Recurring claims of the poor relationship of computer adoption and organizational productivity may be of interest to communication scientists who study computer mediated communication (CMC). Cognitive science researchers advocate the same solution to this problem as many communication scientists, i.e., formative research. Iterating design and user input into a feedback loop will lead to continual testing and locating of bugs until skills with computers increase. Perhaps it will be useful for CMC researchers to look more at how productivity in the workplace is related to new communication technologies, such as electronic mail, computer conferencing, and decision support systems. More research about CMC and productivity which can specify how CMC is different from the general pattern of computers and productivity is needed. (RS)