Implied information adds richness to ‘lean’ media

E-mail has become an accepted means of communication in working environments, and virtual teams who infrequently meet face to face tend to use e-mail extensively even when they are involved in complex and sensitive discussions. This paper reports on an analysis of the e-mails of university students...

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Main Author: P.M. Alexander
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Johannesburg 2022-10-01
Series:Communicare
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/1788
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author P.M. Alexander
author_facet P.M. Alexander
author_sort P.M. Alexander
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description E-mail has become an accepted means of communication in working environments, and virtual teams who infrequently meet face to face tend to use e-mail extensively even when they are involved in complex and sensitive discussions. This paper reports on an analysis of the e-mails of university students working in virtual teams. It was found that the timing of e-mail messages provides implied information and compensates to some extent for the loss of non-verbal cues that are present in face-to-face communication. This implied information contributes to the richness of the information and assists the reader in interpreting not only the message but also the context. As a result, trust can be established or undermined. Actual examples are provided to illustrate some of the issues.
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institution Kabale University
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spelling doaj-art-9871e55bd08c4f2c9a2e9eed4737fb1e2025-01-20T08:51:21ZengUniversity of JohannesburgCommunicare0259-00692957-79502022-10-0123110.36615/jcsa.v23i1.1788Implied information adds richness to ‘lean’ mediaP.M. Alexander0University of South Africa E-mail has become an accepted means of communication in working environments, and virtual teams who infrequently meet face to face tend to use e-mail extensively even when they are involved in complex and sensitive discussions. This paper reports on an analysis of the e-mails of university students working in virtual teams. It was found that the timing of e-mail messages provides implied information and compensates to some extent for the loss of non-verbal cues that are present in face-to-face communication. This implied information contributes to the richness of the information and assists the reader in interpreting not only the message but also the context. As a result, trust can be established or undermined. Actual examples are provided to illustrate some of the issues. https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/1788E-mailuniversity studentstiming of e-mail messagesimplied informationrichness of the informationtrust can be established or undermined
spellingShingle P.M. Alexander
Implied information adds richness to ‘lean’ media
Communicare
E-mail
university students
timing of e-mail messages
implied information
richness of the information
trust can be established or undermined
title Implied information adds richness to ‘lean’ media
title_full Implied information adds richness to ‘lean’ media
title_fullStr Implied information adds richness to ‘lean’ media
title_full_unstemmed Implied information adds richness to ‘lean’ media
title_short Implied information adds richness to ‘lean’ media
title_sort implied information adds richness to lean media
topic E-mail
university students
timing of e-mail messages
implied information
richness of the information
trust can be established or undermined
url https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/1788
work_keys_str_mv AT pmalexander impliedinformationaddsrichnesstoleanmedia