SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THIS INTERVIEW I HAVE MANAGED FOUR EMAILS : A qualitative study of email management for information workers

As a result of the rapid development of technology and the implementation of it in work environments, productivity and profit can increase for an organization. Email has led to much shorter ways of communication but there are also less positive aspects of technology. Technostress, information overlo...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Forsman, Kristoffer, Horned, Arvid
Format: Others
Language:English
Published: Umeå universitet, Institutionen för informatik 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-160964
Description
Summary:As a result of the rapid development of technology and the implementation of it in work environments, productivity and profit can increase for an organization. Email has led to much shorter ways of communication but there are also less positive aspects of technology. Technostress, information overload and email overload are all three effects of this new ubiquitous digital era. We ask how individual information workers manage and reply to incoming email, to extend our knowledge regarding the effects of email overload on information workers, and to identify their coping strategies in their work life context. This knowledge can be used by practitioners, designers and researchers to develop email as a service further. By conducting nine qualitative interviews with information workers employed in three different organization, we found that balance in email management is important to utilize the full potential of the service, and it would be useful for individuals, as well as organizations, to establish clear rules regarding email use both within work hours, as well as on leisure time.