Modeling email use: a case of email system transition

Abstract

A large urban university expected its transition to a new and improved email system to result in higher productivity than before. However, email productivity did not show significant improvement after the transition. To understand this lack of improvement in productivity, we modeled the relations among variables that affect email use and productivity using system dynamics. The results show that in non-volitional use situations stress related to email use and email productivity are significantly influenced by the levels of tolerable email backlog and steady incoming emails. Users react to changes in email backlog by calibrating their level of use. This adjustment, in turn, depends on each user's level of email self-efficacy and the rate at which users learn to adapt to changes. The contribution of this paper lies in showing that email productivity can improve if users develop a stable pattern of email use. This can minimize variations in email use and in so doing is likely to leverage email use. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.