Mobile email as a business performance driver in everyday knowledge work: a diary and interview study

Mobile email is one of the first widely accepted mobile business applications in enterprise settings that can be used by mobile phone. In this paper a study about the role of mobile email as a performance driver in the everyday knowledge work of different business users in multinational ICT enterprise is presented. Everyday communication task contents and volumes of knowledge workers were identified and analyzed by interviews and communication diaries to understand the communication goals and patterns of typical knowledge workers in enterprise settings. The study reveals that the biggest share of the knowledge workers' overall business-related communication (regardless of the communication tool and application) is centered on the internal communication tasks, and respectively mobile email is used most intensively in the internal communications tasks. When comparing the relative importance of mobile email as communication solution for business users in different work positions, the study shows that mobile email is most important everyday performance driver for managers who travel a lot and whose communication volumes in overall are extensive. The importance of mobile email is only moderate in the everyday business communication of those who are not in managerial positions. This implicate, that mobile email as a business performance and productivity driver should be understood and evaluated by corresponding it with the internal process performance objectives and measures.