Technology and Its Impact on Communication in Organizations

“I’ll have my fax call your fax with my email address.”

Some Trends Regarding Technology Organizational decentralization, both

geographically and managerially Increases productivity, decreases in

employees Dramatic increases in information sharing Dramatic decreases in middle level

management Increased use of contract workers

Theoretical Approaches to Technology

Neil Postman--Amusing Ourselves to Death Thesis--The dominant technology of the age

has a profound effect on what passes for truth in a culture

Applied to business--increasing information technology will color our judgments about the credibility of information produced by other means

Some Email Statistics

1991--8 million had email access 1997--67 million have access 1999--108 million have access Office workers exchange 25.2 BILLION

message DAILY 20% of US businesses randomly check

employee email

Some Email Litigation Nightmares

“Yes, I know we shipped 100 barrels of [deleted], but on our end, steps have been taken to ensure that no record exists. Therefore, it doesn’t exist. If you know what I mean. Remember, you owe me a golf game next time I’m in town.”

Litigation Nightmares, cont.

“Did you see what Dr. [deleted] did today? If that patient survives it will be a miracle”

“Hi David, please destroy the evidence on the [litigation] you and I talked about today, Thx, Laura.” “Hi Laura. Ack yr. msg. and taken care of. Aloha, David”

Email Overview

Remember, email belongs to the company [Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 1986]

It is retrievable even after deletion Monitoring by the company is legal, that is,

you have no expectation of privacy If you have a private email address that also

gets used for business, expect no privacy here either

Email in Practice

Don’t write anything you wouldn’t want to see on the front of the New York Times

Don’t ever respond in anger DON’T USE ALL CAPS, IT LOOKS LIKE

YOU ARE SHOUTING!!! Understand your company’s email policy

Steinfield Email Study, 1990 (Xerox) Do the business advantages of email

outweigh the social costs? Yes: People learned more rapidly, social

contacts valuable, increased quality of work life, increased creativity

No: responses often seem overly critical or blunt, no tempering context

Teleconferencing--Pros and Cons

Advantages: shorter meetings, more task oriented, more organized, more equal participation regardless of status, more open exchange of ideas, less likely to be swayed by group norms, less threatening

Disadvantages: fewer nonverbal cues to aid interpretation, tech uncertainty

Videoconferencing

Advantages: almost all of teleconferencing plus better chance of getting nonverbals

Disadvantages: startup costs ($20-25,000), tech uncertainty2

Intranets and Organizational Communication

Defined--any LAN or WAN capable of supporting internet applications

What’s on one?--Policy manuals, benefits info, price lists, product catalog, marketing literature, newsletters and announcements, online help, reports, customer data

Why do it--access for employees + staff, transparency, efficiency

Caveats--security, disclosure?