1. Running head: CONFLICT ON USING TECHNOLOGY FOR COMMUNICATION IN
THE WORKPLACE 1
Conflict on Using Technology for Communication in the Workplace
Yihao Ou
University of Kentucky

2. CONFLICT ON USING TECHNOLOGY FOR COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE 2
Abstract
In this paper the conflict on using technology for communication in the workplace will be
discussed. Both the benefit and harm that the technology will do to the communication in the
workplace will be talk about and each of them will be discussed in three sub-points. For the
beneficial side: efficiency, mobility and cost saving these three aspects will be used to analyze
and provide evidence for the benefit that the technology has brought to the communication in the
workplace. For the harmful side: broken-down communication and health issue that caused by
using technology for communication and the troubles that might happened once the technologies
broke would be analyzed and used as evidence for the harm that the technology would do to the
workplace.
Keywords: technology, workplace

3. CONFLICT ON USING TECHNOLOGY FOR COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE 3
Conflict on Using Technology to Communicate in the Workplace
Technology like computers, tablets and smart phones are becoming more and more
essential to our life in recent years. Because of these technology, the way how people
communicate with each other have been changed a lot: instant communication is no longer
limited to happen just during face to face but in anywhere, at any time and this, has led to a huge
change of communication in the workplace for almost every industries. However, as we all
known that everything has two sides. We cannot say that something is always good or is always
bad. So what are the benefit and harm that technology has brought to the communication in the
workplace?
For the beneficial side, there are total three aspects that I would like to talk about:
efficiency, mobility and cost saving.
First of all, let’s talk about efficiency. Having technology in the workplace allow the
information and orders can be sent to the workers instantly through email instead of using phone
calls or inter-office mail to interact with one another anymore like the old days. Using email can
help avoid misunderstanding or misleading when giving out an order or assignment since
everybody receive the email directly from their leader without being transmitted and rephrasing
by others. Also, using technology can increase communication between workers and also
departments to make work easier and could save a lot of time. For example, if anyone has any
question at work, they can just simple message the person that could help them through email or
texting, even though this person may not be in the office right on the second; or maybe someone
need a file from the other department right away and they can message the people from the other
department and have the people there to email the file to them instantly.

4. CONFLICT ON USING TECHNOLOGY FOR COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE 4
Secondly, mobility. With an increasing number of companies investing in deployment
and management of enterprise mobility than ever before, remote work is fast becoming
mainstream, as flexible hours and work locations allow employees to work more efficiently and
accomplish more (Newman, 2015). Indeed, with all the technologies, people are no longer
limited to work in the office but in wherever they want. A laptop, the access to the internet and a
place to sit and that’s all needed for work! All the files are in electronic version so that workers
could have access to all of the files whenever and wherever they are. Also, the communication
between customers and the workers would be easier and timely. Situation like an agent is sick at
home or for some reason didn’t come to work and a customer which this agent is responsible for
needs help, the customer may have to wait until his/her agent comes back to work. However,
with the help of technology, the customer can either email the agent or make a phone call or
texting to get to the agent and have his/her problem solve in time.
The last but not least, cost saving. Although buying technology like laptops and tablets
could be a big cost for a company. However, having theses could a big on saving both money
and resource in a long run. According to Jason Oh, a reporter form The Washington Post said:
Migrate from desktop to laptops. Making this switch provides the flexibility for your employees
to work off of battery power for a portion of the time instead of always being plugged into an
electrical outlet. Simply by unplugging from the grid, depending on where you’re located, you
could save up to $100 in energy costs per computer every year (2012). Take an international
company like Philip as an example: it has hundreds of branch companies all over the world, if
the controlling company in Dutch want to hold a meeting with the management from different
companies and everyone need to fly to Dutch from different countries all over the world every
time, this would be a huge cost even to the company as big as Philip. But with the help of

5. CONFLICT ON USING TECHNOLOGY FOR COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE 5
technology, a meeting like this can be held through video chatting on computer without costing
any money but just a little fee of electricity. A group video chatting is just like having a really
face to face meeting, everybody can be able to talk to each other and see each other. As
mentioned above, besides saving money, using technology can also save a lot of resource.
Having all the files stored in electronic version is a big saving of space and paper, the computer
can help arrange and organize all the documents with just one click. Making tables, graphing,
dealing with data become real easy with all those software.
As showing in the figure 1, a general research on technology and its impact in the
workplace based on 700 workers that is
done by TIA Company shows that most
of the workers satisfied with having
technology in their work place, which
can help draw a conclusion that
technology is a big help for both work
and communication in the workplace.
However, as stated above,
everything has two sides. Therefore, for
the harmful side, I am going to talk about how technology makes the communication breakdown,
cause health issue and would make a huge mess once it broke.
So how would technology make the communication breakdown? Since the existence of
technology makes the email become the most efficiency way to communicate in the workplace,
people would become more and more rely on communicating through email and the chance for
them to talk face to face would become less and less. It’s hard to build a close relationship with
Figure 1. IT support generally doing a good
job but room for improvement does exist

6. CONFLICT ON USING TECHNOLOGY FOR COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE 6
others in the workplace without talking with each other in person. Also, a workplace where all
the worker are not close and familiar with each other won’t be able to have this sense of group
honor and may not have the passion to work hard and fight for the company. What’s more,
communicating through email is just simply exchanging message through texts and the
information that can only be expressed by body language or facial expression would be left out
and the meaning of the message would not be as accurate as communicating face to face,
especially for those people who are not so good at writing. Dr. Albert Mehrabian, author of
Silent Messages, conducted several studies on
nonverbal communication. He found that 7% of
any message is conveyed through words, 38%
through certain vocal elements, and 55%
through nonverbal elements (facial expressions,
gestures, posture, etc) (Blake, 2012), as shown
in figure 2. In other word, 98% of the meaning
of a message is missing when communicating
with each other only through texting. Therefore, although email is benefit for giving order or
making an announcement but maybe not a good idea for daily communication.
Next is health issue. How would technology bring health issue? As technology become
essential for communication in the workplace, workers usually spend most of their time on their
computers at work. However, according to April Cashin-Garbutt (2012), who is the author of the
article Does looking at a computer damage your eyes? which is published on a medical news
website that people who look at computers frequently, (in particular those that look at a computer
for more than three hours a day), may experience symptoms such as: Eye discomfort, headaches,
Figure 2. Verbal and nonverbal information
distribution in communication

7. CONFLICT ON USING TECHNOLOGY FOR COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE 7
blurred vision and etc. Having technology indeed can increase the efficiency of work with all
those help from email and office software and people are no bother to walking desk to desk, door
to door and department to department in order to pass out files or ask questions. But on the other
hand, since no need to walk around anymore, people would tend to sitting on their seat for a lot
longer. Based on a research conducted by Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, which is stated by
Sheryl Ubelacke on CBC news (2015) shows that person sits during the day is associated with a
higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and death, regardless of regular exercise.
Finally, how would technology make a huge mass once it broke? As technology has
taken place of the traditional communicating way in the workplace, the whole system of how
everything work for the whole company is built on having technology as support: workers do
their work on computer; every file and information are saved as an electronic version in the
computer; communication between workers, departments and even companies are rely on
technology. Therefore, try imagine a day that all the technologies of a company break down for
some reason maybe like a virus that is sent by their competitor maliciously. Then this whole
company is basically paralyzed and not functioning until all the technologies back to normal.
“I don’t know about you, but I’ve been at jobs where if the Internet isn’t working, then
work comes to a standstill. How can you work if you can’t send an email, right?
Seriously. I was sent home one day at my last job because the Internet was down.” Said
by Chanie Kirschner (2013), who used to work in a company highly depend on internet.
Therefore, highly depending of technology may have brought a lot convenience but it also comes
with a huge risk.
To sum up, having technology has its own good and bad. On one hand, it would
definitely bring a lot of convenience and effectiveness: Everything can be easily organized by

8. CONFLICT ON USING TECHNOLOGY FOR COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE 8
just a few clicks; No more running around building to send out message or give out paper works,
one email is all we need; In touch with customer and colleagues no matter where you are as long
as you have your technology with you; Saving travel fee and make more room in the office by
doing everything on the computer. However, on the other hand, relying on technology can also
do harm to the workplace: No more face to face communication, the most thing you would say to
your colleagues probably just “hi” and “bye”; health just getting worse and worse for working in
front of computer every day; Once the technology break down then everything got ruin.
Therefore, how the balance the benefit and harm that are brought by the technology is the most
important thing. We need the help from technology for sure, but we also don’t want to get too
dependent on them either. Use technology in a smart way and make your life and work better.

9. CONFLICT ON USING TECHNOLOGY FOR COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE 9
References
Blake. (2012). How much of communication is really nonverbal?. [Web log comment].
Retrieved from http://www.nonverbalgroup.com/2011/08/how-much-of-
communication-is-really-nonverbal/
Cashin-Garbutt, A. (2012, January 28th). Does looking at a computer damage your eyes? Medical
News. Retrieved from http://www.news-medical.net/health/Does-looking-at-a-computer-
damage-your-eyes.aspx
Newman, D. (2015, March 23rd). Mobile is a Lifestyle, not a Technology. [Web log comment].
Retrieved from http://midsizeinsider.com/en-us/article/mobile-lifestyle-not-
technology#.VRz2Sc_TDX4
Ubelacker, S. (2015, January 19th). Sitting for too long can kill you, even if you exercise: study.
CBC News. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/sitting-for-too-long-can-
kill-you-even-if-you-exercise-study-1.2918678
Oh, J. (2012, February 23rd). How companies can save money if employees work from home.
The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-
small-business/how-to-be-technologically--and-cost--
efficient/2012/02/07/gIQAZMwERR_story.html
Kirschner, C. (2013, September 30th). 7 Signs we are too dependent on technology. [Web log
comment]. Retrieved from http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/gadgets-electronics/stories/7-
signs-we-are-too-dependent-on-technology