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Publications
  • May 2022
  • Article
  • Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

The Impact of COVID-19 on Digital Communication Patterns

By: Evan DeFilippis, Stephen Michael Impink, Madison Singell, Jeff Polzer and Raffaella Sadun
  • Format:Electronic
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Abstract

We explore the impact of COVID-19 on employees’ digital communication patterns through an event study of lockdowns in 16 large metropolitan areas in North America, Europe, and the Middle East. Using de-identified, aggregated meeting and email meta-data from 3,143,270 users, we find, compared to pre-pandemic levels, increases in the number of meetings per person (+12.9 percent) and the number of attendees per meeting (+13.5 percent), but decreases in the average length of meetings (−20.1 percent). Collectively, the net effect is that people spent less time in meetings per day (−11.5 percent) in the post-lockdown period. We also find significant and durable increases in length of the average workday (+8.2 percent, or +48.5 min), along with short-term increases in email activity. These findings provide insight into how formal communication patterns have changed for a large sample of knowledge workers in major cities. We discuss these changes in light of the ongoing challenges faced by organizations and workers struggling to adapt and perform in the face of a global pandemic.

Keywords

Meetings; Email; COVID-19 Pandemic; Communication Technology; Health Pandemics; Time Management

Citation

DeFilippis, Evan, Stephen Michael Impink, Madison Singell, Jeff Polzer, and Raffaella Sadun. "The Impact of COVID-19 on Digital Communication Patterns." Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 9, no. 180 (May 2022).
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About The Authors

Jeffrey T. Polzer

Organizational Behavior
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Raffaella Sadun

Strategy
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More from the Authors
  • How Does Working from Home during COVID-19 Affect What Managers Do? Evidence from Time-Use Studies By: Thomaz Teodorovicz, Raffaella Sadun, Andrew L. Kun and Orit Shaer
  • The C-Suite Skills That Matter Most By: Raffaella Sadun, Joseph B. Fuller, Stephen Hansen and PJ Neal
  • Multitasking While Driving: A Time Use Study of Commuting Knowledge Workers to Assess Current and Future Uses By: Thomaz Teodorovicz, Andrew L. Kun, Raffaella Sadun and Orit Shaer
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