The conflict
risks of E-communication is one of the areas covered in our new White Paper
coming up in July.
Prof Tom
Jackson of Loughborough University, who led the study which has not yet been
published, said: "The brain can only deal with eight to 12 tasks at any
one time and if you can't shut those tasks down you start to become overloaded
and fatigued.
"Multifunctional
devices like Blackberrys and iPhones allow workers to be accessible 24-hours a
day unlike ever before [but] because of this it is likely that there will be an
increase in stress levels."
Researchers
who followed a group of 30 government employees found that 83 per cent became
more stressed while using email, rising to 92 per cent when speaking on the
phone and using email at the same time.
Although
receiving a single message was no more stressful than answering one phone call
or talking to someone face-to-face, emails had a stronger effect overall
because people received so many each day.
Emails which
were irrelevant, which interrupted work or demanded an immediate response were
particularly taxing, while those which arrived in response to completed work
had a calming effect.
The study also found that people
were unable to identify accurately when their body was showing signs of stress
and often were unaware of their state, he added This
would indicate that employees might find it difficult to self-regulate their
use of communication media to ensure they do not become overwhelmed by
stress."
Do you have
any examples of e-mail stress and conflict?
We will be launching a useful whitepaper highlighting the issues of conflict- including Etiquette
