Organizational Behavior (Stephen Robbins)

power, or to create a one-way communication tool. Email

has also become a tool to create paper trails for interaction,

allowing people to avoid face-to-face communication on dif-

ficult topics. Moreover, for people with a high need for social

contact, a heavy reliance on electronic communications is

likely to lead to lower job satisfaction.

Some managers are starting to respond to the negative

effects of email in the workplace. At the beginning of 2005,

Jon Coleman, vice-president and general manager of

Markham, Ontario-based Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, asked

his staff to cut the number of emails they sent by 25 percent

over the next year. In July 2005, Coleman’s group introduced

Freedom Six to Six to help meet their goal. This program

bans employees from sending email messages between 6

p.m. and 6 a.m., and on weekends. Coleman notes that

employees should not measure their productivity based on

the number of emails they handle. Rather, they should spend

more time doing their actual work.^21

Considerations for Writing and Sending Email Despite many advantages to

email, it is important to realize that it is virtually indestructible once it gets backed up on

your company’s server. Also, its very speed and accessibility can cause miscommunication

and misdirected messages. Individuals often make stronger negative statements when

using email than they would in holding a face-to-face conversation.^22 Individuals often

give little thought to how their emails might be interpreted, and assume that their intent

will be readily apparent to the recipient, even though this is not always the case.^23

With these issues in mind, consider the following tips for writing and sending email

offered by business professor Christina Cavanagh of the University of Western Ontario:^24

• Don’t send emails without a subject line.


• Be careful in your use of emoticons and acronyms for business communication.


• Write your message clearly, and briefly.


• Copy emails to others only if they really need the information.


• Sleep on angry emails before sending to be sure you are sending the right
  message.
  Case Incident—Emailing “Lazy” Employees on page 216 asks you to evaluate one man-
  ager’s use of email to tell his employees to work harder.
  Employees should also be aware that email is not necessarily private, and compa-
  nies often take the position that they have the right to read your email. Some wonder,
  however, whether reading employee email is ethical. Focus on Ethicsillustrates that
  employees cannot assume that their email is private.

194 Part 3Interacting Effectively

Pfizer Canada
http://www.pfizer.ca

:)

<g>

:(

;)

:-[

Smile

Grin

Frown

Wink

Really sad face

:-|

:-@

:-0

:-D

:’(

Disappointed

Scream

Yell

Shock or surprise

Crying

EXHIBIT 6-4 Emoticons:

Showing Emotions in Email

Electronic mail need not be emotion-free. Over the years,
email users have developed a set of symbols (emoticons)
for expressing emotions. For instance, the use of all caps
(as in THIS PROJECT NEEDS YOUR IMMEDIATE ATTEN-
TION!) is the email equivalent of shouting. The following
highlights some emoticons:

FOCUS ON ETHICS

Your Email Can Get You Fired

Should your email be safe from your manager’s eyes?The Canadian Auto Workers

(CAW) union expressed outrage in early 1998 when it discovered that Montreal-

based Canadian National Railway (CN) was reading employees’ email messages.^25

Canadian Auto Workers (CAW)
http://www.caw.ca

Canadian National Railway (CN)
http://www.cn.ca