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Reducing the effect of email interuption on employees
journal contribution
posted on 2005-09-29, 16:40 authored by Tom JacksonTom Jackson, Ray DawsonRay Dawson, Darren WilsonIt is generally assumed that because it is not necessary to react to email messages
when they arrive, employees will read their messages in their own time with
minimum interruption to their work. This research has shown that email messages do
have some disruptive effect by interrupting the user. Employees at the Danwood
Group in the UK were monitored to see how they used email. It was found that most
employees had their email software check for incoming messages every 5 minutes and
responded to the arrival of a message within 6 seconds. A recovery time between
finishing reading the email and returning to normal work also existed though it was
shorter than published recovery times for a telephone interrupt.
This analysis has suggested that a number of methods can be employed to reduce this
interrupt effect. Employee training, changing the settings and modes of using the
email software and the introduction of a one line email facility are all shown to have
beneficial effects. This has led to a series of recommendations that will enable the
Danwood Group to make better use of email communication and increase employee
effectiveness.
History
School
- Science
Department
- Information Science
Pages
66467 bytesCitation
Jackson, T., Dawson, R. and Wilson, D., 2003. Reducing the effect of email interuption on employees. International Journal of Information Management, 23(1), pp.55-65Publisher
© ElsevierPublication date
2003-02Notes
The definitive version: Jackson, T., Dawson, R. and Wilson, D., 2003. Reducing the effect of email interuption on employees. International Journal of Information Management, 23(1), pp.55-65, is available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02684012.ISSN
0268-4012Language
- en