Quality improvement of email communication in work groups and organizations by reflection

Abstract

Email communication in work groups and organizations suffers from ill-composed messages. In this paper we introduce two approaches aiming to improve the overall quality of email communication by means of reflection. For this purpose, we determine, rate and classify quality problems as encountered in today's email communication. Subsequently, we derive criteria to rate the quality of email communication, both objectively as well as subjectively. The results of these ratings are then presented to the authors of email messages to encourage them to improve their email communication behaviour. Preliminary results suggest that our approach might have the potential to overcome problems of email communication caused by ill-composed messages.