Email and Its Effect on Business Communication

Email and Its Effect on Business Communication

Throughout the years communication has evolved alongside the people who communicate. From glyphs and cave paintings, cuneiform writing and hieroglyphics, to letters, faxes and email, communication is always seeking to be faster and carry more information in a smaller package. Though communication is not limited to its written form, it is what will primarily be dealt with in this paper.

Perhaps no other time in history has seen such a change in the way businesses communicate as the last fifteen years. What used to be communicated through written letters sent through the US Postal Service (now known as “snail mail”), faxes and verbal communication is now communicated via email. Email is everywhere in business, and indeed many businesses would cease to function without it. It is the first thing an employee checks in the morning upon arrival at work, and the last thing checked before going home for the evening. It is checked constantly throughout the day on every device from smartphones to tablets to laptops and desktop computers. It is such an integral part of our business landscape that it would be hard to imagine ever having lived without it.

So just how much has email affected business communication? In this paper an in-depth look at the advantages and disadvantages of email in business communication will be looked at. Information overload will also be discussed, as well as ways to help curtail it. Better practices for emailing coworkers will also be reviewed in an attempt to cut back on the amount of email that is being sent. Make no mistake, email is here to stay, and until something else comes along and rocks the business communication world, it will be in place for a very long time. The question is, just how far reaching are its effects in business communication?

To begin with, there are several well-known advantages of email within a business, the first of which is speed....