IRMA-International.org: Creator of Knowledge
Information Resources Management Association
Advancing the Concepts & Practices of Information Resources Management in Modern Organizations

Email Overload: Tolerance Levels of Employees within the Workplace

Email Overload: Tolerance Levels of Employees within the Workplace
View Free PDF
Author(s): Anthony Burgess (Loughborough University, UK), Thomas W. Jackson (Loughborough University, UK)and Janet Edwards (Loughborough University, UK)
Copyright: 2004
Pages: 3
Source title: Innovations Through Information Technology
Source Editor(s): Mehdi Khosrow-Pour, D.B.A. (Information Resources Management Association, USA)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59140-261-9.ch053
ISBN13: 9781616921255
EISBN13: 9781466665347

Abstract

Many email users receive too many emails to read in the time available to them. Employees who are bombarded by email may find it difficult to organise and prioritise their work. As a result it may be difficult to meet deadlines, and retrieve information buried within the inbox. The problems are not only limited to the volume of emails that are sent and received each day but also to the quality of the emails themselves. This paper takes steps to understand what contributing factors of email overload employees are most concerned about. A study was carried out to investigate how email was used and how employees viewed email use within the company. The views of the employees were then compared to the number of emails they received to give an indication of how many emails they receive before the employee becomes overloaded. This analysis was carried out for a number of issues relating to email use and found that employees were willing to tolerate some of the problems of email use more than others.

Body Bottom