Technology: 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

In 2003, 1.5 trillion (1,500,000,000,000) email messages

In 2007, estimates suggest 2.7 trillion 78% of US businesses randomly check

employee email 14 million employees under constant

surveillance

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.”

From Wired Magazine

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”

From Wired Magazine

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 AOL and other ISPs get hundreds of subpoenas

every year

Why Email is so difficult…

New book—Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home by Shipley and Schwalbe (Highly Recommended)

Apologize for Email gaffes in person, an email apology trivializes the problem

Email lacks tone and is therefore difficult to decode

Avoid quick, intemperate responses. Avoid the emotionally satisfying response…

Knowledge Management Policies

How long does the company save or archive emails?

What types of monitoring is in place? Is there a need to meet special regulatory

requirements for archiving emails for auditors or folks like the SEC?

Every medium to large size company ought to have a knowledge management policy!