Relating Electronic Mail Use and Network Structure to R&D Work Networks and Performance.

Author List: Rice, Ronald E.;

Journal of Management Information Systems, 1994, Volume 11, Issue 1, Page 9/29/2017.

This study analyzes computer-monitored and self-reported electronic mail usage and network data collected over time from mentors and their summer interns at an R&D organization. Amount and network measures of E-mail usage were significantly associated with work and work familiarity networks, As time passed, interns communicated through E-mail more outside their formal mentor-intern relations. However, amount of E-mail use and most E-mail network measures (such as centrality) were not related to mentors' assessments of interns' performance several months later. An intriguing exception was how interns were located in the overall E-mail network. Surprisingly, overall, most forms of communication were negatively associated with performance ratings. These results imply that it is not necessarily how much one uses an E-mail system, but how the users are positioned in that system's structural context, that may affect R&D performance.

Keywords: diffusion; electronic mail; implementation; information systems; network analysis; organizational computer-mediated communication; organizational structure; R&D networks; R&D performance.

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List of Topics

#203	0.223	communication media computer-mediated e-mail richness electronic cmc mail medium message performance convergence used communications messages face-to-face findings participants results work
#249	0.176	network networks social analysis ties structure p2p exchange externalities individual impact peer-to-peer structural growth centrality participants sharing economic ownership embeddedness
#114	0.172	performance firm measures metrics value relationship firms results objective relationships firm's organizational traffic measure market study improve accounting measuring aggregate
#1	0.124	organizational organizations effectiveness factors managers model associated context characteristics variables paper relationships level attention environmental technological based maturity organization's relationship
#174	0.113	use support information effective behaviors work usage examine extent users expertise uses longitudinal focus routine revealed volume constructs contributes operations
#173	0.092	effect impact affect results positive effects direct findings influence important positively model data suggest test factors negative affects significant relationship