Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This study critically examines the burden of organisational bulk emails sent to academics over one year at a business school, offering the first detailed quantitative measure of the time and financial cost associated with such emails in a higher education setting. A mixed-methods approach is employed to examine the issue. Using metrics such as silent reading time, recovery time between reading and returning to work, and current academic salary rates, the study estimates the impact of these emails on academics’ workload. Although reading these emails constitutes a small fraction of the overall academic workload, the findings reveal a financial impact exceeding a quarter of a million dollars per year, or nearly one thousand dollars per organisational bulk email sent. Drawing on Zuboff’s concept of the uncontract, the study suggests that, despite the relatively low workload burden, the excessive volume of organisational bulk emails can undermine academics’ well-being, as communicators are often indifferent to academics’ choices. The study offers critical insights for policy and management practices in higher education institutions, such as reconsidering the expectation that casual academic staff read these emails and implementing clear policies regarding broadcast email communication.
Author: Vicente Bicudo de Castro
Institution: Deakin University
Language: English
Subfield: Information Systems and Management
Field: Decision Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4410973403