs and benefits of electronic communication should cover individual features as well as e-mail-related features to assess their impact on work performance.
The present study compared the effects of training method and computer anxiety on learners' computer self-efficacy and learning performance. The study results indicated that the behavior-modeling training method yielded consistently superior performance and higher computer self-efficacy. The significant two-way interaction confirmed the importance of person–situation adaptation. In addition, the adaptation is task dependent. Findings of the study contribute to an expanded understanding of the factors that influence learning performance and self-efficacy and also have important implications for the management of information systems. Future research directions conclude the paper.
Organisations are now becoming aware of the problems associated with email use and are keen to reduce these defects. These email defects relate to the ineffective way that email is used within organisations, and are not only limited to the volume of email that is sent and received, but also the quality of the email content. Email defects lead to inefficiencies within the workplace as employees spend more time dealing with email rather than doing other aspects of their job. This paper firstly examines how email is used within a large organisation and highlights the defects associated with email. The initial results show that these defects affect some groups of employees more than others. The paper also reports on the effectiveness of email training in reducing the defects associated with email use. The results show that some of these defects are related and that training can significantly reduce some of the email defects and improve the way people write emails.
E-mail technology provides a way of requesting information or assistance from multiple sources by simultaneously addressing a letter to more than one recipient. Models of prosocial behavior taken from social psychology and economics suggest that the probability of receiving a helpful response is an inverse function of the number of simultaneous addressees. An experiment is presented which examines this prediction in the context of an e-mail request for information. The results show that there are more responses to e-mails addressed to a single recipient, that these responses are more helpful, and that they are lengthier. Response rates and measures of helpfulness were found to be independent of explicit information pertaining to the ability of other recipients to provide assistance. Implications of the results for the application of social cueing theory to e-mail communication and direct marketing are discussed.
It is generally assumed that because it is not necessary to react to email messages when they arrive, employees will read their messages in their own time with minimum interruption to their work. This research has shown that email messages do have some disruptive effect by interrupting the user. Employees at the Danwood Group in the UK were monitored to see how they used email. It was found that most employees had their email software check for incoming messages every 5 min and responded to the arrival of a message within 6 s. A recovery time between finishing reading the email and returning to normal work also existed though it was shorter than published recovery times for a telephone interrupt.This analysis has suggested that a number of methods can be employed to reduce this interrupt effect. Employee training, changing the settings and modes of using the email software and the introduction of a one line email facility are all shown to have beneficial effects. This has led to a series of recommendations that will enable the Danwood Group to make better use of email communication and increase employee effectiveness.
Electronic mail has become an indispensable tool in business and academia, and personal use is increasing every day. However, there is also evidence that Email, unlike more traditional communication media, can exert a powerful hold over its users and that many computer users experience stress as a direct result of email-related pressure. This paper develops a three-fold typology of orientations to email: ‘relaxed’, ‘driven’ and ‘stressed’. It further investigates whether the personality traits of self-esteem and locus of control are associated with email-related stress. It finds that low self-esteem is associated with the ‘driven’ orientation. It further suggests that the ‘stressed’ orientation may be related to how distractive email is perceived to be, compared with other forms of communication.
Overwhelmed by the organizational imperative to collect every kind of information available, and finding technical solutions generally miss the point, knowledge workers need to improve their personal capacity for inquiry.
This article considers the nature of e-mail from the recipient's perspective-what the seemingly free and easy communication really costs the recipient. Information gathered by electronic monitoring software is shown to be at odds with the results of an online survey of e-mail users' perceptions of their e-mail experience-users drastically underestimate the disruptive effects of e-mail. The conclusion is that the constant monitoring of e-mail actually reduces productivity and that there is a need for increased power, control, and awareness on the part of the e-mail recipient to ensure that e-mail remains a tool rather than a tyrant. It is necesssary to alert the user of the true cost of e-mail alerts.
Email-based activity management systems promise to give users better tools for managing increasing volumes of email, by organizing email according to a user's activities. Current activity management systems do not automatically classify incoming messages by the activity to which they belong, in- stead relying on simple heuristics (such as message threads), or asking the user to manually classify incoming messages as belonging to an activity. This paper presents several al- gorithms for automatically recognizing emails as part of an ongoing activity. Our baseline methods are the use of mes- sage reply-to threads to determine activity membership and a na¨ive Bayes classifier. Our SimSubset and SimOverlap al- gorithms compare the people involved in an activity against the recipients of each incoming message. Our SimContent algorithm uses IRR (a variant of latent semantic indexing) to classify emails into activities using similarity based on message contents. An empirical evaluation shows that each of these methods provide a significant improvement to the baseline methods. In addition, we show that a combined ap- proach that votes the predictions of the individual methods performs better than each individual method alone.
This study provides an account of how richness occurs in communication that uses electronic mail. In examining actual e-mail exchanged among managers in a corporation, the study interprets the managerial use of the communication medium of electronic mail as the users themselves understand and experience it. Employing the research approach of interpretivism in general and hermeneutics in particular, the study finds that richness or leanness is not an inherent property of the electronic-mail medium, but an emergent property of the interaction of the electronic-mail medium with its organizational context, where the interaction is described in terms of distanciation, autonomization, social construction, appropriation, and enactment.Conclusions and recommendations are that managers who receive e-mail are not passive recipients of data, but active producers of meaning; that the best or just an appropriate communication medium is not determined through an individual manager's exercise of rational decision making, but emerges as best or appropriate over time, over the course of the medium's interactions with many users; that systems professionals need to treat the managerial user of an e-mail system not merely as a client of information services, but also as a processor or co-processor to be integrated into the system design; and that information systems researchers need to dedicate attention to the actual processes by which the users of communication medium come to understand themselves, their own use of the medium, and their organizational context.
This article was published in the journal, Communications of ACM [©ACM]. The definitive version is available at: http://www.acm.org/pubs/cacm/. Email communication is becoming a burden for many employees and the way email is handled is far from efficient [5]. Employees are overwhelmed by the volume [4], lose important items [6], and feel pressured to respond quickly (often within seconds [3]). The major research in this field is trying to solve these problems by designing and building better email systems through understanding email usage [5]. Although these systems will probably improve email communication, would going back to basics provide, at worst, an interim solution?