All employees belong to a telecommunications network established in 1977 when the company was formed. The network allows employees to exchange short messages and long documents. The group studied consists of the seven managers who compose the Marketing group. Each has had several years experience working with word processing and electric messaging. The system has integrated word-processing capabilities so that, with one keystroke, a user can move from electronic messaging to word processing and vice versa .
Managers use the word-processing capabilities to draft and edit documents.
To comment on a document written by a colleague, managers typically add their comments to the original in capitals or in boldface, place the comments right after the pertinent passage, and return the document as an electronic message. The manager responsible for the document then reviews the comments and makes the changes. Brief messages and full documents can be sent to individuals or to distribution lists, some of which include people working in different parts of the continent. The Marketing list, for example, p. 21 includes one manager in Toronto and another in Colorado. Although only systems-level managers such as the Head of Marketing can compose distribution lists, any manager may send a message to a distribution list simply by designating the list as receiver of the message.