Email has been used in business since about 1980. It has had a major effect on organizational complexity. In a short time, email has:
- Flattened organizations. Multilevel hierarchies had been well-entrenched for decades.
- Greatly compressed business cycle times. Things get done much more quickly.
- Greatly improved the quality of decision-making, since it's easy to exchange information.
Other factors have no doubt also contributed to these changes. But email has been the prime mover.
... David Ferris and Nick Shelness