Email's impact on workplace communication effectiveness and professional standards

E-Mail in Business Communication

E-mail: History, Relation, and Impact on effective Business Communication

Email in Business Communication

Electronic Mail

Impact of Email to Business Communication

Implications of Emails as Business Communication Tools

Email is an important form of communication in today's organization that is increasingly seeing a geographical dispersal of the workforce. To communication tool has replaced traditional business letters and memos in preference for email memos. The research carried out a review of literature on email and business communication and found the tool is used in 100% of businesses today. However, despite the wide acceptance, the tool lacks in social and visual cues which lender the messages toneless. The lack of tone and physical gestures leads to misinterpretation, ill will, disconnectedness, loss of intellectual capital and integrity for the business. The research finds that the informal history of emails, heterogeneity among users, technological limitations in social-emotions, and lack of business communication standards as the cause of the limitations.

Email in Business Communication

Introduction

The introduction of the internet provided key tools in communication, which provide new receiver and sender applications like forums, email, blogs, and Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP). Many of these have proven popular and useful among businesses and workplaces. The popularity increases with the rapid evolution of the workplace from a single office premise to a geographically dispersed workplace. Business managers today continually disperse business operations through means like outsourcing, internalization, and subcontracting to increase economies of scale and gain a competitive advantage (Ferari, 2007). These geographically diverse teams drive businesses to use communication technology like video conferencing, VoIP, Wi-Fi, and email. The electronic mail has seen rapid growth and has become a toll in business communication over other forms of communication. This has brought out issues like etiquette rules in business correspondence, which businesspersons need to learn and adopt (Agnew & Hill, 2009). In business communication, the basic principles of communication are expected to apply to all forms of communication, even electronic mail. The challenge for man businesspersons is the email's positive reflection on the business professional aspect. Electronic mail is also expected to adhere to the professionalism and courtesy needed in business communication. This requirement is increasingly important today as the electronic mail is more widely used in communication.

Email has made it easier for bosses and organizations to communicate more effectively in the workplace. However, the tool creates unpleasant distractions, manic messages, and disagreements in the workplace. Frequent email messages between employees and management has lead to the laying down of protocols in many businesses to reduce email amounts and find balance at work (PR Newswire, 2012). The need to investigate email as an effective or distraction to sound business communication arises from its rapid use today. Managers need to realize the role email is playing the workplace and the impact it has on employees and productivity. These facts make up the driving force of this research as a thorough qualitative analysis of literature is done to find scientific evidence and data on email as a tool in business communication.

Electronic Mail

Electronic mail is experiencing a rapid growth especially in the last five years following an increase in outsourcing and internationalization ventures businesses are engaging in. The rapid growth of email in business communication is associated to the advantages it creates to business communication. According to Lesikar, Flatley, and Rentz (2008), email is a more effective communication tool to the telephone, especially where there is language and cultural barrier. Emails are preferred for long distant business communication for they eliminate the telephone tag, save time, speed up decision-making, are cost effective, and still provide records like conventional business communication tools.

According to Hughes, Stolley, and Driscoll (2007) email is experiencing popularity for it facilitates fast and convenient flow of information between users across different time zones and locations. This is an added advantage given that mail services for any business is too slow for communicating information and receiving a decision. In this context, the telephone provides the same advantage but is very costly over a long distance. Secondly, email increases efficiency in business communication, and reduces telephone tag. Email reduces the unnecessary telephone interruptions created by delivery of messages across long distances (Dufrene & Lehman, 2010). Hughes, Stolley, and Driscoll (2007) also find that emails reduce the cost of communication especially over long distances as compared to telephone or postal mail. In addition, emails reduce administrative costs for they eliminate paper waste since they do not need printed copies.

Impact of Email to Business Communication

The corporate manager is left managing a geographically diverse workplace due to internalization, globalization, and outsourcing. This leaves managers and teams to use instantaneous and synchronous communication methods mainly over the internet like email, video conferencing, CMC and ETC. These methods are preferred over telephone conversation due to their clarity and cost effectiveness. However, despite the benefits studies show there are intrinsic problems with using email communication. Email communication is identified as causing privacy issues, does not provide emotion and tone, and is easily ignored or deleted by recipient (Lesikar, Flatley & Rentz, 2008). Kruger, Epley, and Parker (2005) find that the tone of email exchanges is a challenge since recipients barely interpret emails correctly often about 50% of the time. This leads to misunderstandings, mistrust, ill will, and disconnectedness.

This if not managed or mitigated, has a negative impact on businesses, business relationships, and productivity. Therefore, there is need for tools and techniques to compensate for the absence of voices and faces in email communication, to gain an understanding of the social norms in communication. The problem of email communication unlike conventional business communication tools is the lack of social cues and norms that reduce conflict and support cognitive communication effort (Ferari, 2007). Enemark (2006) identifies that in business communication there is a need to build relationship and trust through active listening, verbal and non-verbal communication signals, use of social cues like eye contact, suitable facial expressions, and open posture. Effective business communication also calls for verbal prompts, encouraging gestures, and listening, which are present in synchronous interactions yet lack in asynchronous interactions like emails. The inability of the email to create interpersonal rapport makes business relationships fragile, especially during a conflict.

Emails lack business communication language and presentation from the multitude of visual cues offered by software. Many creators of emails are not aware of these visual cues, nor are they aware of the recipient have compatible software to support visual cues in messages. According to Madhukant (2009), visual cues like margin changes, bolding, coloring, fonts types are present in each email, yet few email creators use them. In addition, if they exist in an email they are interpreted as gibberish by the receiver's computer. This is because email programs support basic ASCII code rather than the new and extended special character sets (Ferari, 2007). While these add finesse to the message, they also transgress basic business communication standards. Business communication requires messages to have on point, plain and formal presentation without flowery language or presentation.

According to Barrett and Davidson (2006), emails cannot support the socio-emotional component of business communication as seen with traditional face-to-face modes of communication. This creates a disconnection between mailing individuals as identities disappear. Email removes all social cues allowing for more efficient, shorter, and efficient communication in individuals with affect-limitation (Barrett & Davidson, 2006). Email becomes a problem to effective business communication due to the asocial communication displayed in electronic mail. According to Barrett and Davidson (2006), people are used to using CAPITALS to signify shouting, informal communication symbols like for a smile,; -) to indicate a wink, with little attempt to insert the correct English oral in an affect-limited medium. The icons are referred to emoticons, and a widely accepted in electronic mail conservations (Barrett & Davidson, 2006). However, emoticons are not part of traditional business communication, and sending an email with emoticons indicates the lack of business etiquette. According to Lindsell-Roberts & Settle-Murphy (2007), a receiver who is not familiar with the meaning of different symbols can misinterpret emoticons. For example using X to guarantee nondisclosure to the recipient may be misinterpreted as a big wet kiss.

A second comparison between email and correct business communication are the subject lines. Many email messages do not have subject lines or are uninformative making it difficult for the reader to detect the goal of the email before opening the mail (Madhukant, 2009). In business communication, the subject line gives the focus and intention of the email from the sender to the reader. It sets the tone of the message, and allows the reader to define the message content prior to opening. The subject line is meant as an eye catcher and attention creator for the message (Lindsell-Roberts & Settle-Murphy, 2007). Therefore, the lack of or uninformative subject line drivers may recipients from emails in their inbox. A written business communication is expected to have concise and informative subject line to highlight the aim of the message.

According to Lindsell-Roberts & Settle-Murphy (2007, emails also tend to have weak structures and organization as compared to standard business communication messages. Email messages have a proliferation of dashed out notes, which is the result early email users habit, which continue to this day. Most email messages have weak structure and organization following the practice of writing messages in an informal style. This leads to many emails in business communication as render ineffective, while lacking follow up for response and clarification (Kruger, Epley, & Parker, 2005). Business communication requires messages to have structure and organization, where ideas and points flow in an orderly and logical manner. This also implies the use of correct business language, which is focused, precise, and correct English grammar (Lesikar, Flatley, & Rentz, 2008). In addition, emails fail as effective business communication tools for they tend to have too much information. Traditional business communication requires messages to be concise and to the point avoid unnecessary explanations (Mudhukant, 2009). Most email users lack the ability to focus messages, while delegating most of the information in form of attachments. In business communication, the letter or business mail gives concise information that is informative and representative of the different attachments and files sent between correspondents. A long and lengthy email intimidates the receiver and less user-friendly leading to misinterpretation and ignorance.

An exploration of literature indicates that the difficulty of comprehending business emails is the different approaches of individuals to emails as compared to business letters with given templates. Business letters have basic formatting rules, which are widely accepted and applied in business communication. According to Madhukant (2009), heterogeneity among email users arises from the different uses of CAPS. In email messages, different users use ALL CAPS, or no capitalization even in first word of sentences or nouns. Studies associate this oversight of Basic English language writing, as the lack of basic knowledge of keyboard and typing skills who try to conceal their poor grammar skills (Lindsell-Roberts & Settle-Murphy, 2007). This makes emails sloppy business communication tools, from the sloppy errors, oversights, and ignorance of basic rules. A common cause of sloppy messaging in emails is the use of editing and posting functions like COPY, PASTE, and CUT functions that reduce typing time but increase error rates.

According to Wallace (2004), business letters are expected to have a letterhead at the top, a date, and an address. The addresses also have a given format, beginning with the recipient's name with their official title. In a business communication, the expectation is line spacing is provided, with salutations following benefit the address. The salutations begin with Dear and the recipient's first name or their title and first name (Wallace, 2004). Moreover, in business communication the norm is to use "Ms." In the salutation rather than "Mrs." Or "Miss." The letter body is very concise, short, well structured, and formal language. In the closing remarks, business communication often uses remarks like "cordially," "regards," or "sincerely." A space follows this, then the signature of the sender, the sender's typed name in the next line, and their title. The business letter is accompanied by the disclosure of copies or enclosures sent to other parties. This is similar for business memos, but memos have an opening line indicated by "Date:," "To:," "From:," and "Subject:" indications (Wallace, 2004). These aspects are not part of most of the email communication occurring in businesses.

The appearance of a lack of business etiquette in emails is the lack of standardization in email formats in organizations. Most email messages begin with different salutations unlike the business letter. Salutations comprise of "Hello again," "Hi there!" "Hi from Pete," "David," "Hi David," "Good morning David," "Howdy David," "Dear David Crystal," "Annwyl David Crystal," "Dear Professor Crystal," or "Estimado Professor Crystal" (Wallace, 2004). The use of "Annwyl" represents a Welsh replacement for Dear. There are different variations of salutations in email messages, which deviate from the business communication format. This is because email as a communication media, represents a mixture of written, speech, and formatting styles (Kallos, 2009). For this reason in email messages people will use different ellipses or punctuations to imply a pause to separate phrases, similar as to those they use when speaking. This is different from the business communication format, which requires the use of Standard English formatting, punctuation, indentation, and uniform paragraph length (Kallos, 2009). Emails do not paragraph, and if paragraphs are present, they have different lengths, and indentations.

Implications of Emails as Business Communication Tools

According to Lindsell-Roberts and Settle-Murphy (2007), emails are the lifeblood for virtual teams. However, they fail to meet their objective due to poor formatting. Many of the email messages fail in indicating the goal of the message and are treated as an informal conversation than a concise business memo. Emails also lack the logical transitions between ideas, proper spell checks, and have poor typing habits (Lindsell-Roberts & Settle-Murphy, 2007). The second largest problem or complication with email communication is the sending to the wrong email address.

The existence of heterogeneity in email communication as compared to business communication tools is associated to different style shifts, ways, intended use, and capabilities of the receiver and sender. According to Hamel (2005), employees in the workplace have become adept to matching and mixing different formats and styles in n attempt to create the right tone at the right time, as they take advantage of email's convenience, speed, and low cost. In effect, this attempt to nail down a standardized business email format becomes difficult. On the other hand, Wilkins (2002) identifies that the instability and informality of standardize norms leads to various ways people use media, especially in formatting styles and language styles. This is associated as a cause of the lack of business composure in emails, as there are enormous amounts of email language in use in the world especially the business community. The variance is mostly seen with the salutation that is highly informal that it plays a key role in establishing the tone of the message as informal or formal. The other cause of heterogeneity in the use of emails in business communication is the homogeneity of emails, as they cannot signal cues and tones.

Interestingly, research on the use of email reveals that email creates added administrative duties associated with the backing-up, archiving, and email data management tasks. According to Wilkins (2002), the increased use of emails in business communication is adding administrative and data management functions. The survey indicates that administration will spend 8-12hrs a week in archiving and backing-up, 18 hours in data management, and 5-6 hours in recovering archived messages. Email is not only a messaging system but also a communicating and record-generating system in today's businesses. Despite this fact, Wilkins (2002) identifies that businesses do not recognize the consequences associated with email use and management. Most businesses try to address the problem of email construction as a communication tool overlooking the management aspect. A review of literature reviews that the use of email in business communication is the result of people's communication behavior over the internet.

According to Wallace (2004), people attempt to create an impression online, making them awkward, while the only tools for communication are the keyboard and mouse. This creates difficulty in communicating through online sources, including email as individuals find it difficult to make impressions. This leads to misjudgment and misinterpretation of information, as people will often rush into the conclusion their correspondent is cool and rational from their business communication (Kallos, 2009). This is because online communications lack the interpersonal communication emotions or the visual cues that make up tone in a conversation. Email is limited by technology in creating the tone associated with effective interpersonal communication.

Recommendations

This research finds that email as a tool of communication fails to meet the standards for business communication. There is need for future studies to investigate is effective business communication in emails can be achieved with subject lines and salutations to add tone to the message. This arises from the different studies that identified that emails are asocial for their lack the social cues and tone required in business communication. There is need for scholars to investigate the appropriate levels of tome required in an email to make it meet the standards for a business communication tool. There is also need to investigate the best method to convey the social cues and tones in the messages.

From the review of literature, it is evident that emails have both informal and formal uses. Therefore, this calls for future studies to investigate the appropriate balance between informal and formal communication in email to make them effective business communication tools. This requires the identification and setting up of standards in scholarly materials to give guidelines in business communication emails like those present for business letters and memos. Moreover, this is necessary given that little research exists investigating the constituents of tone in business email. The little research identifies that the lack of nonverbal cues makes email susceptible to misinterpretation, and their use makes email unpredictable (Wilkins, 2002). Since emails lack the physical and social cues, attainment of effective business communication using this tool is with a subject line and salutation to set the tone. There is need to focus on email management especially given the problems email communication is presenting to the realization of effective business communication. The review of literature indicates that emails can destroy the intellectual capital and integrity of a business. Therefore, future studies should focus on analyzing the development and maintenance of email capture systems to encourage sharing of business-related messages. This implies the creation of education and training programs for staff for effective email use and management. The goal is to improve staff productivity and reduce the time wasted managing emails. This also involves training on socio-emotional tone required for email communication.

There is need for research in the business education to deal with the negative effects of email on business communication. The recommendation is that literature focuses on educating on the important of visual cues to say what the sender intends in the message. The literature should focus on the need for avoiding Smileys and emoticons apart from casual massages to colleagues or to friends. The review of literature indicates that emoticons and Smileys do add value to a business message and can be counterproductive. Overall, business emails needs to be re-read prior to sending to avoid sloppy mistakes, grammatical errors, lack of construction and organization of paragraphs. It is vital that business communication education sets standards for business emails to eliminate these faults. There is need to investigate the creation of emotions in online communication given the difficult in making expressions with the keyboard and mouse. The goal of future studies should be on the psychological aspect of email communication to create key tone features necessary for effective business communication.

Conclusion

Electronic mail as a business communication tool provides businesses fast, cost-effective, effective over telephone especially where culture and language barrier is involved. Emails are eliminate the telephone tag, save time, speed up decision-making, are cost effective, and still provide records like conventional business communication tools. Emails also offer fast and convenient flow of information between users across different time zones and locations. In addition, they reduce the unnecessary telephone interruptions created by delivery of messages across long distances. The lack of tone in emails leads to misunderstandings, mistrust, ill will, and disconnectedness. Moreover, emails the lack of social cues and norms that reduce conflict and support cognitive communication effort.