Media Use in a Global Corporation: Electronic Mail and Organizational Knowledge

How has the proliferation of communications media changed the volume of communication and the distribution of information in large organizations? There is reason to think that the availability of more communication media increases the amount of communication employees receive, with positive effects on their organizational knowledge and commitment, but negative effects on their perception of being overloaded. Prior research suggests that electronic mail may differ from other media by more effectively spreading organizational information to peripheral employees, and doing so while interrupting them less than other styles of communication. This paper uses survey data from a large US-based multi-national corporation to examine the effects of communication by electronic mail and other media. Results are that employees who used electronic mail extensively, net of their communication over other media, were better informed about their company and more committed to its management’s goals. One reason for their superior organizational knowledge seems to be that electronic mail promotes “information spillover” from a focal recipient of a message to others who are less directly interested in a message, but does so without subjecting the marginal parties to the burdens of interruption and information overload.