ABSTRACT
New office technology clearly has the potential to revolutionise organisational communication. A major study on the effects of electronic mail was carried out at the Canadian Department of National Revenue, Customs and Excise Branch, as a part of the Canadian government field trials. The system that was introduced to about 100 managers and professionals at the Ottawa head office and Toronto regional office involved provision of multifunctional work stations that permitted electronic mail, document-creation, electronic forms, filing and directories, as well as subsequent provision of access to various data bases. An earlier study on the use of electronic mail at the Digital Equipment Corporation surveyed a random sample of about 100 users, about half of whom were managers, with the remainder evenly divided between professionals and secretaries/clerks. Panko and Panko (1981) conducted a survey of the electronic messaging system used at the wholesale logistics arm of the US army.
