Constraints on communication and electronic mail

  • Authors:

  • Martha S. Feldman

  • Affiliations:

  • University of Michigan

  • Venue:
  • CSCW '86 Proceedings of the 1986 ACM conference on Computer-supported cooperative work
  • Year:
  • 1986

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Abstract

How information flows through an organization is important to many organizational processes. The information people receive influences the perceptions they have of the organization they work for and the tasks they are assigned. Electronic mail constitutes a new medium in organizational communication. It may alter some of the information flow in the organizations in which it is used. My analysis suggests that some new communication occurs in large organizations that have electronic mail. I suggest that this new communication occurs because the way electronic mail is organized allows people to find other people with common interests at a low cost to either party. This new communication creates links between people who would otherwise not share information. Granovetter's work on the significance of weak ties suggests that such connections may have substantial influence on the way in which behavior is shaped and constrained by one's network and in the manipulation of networks to achieve specific goals (1973, 1974). These processes are important to organizational socialization and problem solving, respectively. Other functions of large formal organizations may also be affected.