Effective means of improving email communication

Email communication has become an integral part of the communication structure within organisations, but the problems it can cause are rarely assessed. The defects associated with email, which are related to both the quantity and the quality of email need to be understood by employees for them to become more effective users of email. Email training within organisations tends to focus on how to use email as a software package, without looking at when it is appropriate to use email and how to get your message across effectively. This thesis first explores email defects and how they impact on organisations. [Continues.

Capturing and managing email knowledge.

In many successful organisations today, significant resources are invested in training and development efforts exploring group dynamics and effective team building. The challenge from a knowledge management perspective is to explore how technology could facilitate knowledge sharing (both tacit and explicit) in a group context. The paper highlights the benefits of developing such Knowledge Management tools to make better use of the information contained within email messages, and shows how organisations could become more effective by adopting such an application

The effectiveness of training in reducing email defects

Previous research has shown that there are many defects associated with email use within the workplace. This paper describes the effectiveness of email training in enabling employees to write better emails. Employees were asked to evaluate the emails they received from specified senders before and after the senders had received training. These emails were marked against a set of ten criteria that covered different aspects of email, including whether the email had a suitable subject line, whether it was relevant and if it was easy to read. By comparing the results before and after the training it is possible to see how effective the training has been and which areas of email use benefited the most from the training. The results show that some of the email defects are more receptive to training than others. The data also shows the relationships between the evaluation criteria used. This is important because it shows how some of the problems with email are related; similarly it shows how an improvement in one area is likely to lead to an improvement in another. This paper highlights some of the problem areas often associated with email and shows the effect of training in reducing these email defects

Email training significantly reduces email defects

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

Measuring electronic communication defects and their impact at 3M

Although email is frequently often thought of as a quick and efficient form of communication, often little thought is given to how email affects the employee. This paper has made steps towards gaining a better understanding of email communication and how it can be used more effectively in an organisation. The results obtained from this study can also provide the basis for communication usage policies and training, which could then reduce wasted time and improve employee productivity. It has also shown both the value of obtaining metrics and the difficulties involved. The paper highlights some of the problems, and some of the issues that need to be addressed with email communication within a large organisation

A simple approach to improving email communication: going back to basics

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