Communication floods – Emails in scholarly communication

Abstract

The aim of this study is to display the current email usage among academics and the email‘s influence on the field of science by analyzing qualitative interviews and media diaries with 55 German-speaking academics. Emails pose a particular challenge for separating work and personal spheres. Mobile media such as tablets and smartphones reinforce the penetrating effects of emails. Our results show that scholars hardly engage in a temporal and spatial separation of the spheres when accessing work emails. This is one of the reasons why emails contribute to a perception of information overload and stress. While emails cause problems in many fields, we assume that it is particularly pronounced in the scientific field. In order to raise awareness for this topic and to facilitate the handling of emails in the scientific community, we recommend introducing email workshops and regulations at universities.

From cognitive overload to digital detox: Psychological implications of telework during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…As accumulating asynchronous text-based communication may lead to feelings of stress and overload, future research should focus on an adequate trade-off between the productive use of text-based digital tools and, for example, the establishment of time slots during which employees are not receiving any more tasks that could pile up on their (virtual) desks (also see Lüthje & Thiele, 2020 ). Another important difference is that synchronous communication tends to be more time constrained than asynchronous, meaning that there usually are predefined time slots for video calls, whereas messages in text-based tools can often be posted and read at any time.…”

“…For most people – at least the ones working in office jobs – telephone and web conferences substituted for personal meetings with colleagues and customers during the lockdown ( Bitkom, 2020 ), while managerial functions as well as organizational tasks are relocated into “always on” online spaces (e.g., text-based management and chat tools) ( Haufe, 2020 ). Importantly, in such situations, the division between work and non-work is less bounded by clear temporal and physical markers ( Carrigan & Duberley, 2013 ; Lüthje & Thiele, 2020 ). In addition, the increased need to use digital tools accompanied by a constant stream of information and communication may foster the impression that there is a need to work longer and faster ( Eurofound and the International Labour Office, 2017 ), which can create feelings of overload.…”

Getting on top of work‐email: A systematic review of 25 years of research to understand effective work‐email activity

“…For example, the action category for ‘1.2 reactive or frequent checking and responding’ emerged as a result of people responding to incoming email with little conscious thought. This suggests that a low level of regulation can be beneficial in reducing overload [P15, P57] and engendering task accomplishment [P15, P26, P32, P47, P52, P31, P49]. However, several studies also indicated that the low level of regulation resulted in problematic outcomes across several goals [P3, P6, P9, P15, P35, P47, P38, P39, P59] as workers failed to identify changing needs in the situation.…”

“…Our research indicates that to effect this, people must have control over their work‐email [P54], and it is likely that workers with more resources/capacity in the first instance are also those who act at higher levels of regulation and adapt appropriately to changing demands in relation to work‐email activity [e.g. P21, P24, P28, P50, P31, P49] (Hobfoll et al, 2018).…”

E-Mail Assistant – Automation of E-Mail Handling and Management using Robotic Process Automation

“…Electronic mail also well-known as email or e-mail since 1993 is basically used to exchange digital information among recipients [1]. The present email technology has three parts, the message envelope, the message header, and the message body [2].…”