A Profile of Users of Electronic Mail in a University

Each active user of electronic mail contributes a portion of the activity (usage) necessary to maintain the viability of the system. Frequent users contribute a greater proportion of that individual usage than occasional users contribute and are essential for maintaining critical mass. This study examines factors that differentiate among frequent and occasional users of electronic mail, for the purpose of developing a profile of users to help organizations develop strategies for increasing system usage. Mail users responded to a quantitative self-report survey that was administered over the organization's electronic mail system. Results of discriminant analysis yielded a significant discriminant function composed of five of the factors: preference for telephony and electronic mail, perception that users are required to use electronic mail in their jobs, degree to which use is for oneself or to send or receive messages for others, perception of system problems, and ease of teaching another to use the system. Follow-up analyses demonstrated that frequent users are significantly different from occasional users on all of the factors included in the study.