From Organizational culture and email overload by Mark Hurst:
Whenever I give a talk on solving email overload, someone inevitably raises their hand and says, "How can I get my coworkers to stop sending me so many emails?" It's a legitimate question, as lots of people suffer from needless emails in the workplace.
Hurst also quotes Nathan Zeldes saying that organizational culture causes email overload:
People may hit Reply All because they think sending a message at midnight will impress the boss, or they may be trying to cover themselves and create a paper trail in an organization where mistrust is a factor. The situation calls to mind the "tragedy of the commons" scenario: Everyone would prefer that there be fewer messages, but nobody can afford to be the first to cut back on sending them.
Are you asking, "How can I get my coworkers to stop sending me so many emails?" Try using Basecamp and/or Backpack to centralize your communication with coworkers. That way people can just go to the app to catch up on communication. Or subscribe to the RSS feed. No need to rely on constant email back and forths that clog up your inbox and get all confusing. And if you want to "create a paper trail," it's much better to do so in one place than relying on dozens of scattered emails.
Also, the "Subscribe people to receive email notifications" option lets you easily choose who is in/out for a conversation. It makes easy to omit people who don't need to know while including those who need to stay in the loop.
Watch an audio/video tour of the Messages section in Basecamp to see messaging in action.
