Email: Its decision support systems inroads—An update
Introduction
The challenges of decision-making in complex situations have given rise to two important developments: Media Richness Theory (MRT), introduced and popularized by Daft and Lengel [2], [3]; and Decision Support Systems (DSS), comprehensively expressed in Turban and Aronson [7]. Their symbiosis is evident. DSS are ways to organize the necessary information richness required to enhance decision effectiveness and quality when faced with the myriad decision challenges now an ordinary part of the world-wide communication grid. In 1999, Carlson and Zmud [1] presented the results of a MRT experiment, following on their ideas of Channel Capacity, which essentially demonstrated that experience in a communication channel is one of the principal determinants of channel effectiveness. The basic implication of the above is that MRT requires a careful organization of the various communication modalities, email now included; in the collection, archiving, and retrieval of data; as well as in-channel experience, to realize the benefits of MRT in DSS.
One of the first, really baseline, studies of email as an essentiality of computer-mediated communication systems with DSS implications was conducted by Plaisent and Bernard in 1993 [6]. Their study was based upon a sample of 95 utility executives. They report, in Table 1, percentage relationships relative to email utilization, categorized by its use in achieving the following three fundamental organizational functions: Control, Planning and Coordination; by the activity of Problem Solving; and finally by means of execution—i.e., Sending and Receiving Information.
This is a seminal study because it collected information just at the advent of the wide distribution of email as a possibility in the Intra-, Extra-, and Internet worlds. Recall that only in 1985 did email have its global coming-out, from its simple beginnings, in 1971, as part of ARPANET.
Section snippets
The study design
To investigate the way that email has progressed as a DSS, now more than 10 years after the Plaisent and Bernard study, a questionnaire was designed to: (1) collect information on the evaluation of the following modalities: email, telephone, face-to-face (F2F), facsimile (fax) and letters on the following five criteria: efficiency, convenience, preference, most-used and importance; and (2) address the temporal comparisons of email utilization for the following two variables reported by Plaisent
Analysis and results
Table 3 summarizes the survey results relating to the comparisons of the five communication modalities on the five criteria: efficiency, convenience, preference, most-used and importance. This voluminous information has been condensed as follows to facilitate its presentation. The four entries in each cell of Table 3 are the ranks of the mean scores given to the particular evaluation criterion individually by each of the four sampled groups for the five modalities. For each cell, the order of
Summary
For the modality utilization hypothesis, H1, the results are clear. Email outperforms telephone, face-to-face, facsimile, and letter considering: efficiency, convenience, preference, most-used and importance. This suggests that email is a valued facilitating aspect of the DSS milieu.
However for the comparative utilization hypotheses, H2, H3, the results are mixed. Assuming that the LAMA, MBA and Thai respondents are a reasonable comparison group for the utility executives surveyed by Plaisent
Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to the anonymous reviewers for their detailed comments and valuable suggestions; to Michael Halperin, Director of the Lippincott Library of the Wharton School, for his assistance; and to Ms. Ellen Slack of the Lippincott Library for her expert editorial assistance.
Edward J. Lusk is a chaired professor of Business Administration in the International Management Program at the Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg, Germany. He previously taught for 30 years at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He teaches courses in Planning and Control, Venture Capital and Business Forecasting. His research interests deal with the refinement of DSS information to improve the resource conversion process.
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Edward J. Lusk is a chaired professor of Business Administration in the International Management Program at the Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg, Germany. He previously taught for 30 years at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He teaches courses in Planning and Control, Venture Capital and Business Forecasting. His research interests deal with the refinement of DSS information to improve the resource conversion process.