Email Transaction Costs

The anecdote that Shawn relates here reminds me of some stuff in economics about transaction costs. In a high trust environment, the cost of a transaction is low because you don't have to spend lots of time and money on lawyers, contracts, negotiators guarantors, etc. In a low trust environment, these costs are correspondingly higher.

Now, one perennial question in economics concerns why firms exist. Why not have lots of independent traders operating in an open market. And one answer relates to transaction costs. A firm should have higher levels of trust within it than a bunch of independent traders. And hence lower transaction costs. And hence be more efficient.

Now this ain't necessarily so. So large email volumes become a cost of doing business.

One simple way to replace email in large organisations would be to record every phone conversation you have. Not sure about the legality of this one tho...