6 research outputs found
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