One organization is utilized for theoretical model development. The model was next replicated using two additional organizations. The study examined message content by distribution, characteristic, context, and function. Findings indicate messages are directed, relative to workgroup orientation, with few messages sent to all mail boxes. Message characteristics' percentages are presented in Table 2.
Results suggest the most common characteristic is the incidence of internal data.
Carbon copying is also evident. However, it does not appear that electronic mail is used as a mechanism to expedite urgent communication. Moreover, storage of phone messages appears related to the presence or absence of a voice mail system. Table 3 and Table 4 illustrate message context and function. Results suggest that electronic messaging systems are utilized primarily for information presentation, administrative purposes, and internal discussion.