Word on instant chat: Real-time messaging a business asset
Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008
ATLANTA — When John Fairey wants to chat with a colleague, but has no time to wait for an e-mail answer or a face-to-face talk, he clicks on the buddy list on his computer screen and sends an instant message. And he almost always gets an instant answer.
“It is significantly more efficient,” says the 28-year-old equity researcher for Atlanta-based Pointer Capital. “It saves time.” Researchers say his company is on the cutting edge of a growing trend by providing software that allows workers to “talk” with each other on a “real time” basis, right from their desks.
Such software benefits employers by decreasing interruptions of workers, increasing productivity, according to a new study by professors Kelly Garrett of Ohio State and James Danziger of the University of California-Irvine.
Their study found that using instant messaging led to more but shorter conversations, Danziger said. People ask colleagues to become IM buddies, and an icon on their screens lists those who’re logged in and ready to reply.
“The key take-away is that instant messaging has some benefits where many people had feared that it might be harmful,” Garrett said. He said the study of 912 people found that those who used instant messaging reported being “interrupted less frequently” than colleagues who didn’t.
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