Marketing

World Wide Web

Neuroscience

Chromatography

Social psychology

Computer science

Business

Psychology

Information overload

Multinational corporation

Chemistry

Sample (material)

Finance

Knowledge management

Perception

International Journal of Information Management

The management of email remains a major challenge for organisations. In this article, we explore the extent of the perceptions of email as a business critical tool within an organisation and how the level of such perceptions may moderate the level of email overload experienced by individuals within the organisation. Data from a sample of 1100 employees of a multinational technology firm are analysed using multivariate techniques. The results suggest that without a clearly stated code of email practice within an organisation, there are likely to be large variations in what is perceived as 'business-critical' email and, as a result, a substantial amount of email generated within the organisation may not be 'business-critical', potentially increasing the level of 'email-overload' experienced by individuals within the organisation.

Email overload: Exploring the moderating role of the perception of email as a ‘business critical’ tool