"2004 Workplace E-mail and Instant Messaging Survey"
No author cited
American Management Association, July 2004.
Available Online
According to the American Management Association’s “2004 Workplace
E-mail and Instant Messaging Survey,” 55 percent of companies lack
e-mail retention policies, 20 percent have had e-mail subpoenaed and another
13 percent have battled workplace lawsuits stemming from employee e-mail.
The study found, however, that more companies are making an effort to train
employees on retention policies. Fifty-four percent of respondents said
that their organizations conduct e-mail policy training, up 6 percent from
2003.
Respondents reported that their companies were slow to adopt policies regarding
instant messaging (IM): Only 6 percent of organizations retain and archive
IM business records. Among those who correspond via IM in the workplace,
58 percent engage in personal exchanges. Many respondents reported sending
and/or receiving content that could be damaging to an organization, including
attachments (19 percent); jokes, gossip, rumors, or disparaging remarks
(16 percent); confidential information about the company, a co-worker, or
client (9 percent); and sexual, romantic, or pornographic content (6 percent).
Despite this, far fewer companies monitor IM (27 percent) as opposed to
e-mail (60 percent). The study looked at the practices of 840 firms and
was conducted jointly with the ePolicy Institute.
