Reading electronic mail 2
Reading electronic mail at the office:
Exploring how and why organizational members read information
Abstract
One of the primary objectives of this study was to explore the way in which organizational
members process the received information. This objective emerged from the fact that we live
in a so-called information society, in which we can speak of ensuring pressures upon
organizational members to process the expanding volumes of information they receive at the
office. Because electronic mail seems to contribute greatly to the expanding volumes of
information organizational members receive, and consequently, to the ensuring pressures to
process the information, this study used electronic mail to explore the way in which
organizational members process information. As a result of the fact that research on this topic
remained underdeveloped so far, we developed an exploratory pattern using diary surveys in
three organizations. This pattern gives a first description of the different ways organizational
members read information and it gives a first explanation for these different ways.
Key words: information processing, reading behavior, email use
Convention