| This qualitative case study of four women managers is based on three, two-hour interviews that were taped, transcribed and analyzed for emergent themes. Each participant shared stories about using email at work. As a result of a pilot study, special attention is given to the ways that each participant has used email to negotiate power and to practice self-presentation, although less attention is given to the self-presentation focus.; As first-generation email users, the participants are able to contrast their current access to email with memories of “pre-email days.” They indicated that the speed and features of email enable them to pursue issues they would not have pursued pre-email. A pattern emerged from the participants' stories suggesting that, after first experiencing a “silencing episode” with a male supervisor or colleague (see Young, 1998), they tend to use email to persuade the other individual to change his decision. While the speed, recordability, and multiple addressability of email tend to increase the likelihood that the recipient will respond, other factors may also influence success: the relative professional status/power of the individuals, the issue being negotiated, creating a non-confrontational frame, and writing an effective persuasive argument.; In addition to negotiating power as traditionally defined, their stories suggest that email is used to negotiate symbolic power, to resist and gain control of the traditionally held male privilege to construct or shape organizational reality (see Gal, 1991, 1995). Self-presentation and “doing gender” (Zimmerman & West, 1987, 1991) also appear to be significant aspects of email that warrant further research. Examples are cited and discussed.; Some implications. Women should identify entities that oversee email use in order to influence policies that could constrain their ability to use email in empowering ways; Students need practice in persuasive writing to real audiences for the purpose of getting results. Although the study suggests that women managers can use email successfully to negotiate power, the study was small and limited to a Federal agency. To build a more complex and hence more useful understanding of women's relationship to email, future studies should investigate other groups of women in various organizations. |
