Email overload: Exploring the moderating role of the perception of email as a 'business critical' tool

Authors:
David Sumecki;Maxwell Chipulu;Udechukwu Ojiako
Affiliations:
School of Management, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton S017 1BJ, United Kingdom and Kisco (UK) Limited, Portsmouth, United Kingdom;School of Management, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton S017 1BJ, United Kingdom;School of Management, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton S017 1BJ, United Kingdom
Venue:
International Journal of Information Management: The Journal for Information Professionals
Year:
2011

Citing 19
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Abstract

The management of email remains a major challenge for organisations. In this article, we explore the extent of the perceptions of email as a business critical tool within an organisation and how the level of such perceptions may moderate the level of email overload experienced by individuals within the organisation. Data from a sample of 1100 employees of a multinational technology firm are analysed using multivariate techniques. The results suggest that without a clearly stated code of email practice within an organisation, there are likely to be large variations in what is perceived as 'business-critical' email and, as a result, a substantial amount of email generated within the organisation may not be 'business-critical', potentially increasing the level of 'email-overload' experienced by individuals within the organisation.