Email Etiquette

EmailEtiquette

Theuse of emails is becoming increasingly important in the operations ofmany organizations. Emails have been incorporated as the best meansof passing information from one person to another. This is becausethey are efficient and the confidentiality of the information isguaranteed since an email is sent to an individual who is authorizedto view it since emails are owned personally. However, to ensure thatthe use of emails is efficient, Patcher outlines the basics of modernemail etiquette in her book entitled &quotThe Essentials of BusinessEtiquette&quot(Sims, 2015).Therefore, this paper evaluates the various rules presented byPatcher by outlining the significance of these practices alongsideshowing a bit of criticism in some of the ideas highlighted in thearticle.

Isupport the arguments presented by Patcher in her book regarding theappropriate rules every professional should know. For instance, Iconcur with Patcher when she claims that an employee in anydepartment of an organization should use a professional email address(Sims,2015).This is mandatory for the utilization of a professional email willenable the customer to know that the employee is affiliated with thecertain company. This will thus prevent speculation on the part ofthe client on the validity of the information provided by theemployee. Also, she recommends that professionals should avoid usingnames which convey an attitude or certain feelings such as[email protected]since they are not allowed in the official context. Moreover, Patchersuggests the use of professional salutations such as “Hi Daniel.”However, employees should avoid the use of colloquial expressionssuch as “Hey, Yo, or Hi folks.” This is because the workplace isa formal place and the use of these salutations will compromise theformality of the workplace environment (Sims,2015).

Additionally,it is recommended that professionals utilize exclamation markssparingly. Patcher claims that exclamation marks should be used onlywhen one has the intention of conveying excitement. However, theexcessive use of exclamation marks distracts the attention of somepeople, and this may cause misunderstanding of the information beingcommunicated(Grandhi, &amp Lanagan-Leitzel, 2016).This is because the recipient may be worried about the kind ofinformation conveyed with excess exclamation marks. Besides this,professionals are advised to be cautious with humor. Theincorporation of humor is likely to cause deviation in the intendedmessage to be conveyed to the recipient. Therefore, humor should beavoided altogether unless the recipient is well known to anindividual.

Onthe contrary, I criticize the rule of Patcher that professionalsshould reply to all emails even if some of them were wrongly sent tothem (Sims,2015).The receipt of a wrong email should not bother the recipient sincethe sender should have taken the precaution of ensuring that he orshe keys in the right email address of the recipient. Although it isethical to reply and offer direction on how to reach the rightperson, most of the professionals are frequently busy, and they mayforget to give the feedback to the sender (Sims,2015).However, such an employee should not be reprimanded since it was nottheir fault to receive the information intended for another person.

Oneof the critical tips from Patcher’s rules is the idea of embracingdiversity (Grandhi,&amp Lanagan-Leitzel, 2016).I will adapt this advice in my computer-mediated communication. Iwill ensure that employees within my organization can communicatewith people from different cultures and know how they interact withone another. For instance, understanding the culture of other peoplewill be very important in the execution of various activities by myorganization since there will be little chances of miscommunication(Grandhi,&amp Lanagan-Leitzel, 2016).Knowing how people from high-context cultures will foster smoothbusiness interactions between both parties. For instance, thehigh-context cultures have a character of knowing an individual orfirm before transacting any business with them. The high-contextcultures include the Japanese, Arab and Chinese (Grandhi,&amp Lanagan-Leitzel, 2016).Therefore, providing quick information about my company will enhancebusiness between my organization and those with the high-contextcultures. On the other hand, my team will also be fast enough inengaging in quick transactions with low-context cultures such asGermany and America who care less about the whereabouts of thebusiness partners (Sims,2015).

Conclusively,the arguments presented by Patcher on email etiquette are worthtaking. This is because they are inclined towards customersatisfaction and fulfillment of the organizational goals andobjectives. For instance, the use of a professional email address,using formal language by avoiding the use of colloquial expressionsand exclamation marks necessitates the understanding of theinformation delivered (Grandhi,&amp Lanagan-Leitzel, 2016).Therefore, organizations that have not incorporated these rulesshould do so for them to realize an increase in customer turnover andproductivity levels.

References

Grandhi,S. A., &amp Lanagan-Leitzel, L. K. (2016, February). To Reply or ToReply All: Understanding Replying Behavior in Group EmailCommunication. In Proceedingsof the 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work &ampSocial Computing(pp. 560-569). ACM.

Sims,C. D. L. (2015). Competency and Connection: Undergraduate Studentsand Effective Email Messages. CommunicationTeacher,29(3),129-134.