Email tops for business communication

Email has become the world's favourite form of business communication, according to a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The survey covered 1,500 workers and was conducted in October and November in co-operation with Cisco Systems.

It asked employees about their voice communications practices and preferences in the workplace, their use of communications tools and perceptions of workplace productivity.

Two-thirds of executives now prefer e-mail as a means of business communication over the next most popular options, desktop telephones and mobile phones, which are each preferred by just 16% of survey respondents.

About 30% of the respondents were from western and eastern Europe, 26% from North America, and 26% from Asia and Australasia.

The Economist Intelligence Unit, the business information arm of The Economist Group, publisher of The Economist.