Social Impacts of Electronic Mail in Organizations: A Review of the Research Literature

Abstract

E-mail is a communication network operating on a computer network that supports social networks. It combines locational flexibility, rapid transmission to multiple others across time and space, and the ability to store and process information. This chapter reviews research into how e-mail shapes—and is shaped by—organizational structures and processes. Although social phenomena strongly affect the use of e-mail, many discussions of media use have treated it as a voluntary, individual act of matching task to media. They have paid less attention to the influence of organizational power, group perceptions, and social network relations. E-mail provides fewer cues than face-to-face communication about interactions, physical context, or social roles. As this fosters status equalization, there is less awareness of group members’ expertise, organizational niche and power, and ascribed characteristics. Under certain conditions, people are more uninhibited, nonconformist, and conflictual when using e-mail; groups are more polarized and take longer to reach consensus. However, groups using e-mail tend to produce more diverse opinions and better contributions to the decision-making process. E-mail increases access to new people; weakens spatial, temporal, and status barriers; and provides access to information that would otherwise be unavailable. When people communicate electronically, work groups become more fluid. People can participate actively in more groups, and those on the periphery get more involved.