Indirect observation in this case is a fair method of research for this study as if people were aware they were being watched they would usually feel uncomfortable and they may perform differently and the results would be bias. However it is a very time consuming method as the employees were monitored “over 28 days” it does not provide information about the past or future and also does not help understand what is happening within a person e.g. emotions, cognitions and perceptions. Other methods of research could have been employed for example a questionnaire or an interview and then the results could have then been compared to those of the observational method but in this case the information given by the employees may not be entirely accurate as the employees may not be completely honest with themselves.
In particular, this research study showed that the extents of the email defects are directly related to job grade. The more senior employees within the studied organisation suffered the most from the email defects compared to their more junior colleagues. The effect of an email defect becomes greater the more email is received and in this study the more senior employees received more email than that of their junior counterparts. From Fig. 1 of the journal it can be seen that employees with higher job grades received on average more email than those with lower job grades. It was found that respondents with a higher job grade tended to be more critical of the emails they received in contrast to those on lower job grades. Employees on higher job grades may be more concerned about the overuse of email compared to their subordinates because they receive on average more email. Those on higher job grades gave a stronger indication that email often distracts them from more important work. This may also be due to the volume of emails received by those on higher job grades. The results from this study show that those with higher job grades are more critical of email usage within the organisation and that they can relate to the problems that are related with email use, compared to those respondents with lower job grades.
To improve employee efficiency within the office there is a need to cut down on the amount of distractions and when possible eliminate distractions until times of convenience. In order to minimise the email interpret effect, employers could set employee’s message applications to check for messages “every 45 min” as opposed to “every 5min” to reduce the amount of email interruptions although this is more practical it all depends on the urgency of the situation, business messages might not be delivered in time for necessary and appropriate action but if urgent attention is required the sender should make a phone call rather than an email it all depends on the urgency of the matter. the sender could have a clear subject line so the recipient can automatically identify whenever an email is of importance or not. The subject line of an email is one of the first signs that the recipient receives regarding the significance of the message within an email. Emails that have a apparent subject line are more probable to be easier to prioritise than emails with deprived subject lines. Disturbance can also be minimized by reducing well-known “new email” alerts. Through switching off “new email” pop-up dialogue boxes and sound alerts or by just having a “new email” icon emerge in the system tray, a user will be less aware that an email has arrived but then again this may lead to emails being read late or forgotten to read at all.
Throughout this study it was discovered that the majority of employees did not know how to use their software effectively and efficiently. This identifies areas of training that are needed and though these findings have not been quantified it is an indication of how monitoring can be used to improve workplace quality and efficiency. The findings from this study emphasize the many problems that are often linked with email use within organisations. Employees spend more time dealing with email rather than doing other aspects of their job.
Reference:
Jackson, T., Dawson, R. and Wilson, D. (2003) Reducing the effect of email interruptions on employees. International Journal of Information Management, 23(1), 55-65.
