Reconceptualizing E-mail Overload

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Authors
Thomas, Gail Fann
King, Cynthia L.
Baroni, Brian
Cook, Linda
Keitelman, Marian
Miller, Steve
Wardle, Adelia
Subjects
e-mail
e-mail overload
information overload
technology
discourse analysis
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Date of Issue
2006
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Abstract
This study explores social processes associated with e-mail overload, drawing on Sproull and Kiesler's first- and second-order effects of communication technologies and Boden's theory of lamination. In a three-part study, the authors examined e-mail interactions from a government organization by logging e-mails, submitting an e-mail string to close textual analysis, and analyzing focus group data about e-mail overload. The requests reveal three characteristics that contribute to e-mail overload- unstable requests, pressures to respond, and the delegation of tasks and shifting interactants - suggesting the e-mail talk, as social interaction, may both create and affect overload.
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The article of record as published may be located at http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1050651906287253
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This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.
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