For whom and under what circumstances does email message batching work?

Area of Science:

• Organizational Psychology
• Workplace Well-being
• Communication Studies

Background:

• Email is crucial for organizational communication but causes interruptions and impacts well-being.
• Email batching is a proposed strategy to reduce negative email effects.
• Empirical evidence and real-world applications of email batching are limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effectiveness of email batching in reducing email interruptions and improving well-being.
• To identify conditions and individual differences influencing email batching efficacy.
• To assess the long-term impact of email batching on work engagement.

Main Methods:

• Quasi-experimental, top-down intervention in a Dutch financial services organization.
• Survey data collected from intervention and control groups.
• Analysis of email interruptions, emotional exhaustion, and work engagement.

Main Results:

• Intervention group experienced fewer email interruptions.
• Email batching reduced emotional exhaustion immediately post-intervention, particularly for high-volume email users and those with flexible response expectations.
• Effects diminished after two weeks; no impact on work engagement.

Conclusions:

• Email batching can reduce interruptions and emotional exhaustion but is not a universal solution.
• Effectiveness is contingent on job tasks and organizational email response culture.
• Consider email batching when aligned with specific work contexts and employee expectations.