Science Daily has an article re: use of IM is good for reducing interruptions (which we know is good for productivity).

It seems IM created conversations which were shorter than if the person had called or had a face to face conversation. People who used IM felt they were interrupted less. Finding out when people were available to have a longer conversation or to get quick answers were some of the IM uses mentioned.

Quite a great finding for those companies who still block IM b/c it’s seen as a productivity drain.

The study, by researchers at Ohio State U & U of California, has been published in the Journal of Computer Mediated Communication. It involved 912 randomly selected participants from 12 metro areas who worked at least 30 hours per week in an office and used a computer for at least five hours in a workday.