Pros 

 Cons

• Produce immediate response
• People will pick up a phone – will not always open an email
• This often is people’s preferred means of communication
• The telephone conveys urgency 
• A ringing phone is more difficult to ignore than an email 
  

• An office phone can only be accessed from your desk (unless a mobile phone) - emails can be accessed anywhere
• There is no record of the correspondence 
• There can be a lack of clarity, since the communication cannot be rehearsed
  

Pros 

 Cons 

• Additional information can be included, such as Word documents, images etc 
• Good for bulk communication 
  

• Emails can be open to misinterpretation, due to absence of paralanguage cues
• Can produce no response
• With bulk emails there is a tendency for no-one to take responsibility for action
  

Telephone 

Email  

• Check that it’s OK to talk (sometimes phoning can be disruptive)
• Confirm all details and agreements with an email

• Target individuals
• Personalise
• Use mail merge
• Specify deadlines
• Use emoticons where appropriate
• Specify that you require a response by a date and that a lack of response constitutes agreement with your decision. This means that progress is not held up by a lack of response (but see section on meta-decision making).