December 2015
Addressed to David White
1
Group 8
Saba Zainab W18873
Jin Kai Lim W11284
Alexandru Clapa W15239
Emma Lacourrege W08127
Selina Garnier W18873
Mihnea Bradu W18361
Federica Guarneri W04921
Conor Leow W20559
Table of Contents
December 2015
Executive Summar y
Introduction
Research Question
Methodology
Pr imar y Data
Secondar y Data
Findings
Discussion
Limitations
Conclusion
Appendix
pg 3
pg 4
pg 5
pg 6
pg 7
pg 14
pg 15
pg 15
pg 19
2
Executive Summary
December 2015
Communication has always been an integral par t of the workplace, as good
communication is prerequisi te for success in the business wor ld. Advances in
technology have seen new forms of communication ar ise, w i th oppor tuni ties for
businesses to uti l ise them. This r epor t examines the changes in communication
technology over the years, and how they have in turn impacted interaction in the
working environment. The study was targeted at working professionals holding a
manager ial role or higher, as they are l ikely to have been in a company for a longer
per iod of time to w itness these changes, and therefore are better placed to answer
our questions. A r ange of r elevant ar ticles and repor ts also provided information
which was then compared against our pr imar y sources to see i f any simi lar i ties or
di f ferences could be found. Final ly, this paper argues that electronic communication
has become more common in workplaces, and that i ts advantages more often than
not outweighs the disadvantages.
3
Introduction
December 2015
The way we communicate has changed drastical ly over the past 30 years, due to
the advances in technology. Tradi tional forms of communication mainly take
the form of analogue mediums. Examples of these include newspaper, letter s
and telephone conversations. In contrast, newer forms of communication make
use of digi tal mediums such as emai ls and video conferencing.
The r ise of electronic forms of communication has offered new oppor tuni ties.
Companies both large and small can take advantage of these oppor tuni ties in
order to boost productivi ty amongst their employees and save costs, potential ly
leading to greater prof i ts. However, electronic communication has i ts dow nsides
as some cr i tics have argued that i t is unable to r epl icate ful ly benefi ts of more
tr adi tional forms of communication, and can also lead to a decrease in
eff iciency.
4
RESEARCH QUESTIONSOur group was assigned the fol low ing topic:
" How has the r i se of elect r on i c com m u-
nicat i on (em ai l , social networ k ing,
Skype, etc.) af fected the way staf f and
m anager s com m unicate w i th each other ?
What oppor tun i t i es ex i st to m ax im ise
the oppor tun i t i es that m ay ar i se f r om
new m edia? What pr oblem s do or ganisa-
t i ons ex per ience?"
We then broke dow n our topic into the fol-
low ing three questions to better dir ect our
r esearch:
1. How has the rise of electronic communi-
cation impacted communication in the
workplace?
2. How have companies made use of new
media technologies in their workplaces and
what are their benefits?
3. What issues do companies face when us-
ing new media technologies?
December 2015
5
Primary Research
December 2015
Each group member conducted an inter view w ith a fami ly member to gain an
insight as to whether there has been an increased use in electronic communication
in the workplace, and how this has affected interaction between employees. Some
of our fami ly members have been working in a business for a long time or are
managers of their ow n f i rm, therefore they were per fect inter viewees. A copy of
the questionnair e we used as a fr amework for our inter views as well as the prof i le
of these inter viewees can be found in Appendix A.
Secondary Research A range of ar ticles and papers were selected to enable us to fur ther r esearch on
how electronic communication has affected the workplace environment as well as
i ts advantages and disadvantages. We then compared the two to look for both
simi lar i ties and di f ferences.
6
December 2015
FINDINGS : PRIMARY RESEARCHAll r espondents agreed that communica-
tion w ithin workplaces has defini tely
changed. Snai l mai l and f ix landlines
have seen declines in use, and are today
r eplaced by emai ls, texting and mobi le
phones. How ever, not al l forms of com-
munication are now digi tal. Many com-
panies sti l l prefer hard copies when i t
comes to si tuations l ike the draw ing up
of contracts and face to face meetings
when impor tant decisions are to be
made.
The respondents were also unanimous
when i t came to agreeing that productiv-
i ty increased as a r esult of technological
advances. The examples given by the in-
ter viewees usually showed how easy i t
was to communicate w ith their other co-
workers r egardless of location. In con-
tr ast, meetings between teams from di f-
ferent nations previously meant having
to spend money on air fare and accom-
modation. Teleconferencing has low ered
costs by enabling these meetings to be
held in the comfor t of the par ticipants?
home countr ies.
7
December 2015
The main disadvantage brought up by
r espondents was that electronic commu-
nication blur r ed the l ines between work
and personal l i fe. Where in the past
work ended once employees left the of-
f ice, communication technology al lows
them to be contactable even after off ice
hours, through the use of emai ls and text
messaging. This has led to sometimes
unrealistic expectations that employees
must r egular ly check their phones and
reply to emai ls, even after off ice hours.
Another issue raised is that interaction
between employees has become less
personal. Rather than taking the time to
walk across the off ice for a quick chat,
employees tend to send emai ls instead.
Some respondents also r aised the prob-
lem of information over load, due to the
ease of sending emai ls. Sometimes, the
sender may decide to copy i r r elevant
people, leading to a f looding of inboxes
and making i t di f f icult to discern what is
actually impor tant.
8
December 2015
Finally, r espondents were asked to com-
pare the usage of new technologies and
how they stood up to more tr adi tional
forms of communication. I t was overal l
agreed that nothing can beat a face-to-
face conversation w ith another par ty, as
i t al lows for many physical cues such as
body language or voice intonation that
can be lost when communicating over
emai ls.
While video conferencing technology
helps to save costs, companies sti l l pre-
fer having al l members physical ly pre-
sent in one location when i t comes to the
discussion of mergers, or when closing
an impor tant deal. Like al l technologies,
video conferencing has i ts f laws. There-
fore i t can be di f f icult to understand the
other par ty, especial ly i f the connection
is weak.
9
December 2015
SECONDARY RESEARCH
The r ise of electronic communication
and the Internet has had signi f icant im-
pact on the working wor ld. According to
McGrath, ?the business wor ld has r evo-
lutionized almost beyond recognition in
the past few decade? (McGrath 2008).
Communication is the main method
through which managers form relation-
ships w ith their employees. This al lows
them to provide suppor t and encour -
agement, and when done well , leads to
a good working environment. This is
impor tant, as good communication w ith
managers w i l l lead to employee satis-
faction and therefore a better quali ty of
work. Tradi tionally, managers have re-
l ied on face-to-face interaction to culti -
vate such relationships.
Nowadays, i t is more common to f ind
managers using a mix between face-to-
face interaction and electronic forms of
communication. (Lanneborn and Löf-
gren 2013).
The introduction of emai l and other
forms of electronic communication has
accounted for much of the changes in
communication in workplaces. Emai l is
considered to be the most prevalent
form of computer -mediated communi-
cation that occurs in the workplace
(Derks and Bakker 2010).
10
December 2015
This is suppor ted by an online sur vey
conducted by Pew Research on inter -
net users and the role of digi tal tech-
nology in their work l ives. The sur vey
found that 61% of workers today
deemed emai ls to be the most impor -
tant communication tool in business
(Purcell and Rainie 2014).
Another benefi t of electronic commu-
nication is that i t al lows for ?geograph-
ical ly displaced managers and employ-
ees, to work together, to communicate
and interact? (Lanneborn and Löfgren
2013). Workers from the same com-
pany are no longer prevented from
working together in teams because
they are located in di f ferent countr ies.
This has the benefi t of increasing pro-
ductivi ty as teams can work faster than
they would be able to i f they had to
meet up face-to-face. (Schreiber 2015)
Workplace communication previously
r el ied upon face-to-face interaction. As
Phi l Jones once w rote, ?If someone was
out of the off ice, they were effectively
out of contact? (Jones 2013). Electronic
communication, together w ith mobi le
technology has diminished the need
for physical proximity in interaction.
Almost ever ybody is equipped w ith a
mobi le phone that al lows them to ac-
cess their emai l or the Internet r egard-
less of whether they are in the off ice or
not (McGrath 2008).
11
December 2015
An increase in productivi ty w i l l lead to
an increase in business and therefore
more r evenue (McGrath 2008). To this
end, electronic communication has def-
ini tely al lowed for greater productivi ty
in the workplace. Results of the Pew Re-
search sur vey showed that 46% of r e-
spondents felt that they were more pro-
ductive as a r esult of electronic commu-
nication, compared to 7% who said they
were less productive (Purcell and Rainie
2014).
Working patterns for cer tain organisa-
tions have also changed w ith the in-
crease in use of electronic communica-
tion. Technologies such as emai l, video
conferencing software, instant messag-
ing and other r elated technologies have
grow n in prominence. I t is now more
common for employees to f ind them-
selves working from home (Dudovskiy
2012). Working from home has been as-
sociated w ith a host of benefi ts, includ-
ing lesser costs for both employees and
employer and a better work-l i fe balance
(Snell and Bohlander 2012).
How ever, for al l i ts posi tive points, elec-
tronic communication also comes w ith
i ts ow n set of di f f iculties and disadvan-
tages. As emai l has grow n in promi-
nence, so has the problem of having be-
ing f looded w ith i r r elevant mai l. This
can contr ibute negatively to str ess levels
and is detr imental to the employee
(Derks and Bakker 2010).
12
December 2015
Always being avai lable has i ts disad-
vantages too. Derks and Bakker make
the case that by always being avai lable,
the employee is more susceptible to in-
ter r uptions in his work that can come in
at any time or place whi le he may be
tr ying to focus on something else (Derks
and Bakker 2010). Just the ver y act of
r eading or even acknow ledging the
emai l is alr eady a form of distr action
from the task at hand. (Fr iedman 2014)
Another disadvantage is that w ith an
increasing in usage of electronic com-
munication comes a cor responding de-
crease in the amount of face-to-face in-
teraction w ithin the workplace. This
decrease in face-to-face interaction has
been identi f ied as a potential problem
as i t makes i t di f f icult for managers to
form meaningful r elationships w ith
their teams, as they cannot physical ly
see what their employees are doing.
Most managers prefer to have regular
face-to-face interaction w ith their em-
ployees. (Lanneborn and Löfgren 2013).
Some cr i tics of electronic communica-
tion have also made the case that i t can
lead to a decrease in productivi ty as i t is
easier for an individual to be distr acted
w ith the plethora of content on the In-
ternet today. 84% of r espondents in a
sur vey admitted to sending non-work
r elated emai ls dur ing off ice hours
(Muhl 2003).
Mobi le phones account for higher pro-
ductivi ty by al low ing an employee to
constantly r eceive and reply to emai ls.
How ever, this is done at the expense of
the balance between workplace and
personal l i fe. The blur r ing of l ines be-
tween work and personal space has
been associated w ith a number of nega-
tive effects, including higher str ess lev-
els and lower employee satisfaction
(Derks and Bakker 2010).
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DISCUSSIONBoth the pr imar y r esearch and secondar y r esearch concur red that the use of elec-
tronic communication is more prevalent in the workplace now, whi le i t has i ts dis-
advantages, they are outweighed by the advantages.
Both sources agreed that productivi ty has improved as a r esult of electronic com-
munication. Common examples ci ted include being able to work from home and not
being hampered by geographical boundar ies. Working from home has al lowed a
greater work-l i fe balance and in turn has promoted higher employee satisfaction.
For some, the blur r ing of l ines between work and personal space is also a concern.
Unattainable expectations of constant avai labi l i ty can lead to increased levels of
str ess and fatigue. This is something that both employees and employer must learn
to adjust and adapt to prevent burnout amongst employees.
Face-to-face communication is ver y much sti l l prefer red over electronic communi-
cation. Our secondar y r esearch emphasized on the need for managers to develop a
good working r elationship w ith their employees that can be formal or informal
when needed. The latter is much more di f f icult to develop w ithout r egular face-to-
face communication and can pose problems for managers. Respondents from our
pr imar y r esearch highl ighted this need when tr ying to close impor tant business
deals. As electronic communication is the norm nowadays, i t is a challenge for busi-
nesses to adapt their practices to ensure that managers and employees can commu-
nicate eff iciently when needed.
December 2015
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LIMITATIONSOne area on which this r epor t can be fur ther improved on is to sur vey employ-
ees of al l levels and status in organisations. Most of the r espondents inter viewed
were in manager ial posi tions, and as such may hold di f fer ing views to those who
work under them.
Targeting di f ferent forms of organisations and distinguishing between them
may also be helpful when f inding out the effect of electronic communication in
the workplace.
The needs of a multi -national company can di f fer greatly from a small indepen-
dent local f i rm and as such so can the prevalence of electronic communication.
Fur thermore, even the sor t of business a f i rm engages in may determine how
much an effect the r ise in electronic communication has on them.
December 2015
15
ConclusionIn conclusion, the r ise of electronic communication has brought a myr iad of
changes in the nature of communication in the workplace. Messages can now
be sent and replied to at a r apid speed, al low ing employees to be potential ly
more productive in their workload. In addition, companies have the option to
give f lexible work hours for their employees by al low ing them to work from
home. It was previously necessar y for teams from di f ferent countr ies to tr avel
in order to have meetings, incur r ing costs for accommodation and air fare.
Now, companies can cut costs by holding these meetings using video confer -
encing technology, al low ing teams to work together from their home off ices.
How ever, along w ith these advantages also come some r isks such as an in-
crease in str ess and a severe blur r ing of l ines between work and personal
space. Employees must learn to cope w ith increased expectations of avai labi l-
i ty and be able to separate work and personal time for the benefi t of their ow n
well-being. At the same time, decreased face-to-face interactions in the work-
place mean that the onus is even greater on managers to ensure that commu-
nication between them and their employees is better than ever . This w i l l help
to ensure that their employees are working to the best of their abi l i t ies. I f
companies are able to adapt their working styles in order to incorporate the
best that electronic communication has to offer and minimise the disadvan-
tages, then there is no question that they w i l l be well placed to succeed.
December 2015
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APPENDIX A : BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Der ks, Daant je, and Ar nold B. Bakker . ?The Impact of E-mail Communica-
tion on Organizational Life .? Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Re-
search on Cyberspace 4, no. 1 (2010).
- Dudovsk iy, John. Impact of communication technology on businesses . 10
August 2012. http://research-methodology.net/impact-of-communication-
technology-on-businesses/ (accessed November 7, 2015).
- Fr iedm an, Ron. The Cost of Continously Checking Emai l. 4 July 2014.
https://hbr.org/2014/07/the-cost-of-continuously-checking-email/ (accessed No-
vember 25, 2015).
- Jones, Phi l . How evolving technology w i l l change the business wor ld . 11
September 2013. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/technology/business-
technology/10298682/future-workplace-technology.html (accessed November 14,
2015).
- Lannebor n, Katar ina, and Mi r i am Löfgr en . The relationship between man-
agers and employees in a vir tual context . Örebro, 18 Januar y 2013.
December 2015
17
- McGr ath, Jane. How has technology changed the way we conduct business?
11 June 2008. http://money.howstuffworks.com/technology-changed-
business.htm (accessed November 9, 2015).
- Muhl , Char les J. ?Workplace e-mail and Internet use: employees and employ-
ers beware.? Monthly Labour Review, Februar y 2003: 36-45.
- Pur cel l , Kr i sten, and Lee Rain ie. Technology's Impact on Workers. 30 De-
cember 2014. http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/12/30/technologys-impact-on-
workers/ (accessed November 9 2015).
- Schr eiber , Danny. ?How to Work Faster in a Remote Team.? In The Ultimate
Guide To Remote Work, by Wade Foster, 106-125. 2015.
- Snel l , Scot t , and Geor ge Bohlander . Managing Human Resources. Cengage
Learning, 2012.
December 2015
18
APPENDIX B
Quest ions Used To Guide Inter v iew
1) Over your 25 years in the organisation, how has communication w ithin the work-
place changed w ith the r ise of technology?
2) Has this use of electronic communications inf luenced your way of working or
communicating w ith your col leagues?
3) What are some advantages of increased electronic communication use, would you
say productivi ty has increased?
4) In contrast, what are the disadvantages to always being connected?
5) Has electronic communication str engthened communication between you and
your co-workers or weakened i t?
6) Have technologies affected your social l i fe in the workplace and relationship w ith
co-workers?
7) If there are big decisions such as mergers, or expansions, what is the company
protocol? Do they hold such meetings over electronic methods of communication or
face to face? Why and which do you prefer?
December 2015
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APPENDIX CProfi le of Inter viewees
December 2015
Name of Inter viewee Company Years Worked Position
Lok Kheng Ling Chevron 23 Regional Manager
Ion Clapa CloudSoft (Romania) 5 CEO and Ow ner
Jabir Jabbar Prestige Graphics
(UAE)
8 Director
Alain Garnier Saint-Gobain 10 Director Sales & Business Development
Francesco Guarner i GUBER SPA 25 Co-Founder and General Administr ator
Elena Pagani GUBER SPA 20 Accounting & Accountabi l i ty
Madalina Bradu Quasar antiques (Romania)
10 CEO and Ow ner
Ian Rathmell Ciena Limited 10 Account Dir ector
20
APPENDIX D
Answers from Inter view :
December 2015
"There is a loss of
pr ivate time, because
ever yone expects an
immediate r eply to their
emai ls, whether you are at
work or not."
"I f ind myself more
connected to work, in that
I do check my emai l
through my phone even
though I?m not at work.
Communication has
become almost a l i ttle
impersonal . "
"You need to be ver y discipl ined and you need to
be careful. The problem w ith working from home, is
that a lot of people w i l l see their time between
personal and work blur r ed. They w i l l work from
8am to 11pm. They never qui te stop, i t?s not
healthy."
"Whether productivi ty has increased or not is up
for debate. Whi le i t has al lowed us to communicate
for eff iciently, advances in technology has also meant
that new distr actions l ike social media, or even just
texting on the phone are now a problem. "
"Clear ly, the amount of exchanges has
increased exponential ly. The amount of
information/data that one receives is
tr emendous. But the quali ty may be
lacking. As I can send huge amount of
data almost instantly to a large number
of per sons, there is a r isk to distr ibute a
lot of i r r elevant information ."
"Most impor tant business decisions
are sti l l discussed/negotiated
face-to-face in off ices. Electronic media
al low ver y fast exchanges of
information and a lot can be found on
the web, but the human interactions are
sti l l ver y impor tant in key business
decisions ."
21
APPENDIX EScreen shots of our prezi
December 2015
22
APPENDIX FScreen shots of our Facebook group
December 2015
23
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December 2015
Reflecting on these past weeks...
We felt that the group project went ver y well overal l . This was our f i r st time
working in such a big group for an academic project. We star ted working on i t
from a ver y ear ly stage, and i t has helped us tr emendously as we can work at a
manageable pace, r ather than having to r ush i t al l in the space of 2-3 weeks.
We had a great team spir i t, spl i tting the work well and general ly contr ibuting
dur ing meetings. We al l used our acting talents in the movie cl ip and had a
great time f i lming. In the end, the project brought us together and
str engthened our r elationship. The greatest thing about this group would be
i t 's diver si ty. We al l have di f ferent cultural backgrounds (Romania, I taly, India,
Singapore, France, UAE and Malaysia) and this al lowed us to have many
di f ferent per spectives on how to work effectively. As a r esult we've al l become
good fr iends and hope to work again together in the future.
APPENDIX G
Published on 10/11/2015 ©
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