Emails From the Boss—Curse or Blessing? Relations Between Communication Channels, Leader Evaluation, and Employees’ Attitudes

TLDR

The study examines whether a more digitally centered supervisor–employee communication satisfies employees’ communication needs and shapes their attitudes toward the supervisor and the job. A cross‑sectional online survey of 261 employees assessed supervisors’ actual and ideal use of telephone, face‑to‑face, and email channels for quality and quantity, and measured employees’ job satisfaction, perceived supervisory effectiveness, and team identification. Employees rated face‑to‑face communication as higher quality, preferred more face‑to‑face interactions, and found that higher perceived quality—especially face‑to‑face—was strongly linked to greater job satisfaction, supervisory effectiveness, and team identification, highlighting challenges of rising e‑leadership and prompting recommendations to mitigate these issues.

Abstract

The present research investigates if and how a more digitally centered communication between supervisors and employees satisfies employees’ needs regarding the communication with their supervisors and influences employees’ attitudes toward the supervisor and the job. In a cross-sectional online study, 261 employees rated their supervisors’ actual and ideal use of different communication channels (i.e., telephone, face-to-face, email) regarding quality and quantity. Employees’ job satisfaction and their perceptions of their supervisors’ effectiveness and team identification were measured as dependent variables. Employees perceived face-to-face communication to be of higher quality than telephone and email communication, and they indicated a preference for more face-to-face communication with their supervisors than they actually had. Moreover, the perceived quality of communication, especially via face-to-face, was strongly and positively related to the dependent variables. These results provide insights into potential problems of increasing e-leadership in organizations. We conclude with recommendations to reduce these problems.