Technology: Impact on
Communication in Organizations
“I’ll have my fax call your fax
with my email address.”
Some Trends Regarding
Technology
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Organizational decentralization, both
geographically and managerially
Increases productivity, decreases in employees
Dramatic increases in information sharing
Dramatic decreases in middle level
management
Increased use of contract workers
Theoretical Approaches to
Technology
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Neil Postman--Amusing Ourselves to Death
Thesis--The dominant technology of the age has
a profound effect on what passes for truth in a
culture
Applied to business--increasing information
technology will color our judgments about the
credibility of information produced by other
means
Some Email Statistics
In 2003, 1.5 trillion (1,500,000,000,000)
email messages
 In 2007, estimates suggest 2.7 trillion
 78% of US businesses randomly check
employee email
 14 million employees under constant
surveillance
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Some Email Litigation
Nightmares
“Yes, I know we shipped 100 barrels of
[deleted], but on our end, steps have been
taken to ensure that no record exists.
Therefore, it doesn’t exist. If you know
what I mean. Remember, you owe me a
golf game next time I’m in town.”
From Wired Magazine
Litigation Nightmares, cont.
“Did you see what Dr. [deleted] did today?
If that patient survives it will be a miracle”
 “Hi David, please destroy the evidence on
the [litigation] you and I talked about today,
Thx, Laura.” “Hi Laura. Ack yr. msg. and
taken care of. Aloha, David”
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From Wired Magazine
Email Overview
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Remember, email belongs to the company
[Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 1986]
It is retrievable even after deletion
Monitoring by the company is legal, that is, you
have no expectation of privacy
If you have a private email address that also
gets used for business, expect no privacy here
either
AOL and other ISPs get hundreds of subpoenas
every year
Why Email is so difficult…
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New book—Send: The Essential Guide to
Email for Office and Home by Shipley and
Schwalbe (Highly Recommended)
Apologize for Email gaffes in person, an email
apology trivializes the problem
Email lacks tone and is therefore difficult to
decode
Avoid quick, intemperate responses. Avoid the
emotionally satisfying response…
Knowledge Management Policies
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How long does the company save or archive
emails?
What types of monitoring is in place?
Is there a need to meet special regulatory
requirements for archiving emails for auditors or
folks like the SEC?
Every medium to large size company ought to
have a knowledge management policy!