The Selection of Communication Media as an Executive Skill
About: This article is published in Academy of Management Executive.The article was published on 1988-08-01. It has received 503 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Selection (genetic algorithm).
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide a theory that explains under what conditions network governance, rigorously defined, has comparative advantage and is therefore likely to emerge and thrive, and in broad strokes, they claim that the network form of governance is a response to exchange conditions of asset specificity, demand uncertainty, task complexity, and frequency.
Abstract: A phenomenon of the last 20 years has been the rapid rise of the network form of governance. This governance form has received significant scholarly attention, but. to date, no comprehensive theory for it has been advanced, and no sufficiently detailed and theoretically consistent definition has appeared. Our objective in this article is to provide a theory that explains under what conditions network governance, rigorously defined, has comparative advantage and is therefore likely to emerge and thrive. Our theory integrates transaction cost economics and social network theories, and, in broad strokes, asserts that the network form of governance is a response to exchange conditions of asset specificity, demand uncertainty, task complexity, and frequency. These exchange conditions drive firms toward structurally embedding their transactions, which enables firms to use social mechanisms for coordinating and safeguarding exchanges. When all of these conditions are in place, the network governance form has adv...
2,551 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a typology of readiness programs for large-scale organizational change, and a large multinational corporation's efforts to create readiness for large scale change are described.
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to clarify the readiness for change concept and examine how change agents can influence employee readiness for organizational change. The article contributes to an improved understanding of change dynamics in four important ways. First, readiness for change is distinguished from resistance to change. Readiness is described in terms of the organizational members' beliefs, attitudes, and intentions. Second, a model is offered that describes the influence strategies as well as the importance of change agent credibility and interpersonal and social dynamics in the readiness creation process. Third, by combining urgency of, and employee readiness for, needed changes, a typology of readiness programs is offered. Fourth, a large multinational corporation's efforts to create readiness for large-scale change are described to provide a cogent illustration of the various readiness interventions described in the model.
1,780 citations
TL;DR: Experiences identified by channel expansion theory as contributing to media-use knowledge bases were hypothesized to be positively related to the perceived richness of a communications channel as discussed by the authors, and they were found to positively correlate with media use knowledge bases.
Abstract: Experiences identified by channel expansion theory as contributing to media-use knowledge bases were hypothesized to be positively related to the perceived richness of a communications channel. We ...
1,219 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a multi-method investigation was designed to assess the power of information richness theory, relative to alternative social theories, to explain and predict managers' use of email.
Abstract: As new technologies that support managerial communication become widely used, the question of how and why managers, especially senior managers, use them increases in importance. This paper examines how and why managers use electronic mail. Today, one of the more influential theories of media choice in organization and information science is information richness theory, which has stimulated much empirical research on media selection and has clear implications for how managers should use media. Despite numerous modifications and elaborations, information richness theory remains an individual-level rational choice explanation of behavior, and as such it differs fundamentally from theories that emphasize the social context of managers' communication and media choice behavior. While the weight of informed opinion seems to be shifting toward social theories of media selection and use, much empirical research continues to test individual-level rational choice models.
A multi-method investigation was designed to assess the power of information richness theory, relative to alternative social theories, to explain and predict managers' use of email. Managers were found to perceive various media in ways that were relatively consistent with information richness theory, but to use email more and differently than the theory predicted. In particular, effective senior managers were found to use email heavily and even for equivocal communications tasks. These results cannot be explained by information richness theory or by simple modifications of the theory. Rather, they suggest that the adoption, use, and consequences of media in organizations can be powerfully shaped by social processes such as sponsorship, socialization, and social control, which require social perspectives to understand them. These processes can result in differences across organizations and other social units in the patterns of using traditional media like the telephone, but such differences are even more likely for new media, like electronic mail.
1,188 citations
TL;DR: The results found no support for the central proposition of media richness theory; matching media richness to task equivocality did not improve performance.
Abstract: Media richness theory argues that performance improves when team members use "richer" media for equivocal tasks. This experiment studied the effects of media richness on decision making in two-person teams using "new media" (i.e., computer-mediated and video communication). Media richness was varied based on multiplicity of cues and immediacy of feedback. Subjects perceived differences in richness due to both cues and feedback, but matching richness to task equivocality did not improve decision quality, decision time, consensus change, or communication satisfaction. Use of media providing fewer cues (i.e., computer mediated communication) led to slower decisions and more so for the less equivocal task. In short, the results found no support for the central proposition of media richness theory; matching media richness to task equivocality did not improve performance.
955 citations
Cites background or result from "The Selection of Communication Medi..."
...User satisfaction is also suggested as an element of performance, albeit less directly (see Lengel and Daft 1988)....
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...The degree to which media affect communication can change the way in which teams work and can lead to better or worse task performance....
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...…some studies have found limited support for the theory, in many cases managers have made different choices than those predicted by media richness theory, picking supposedly less rich media for equivocal tasks (see El-Shinnawy and Markus 1992, Lengel and Daft 1988, Rice 1992, Trevino et al. 1987)....
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...The delay imposed by typing reduces the immediacy of sequential feedback....
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