Do Job Groups Influence Email Usage in a Similar Way as Roles? A Study of Academics

Benjamin M. Silverstone

The influence of roles in the use of email has been explored at the mesocultural and it was observed that significant differences existed between the roles in 9 out of 12 markers. This paper seeks to explore the perception that the same patterns may exist at the micro-cultural job level. Using data gathered by Silverstone (2014) the Academic role has been broken down into 4 appropriate job groups and an unspecified academic group. From the original 1010 responses gathered by Silverstone (2014), 481 fell into the Academic role and were used for this study. Analysis was conducted descriptively and analytically with Chisquare, ANOVA and bivariate Correlation being used for statistical analysis of quantitative components and extensive coding and content analysis used for qualitative components. The findings demonstrated that there were no significant differences between email usage at the job level when compared to the differences meso-cultural role level. A total of 12 markers were tested statistically, at the job level only 2 were significant. The findings are significant as they help to validate that the predominant indicator of differences in email use is role as opposed to organisational culture.

JEL Codes: M15, M20, M54

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.21102/jbpr.2015.12.102.02