Using text messaging at work is less, not more, disruptive, even as it promotes more frequent communication says an academic study.In fact, the study found that workers using instant messages, as opposed to emails or telephone calls, lead to “briefer, more frequent interactions in order to get quick answers to work-related questions with minimal disruptions.”
The study published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communications was designed to show that the use of text messaging adversely affected worker productivity because it increased disruption on the job given that it was used in addition to phone and email.But the study found that the reverse was true.Workers who IM tend to do so in place of – not in addition to e-mail.IM’s give users more control over conversations than other forms of communication, including face-to-face and, therefore, tend to invite shorter, tighter responses.
