Understanding relationships among teleworkers' e-mail usage, e-mail richness perceptions, and e-mail productivity perceptions under a software engineering environment

• Published in: IEEE transactions on engineering management 2000-05, Vol.47 (2), p.163-173
• Main Authors: Higa, K., Sheng, O.R.L., Bongsik Shin, Figueredo, A.J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Computer aided software engineering; Electronic mail; Electronic mail systems; Email; Engineers; Home working; Human engineering; Industrial relations; Management; Mathematical models; Media; Multimedia computer applications; Perception; Perceptions; Productivity; Regression analysis; Software engineering; Studies; Surveys
• ISSN: 0018-9391; 1558-0040
• DOI: 10.1109/17.846784

This study was undertaken to investigate the use of e-mail and its implications under a telework environment for distributed software engineering. For this, the relative strength between a social influence and individual attributes in affecting teleworkers' e-mail use was studied. Management support was used as the representative social influence, and age, status, and ease of use represented individual attributes. An examination was also made on how e-mail use, individual attributes, and management support affected the perceptions of e-mail's information richness and e-mail productivity. Two different types of surveys, log sheets and perception-based self-reports, as well as interviews and e-mail correspondences composed the data sources. Three hierarchical regression models were defined and tested for the hypothesis validation. Data analysis indicated that management support was a much more powerful indicator for teleworkers' media use than individual characteristics. Furthermore, although labeled as a relatively lean medium from the media richness theory perspective, e-mail could become an effective and richer communication tool through an active social construction process of management support. Finally, the management support and perception of e-mail as a rich medium were both highly influential in creating teleworkers' positive perception on e-mail productivity. This study rendered a strong indication that effective adoption of e-mail by teleworkers as an information-rich medium could benefit distributed work and distributed organizations through enhanced work productivity.