Abstract
Background: Project success used to be measured solely in terms of efficiency metrics such as scope, cost and time; however, there are proposals that more attention should be paid to process-related performance factors such as communication. The advent of email has significantly impacted the way the world communicates.Objectives: This study investigates the preference of email communication relative to other communication mediums in project environments and the effect of email communication on feelings of stress and overload in the workplace.Method: A survey with 430 responses was conducted to determine the communication preferences of project practitioners in a typical project. The average rank and frequency response methods were used to analyse the data.Results: The findings indicate that the communication preferences of project practitioners still support the media richness theory and that face-to-face communication is the preferred communication medium in most situations. Despite email being disruptive and a cause of stress, the respondents did not indicate being overloaded because of email.Conclusion: Even though there has been a dramatic shift towards email and electronic communication in projects, face-to-face communication is still the most preferred communication type for most situations. Furthermore, email is perceived as an effective tool to delegate, can be used to build and develop relationships and trust, and is an efficient and effective tool that contributes to project communication success.
Highlights
Project management and project management principles are increasingly applied in the execution of projects and other endeavours not previously managed as projects (Crawford & Nahmias 2010)
The narrow definition of project success as solely a function of efficiency metrics such as scope, cost and time is being challenged by authors who claim this to be a measure of project management success, rather than project success (Bryde & Robinson 2005; Frodell, Josephson & Lindahl 2008; Koops et al 2016; Lim & Mohamed 1999; McLeod, Doolin & MacDonell 2012; Turner 2007)
They placed slightly more trust in the information contained in formal reports than email (53.3% vs. 46.7% agreeing with the statement), but substantially less trust in telephone calls compared with email
Summary
Project management and project management principles are increasingly applied in the execution of projects and other endeavours not previously managed as projects (Crawford & Nahmias 2010). Padalkar and Gopinath (2016) noted that there was a significant increase in project communication research between 2011 and 2015. Literature suggests that it will become a more important topic in future as communication research is vital for investigating knowledge acquisition and assimilation in projects, which is a trending topic (Padalkar & Gopinath 2016). Project success used to be measured solely in terms of efficiency metrics such as scope, cost and time; there are proposals that more attention should be paid to process-related performance factors such as communication. The advent of email has significantly impacted the way the world communicates
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