| Summary: | As e-mail became the number one communication channel within organizations, problems related to this fact started to arise. Employees no longer felt in control over their inbox and the term e-mail overload started to gain more relevance. Thus, the present study sought to investigate the impacts that e-mail overload and the quality of its content can have on employees, as well as what are its consequences to the individuals. As the outcomes can vary given different situations and individuals, the study was focused particularly on silence behaviors, that until to the moment have scarce empirical research. The results of the study were obtained through an online questionnaire answered by 97 individuals. With the support of the Job Demands-Resources Model, it was possible to test mediations, moderations and moderated mediations, to verify the impact of e-mail on silence behaviors. While the results found that both work engagement and exhaustion mediate the previous relationship, it was also found that the quality of the e-mail content moderates the relation between e-mail overload and work engagement, contrary to what happens in the relationship between e-mail overload and exhaustion. Further, the moderated mediation was partially confirmed since it was verified that, e-mail quality moderates the mediation between e-mail overload and work engagement, but it does not moderate the mediation between e-mail overload and exhaustion. The present study is particularly important to close one of the existent gaps regarding silence behaviors, as the subject does not have a large body of research nor it has been connected with e-mail. Further, it can be useful for managers to understand why some employees remain silent and what can be done to overcame such behaviors.
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