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Journal of Business and Technical Communication
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Reconceptualizing E-Mail Overload

Gail Fann Thomas

Cynthia L. King

Naval Postgraduate School

Brian Baroni

Linda Cook

Marian Keitelman

Steve Miller

Adelia Wardle

U.S. Department of Army

This study explores social processes associated with e-mail overload, drawing on Sproull and Kiesler's first and second-order effects of communication technologies and Boden's theory of lamination. In a three-part study, the authors examined e-mail interactions from a government organization by logging e-mails, submitting an e-mail string to close textual analysis, and analyzing focus group data about e-mail overload. The results reveal three characteristics that contribute to e-mail overload— unstable requests, pressures to respond, and the delegation of tasks and shifting interactants—suggesting that e-mail talk, as social interaction, may both create and affect overload.

Key Words: e-mail • e-mail overload • information overload • technology • discourse analysis

Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Vol. 20, No. 3, 252-287 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1050651906287253
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[Abstract] [PDF]