ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the findings of a case-study investigating the use of English in the in-coming and out-going e-mail communication of one Dutch manager working in a large multinational corporation, with particular reference to the interplay between Dutch and English and the reasons why English is used rather than Dutch in that communication. It then reviews research on the use of electronic media in corporations. According to Yates and Orlikowski, a certain number of recurrent situations will occur in an organisational setting which provide an exigence for documented communication to be invoked, such as the confirmation of an order with a customer or the job appraisal used to plan an employee's career and so on. Electronic mail is a major source of information exchange within the corporation, there is widespread reference to electronic communication in the organising process, and, in both cases, a considerable amount of the information exchanged and referred to is in English.
