An Exploratory Study of the E-mail Writing Skills of B-School Campus Recruits in Contemporary Corporate India

In the present business world, E-mail communication is the most used computer-mediated communication (CMC) and has to a large extent replaced the traditional letter as a form of communication. The significance of crafting appropriate e-mail messages by business school graduates is realized by all. Business schools have the responsibility of nurturing talent and producing skilled management graduates as per the corporate requirements. This paper aims to understand whether management graduates possess e-mail writing skills and etiquette as per the corporate expectations. It will also help to identify if there is any gap in the corporate expectations and their experience once these graduates are hired by the company through quantitative analysis.

Survey/Interview: The corporate opinion on e-mail writing skills and e-mail etiquette of B-School campus recruits was taken through personal interactions and self-administered questionnaire. There are 331 respondents from 48 companies working in managerial capacity and are closely associated with MBA campus recruits as their mentor/trainer/line manager. Study found that B-school campus recruits’ e-mail writing ability is matching with the expectations of corporate, however, they are lacking in etiquette for formal e-mail writing.

Since the findings are based on the expectations and experience of 331 corporate executives of 48 companies, the results must be considered tentative and interpreted with care. Future study must explore larger sample of corporate executives and take the qualitative inputs also through personal interaction for better clarity. This is the first of its kind study in the context of e-mail writing skills of management graduates in corporate environment.