Read the following passage and answer the questions asked below: According to Hargie, 'the internet has transformed business communication'. Communication theorists and IT experts point to the…

Read the following passage and answer the questions asked below: According to Hargie, 'the internet has transformed business communication'. Communication theorists and IT experts point to the phenomenal expansion in the number of email addresses and Web connections. they also highlight a study of email traffic in one large company where 60% of the messages received by this means would not have been received by other channels. Emails has become an indispensable communication tool in modern organizations. Another recent survey found that 53% of UK business people felt that the use of email had increased their level of communication, and 28% suggested that staff felt more involved in the company after the introduction of email. There are cultural differences in the patterns of business communication. A survey by the Pitney Bowes Company in 1999 suggested that whereas US and Canadian staff preferred asynchronous or time-delayed communication, European staff preferred real-time and more formal methods. There was a very heavy use of voicemail in the USA (90% of the staff), less in the UK (58%) and much less in Germany (32%). Another rather frightening statistic from this last survey-that the average British worker receives 171 messages per day-suggests that information overload is a real problem. Researchers such as Charles Oppenheim suggest that this overload 'seems to screw people up. The sheer pressure is immense. Once again there are cultural differences, with overload being much more serious in countries where there is most use of the internet. This reinforces the need for systematic staff training in these new technologies-training that discusses more that which buttons to press. Comprehensive Questions a. What does the phrase 'email traffic' mean? b. How has email changed the way organizations communicate? c. What are some of the drawbacks of using email as a form of organizational communication? d. Why are staff trainings in new technologies necessary? e. Give a suitable title to the passage.