Groupware in the Workplace: Email, IM, and Video Tools
This paper examines the current state of groupware implementation in a typical organizational setting, surveying the major collaboration technologies in use. Beginning with email as the most common groupware form, the paper moves through instant messaging and web chat, video conferencing, and emerging mobile applications. For each technology, the author weighs practical advantages — speed, flexibility, visual communication — against drawbacks such as lack of a paper trail, legal liability concerns, and the pressures of synchronous communication. The paper concludes by noting that mobile platforms are likely to shift many groupware functions away from the desktop PC and toward smartphones.
- Introduction to Groupware Technology: Defines groupware and its organizational purpose
- Email as the Foundation of Workplace Collaboration: Email's speed, asynchronicity, advantages and frustrations
- Instant Messaging and Web Chat: Synchronous tools for real-time collaboration and their risks
- Video Conferencing for Formal Meetings: Video conferencing benefits for distributed teams
- The Rise of Mobile Groupware: Mobile devices expanding groupware beyond the desktop
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper organizes its analysis clearly by technology type, moving logically from the most basic (email) to the most advanced (mobile groupware), giving the reader a coherent progression.
- Each technology is assessed with a consistent pros-and-cons framework, demonstrating analytical balance rather than simple advocacy for any single tool.
- Concrete, real-world examples — such as telecommuters working "side by side" via IM and the IBM Lotus Notes Traveler Companion — ground abstract claims in practical organizational context.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates comparative analysis: each communication tool is evaluated against shared criteria (speed, synchronicity, legal risk, interpersonal effectiveness), allowing the reader to directly weigh the trade-offs. This technique is especially useful in technology and management writing, where decision-makers need structured comparisons rather than isolated descriptions.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens by defining groupware and identifying email as its most prevalent form. It then evaluates synchronous alternatives (IM and web chat), escalates to video conferencing for formal contexts, and closes with a forward-looking section on mobile technology. The argument flows from the everyday to the emerging, ending on a predictive note about the future of workplace communication infrastructure.
Introduction to Groupware Technology
Groupware technology is designed to facilitate collaboration within organizations. The most common form of groupware in most organizations is email (Coleman, 2005). Within a typical organization, despite the plethora of other technologies available, email's advantages are considerable in terms of its compressed format — it is very easy to send off a quick query to a colleague or copy a memo to the office within minutes. Although it is fast, email is also asynchronous, meaning that the recipient can respond whenever he or she wishes, at a convenient moment. There is little instantaneous pressure for a reply.
Email as the Foundation of Workplace Collaboration
Of course, the advantages of email can also be disadvantages. There can be delays in response time, leading to frustration, and if there is a miscommunication the sender may not be immediately available for clarification. For work demanding a continuous flow of responses, a synchronous format such as instant messaging or a web chat is preferred. These tools allow collaborators to ask questions and work virtually side by side with the person with whom they are collaborating, making them especially useful for telecommuters working on a shared project with colleagues in a home office.
Instant Messaging and Web Chat
Instant messages and web chats are more fluid and organic in nature than email. However, unlike email, they do not leave a virtual paper trail, which means they may be even more prone to miscommunication and confusion. The reader cannot look over what was written at a later date. There is also the problem of legal liability: if there is ever a need to review correspondence for legal reasons, and neither party took a screen capture of the exchange, instant messaging and web chat records may not be available. Email, instant messages, and web chats are used in the day-to-day interchange of business, but for formal and important meetings, video conferencing is often preferred.
References
Coleman, D. (2005). Strategies for successful enterprise collaboration: Balancing people, process and technology. Akami. Retrieved from
Coursey, D. (2010, January 20). IBM intros Notes apps for BlackBerry, iPhone, Android. PC World. Retrieved from
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