Technology and Its Impact on Communication in Organizations

1
Technology and Its Impact on Communication in
Organizations

• Ill have my fax call your fax with my email
  address.

2
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

3
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

4
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

5
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 doesnt
  exist. If you know what I mean. Remember, you
  owe me a golf game next time Im in town.

6
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

7
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

8
Email in Practice

• Dont write anything you wouldnt want to see on
  the front of the New York Times
• Dont ever respond in anger
• DONT USE ALL CAPS, IT LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE
  SHOUTING!!!
• Understand your companys email policy

9
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

10
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

11
Videoconferencing

• Advantages almost all of teleconferencing plus
  better chance of getting nonverbals
• Disadvantages startup costs (20-25,000), tech
  uncertainty2

12
Intranets and Organizational Communication

• Defined--any LAN or WAN capable of supporting
  internet applications
• Whats 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?