Information Richness Theory Research Articles

Richness, power cues and email text

The paper presents a study that assesses the level of richness in electronic-mediated communication by taking into account its text-based attributes. Though a key feature of email, only limited research has focused on the text-based attributes of email messages. The underlying assumption is that there is an organisational context that intertwines with email message texts. The study explores the extent to which these attributes differ among senders at different organisational layers. Using textual and deconstruction analysis, it analysed a series of email messages distributed within two academic departments over a period of several months, and found that email, as a communication medium, signals rather than alleviates hierarchical differences. Therefore, even though email is often presented as a lean medium, the way text-based messages are constructed may convey the social cues that are traditionally used to determine status differences in organisations. The study argues that email is a richer communication medium than is reflected in the scale of information richness theory.

Cultural values, media richness and telecommunication use in an organization

This paper deals with adapting the telecommunication services of an organization to the diversity of individual value orientations related to culture. After a discussion of the processes linking telecommunication use to cultural values, we show on empirical grounds the relationship between the preference of the individual for organizational cultures and his or her telecommunication use (fax, email (electronic mail), vmail (voice mail) and telephone). The cultural values were measured for 223 individuals in a French company using Q sort with balanced block design while telecommunication use was measured through a diary method. The final analysis was performed on 799 internal communications of 145 individuals having access to the four telecommunication services. In particular we found that the use of new media was more related to an orientation towards innovation or reactivity or entrepreneurship than the telephone. Email appeared as associated to relation-oriented rather than task-oriented value and suggests that the amount of feedback plays a role in the process of telecommunications media choice. We argue that cultural analysis is not only an interesting complementary approach to information richness theory for understanding telecommunication choices, but can also lead to different decisions. As an example, we examine the decision to withdraw either vmail or email in a downsizing situation.

Task Characteristics, Managerial Socialization, and Media Selection

Why do managers choose one communication medium in preference to another? Early studies relied on rational-choice theories to model how managers select media. Recent research, however, has proposed a role for social factors in media selection. Employing a large sample collected in the field, this study finds strong support for Information Richness Theory, a rational-choice model connecting managers' choice of media to task characteristics such as variety and analyzability. Also tested were variables indexing the rank and functional area of the managers, with the intent of measuring the impact of group socialization on media choice. These rank and functional area variables, although sometimes significant, did not materially expand the explanatory power of a model that also included rational-choice variables.

Communication Richness in Electronic Mail: Critical Social Theory and the Contextuality of Meaning

Information Richness Theory (IRT) has enjoyed acceptance by information systems researchers throughout the last decade, but recent unfavorable empirical evidence has precipitated a shift away from it and a search for a new theory. Because of this shift, a new definition of communication richness is needed to succeed the IRT definition. Since its inception, IS research on communication richness has been limited to the perspective of positivism and, more recently, interpretivism. In this study, a new perspective to the study of communication richness in computer mediated communication, critical social theory (CST), is introduced. This paper outlines (1) a CST-based definition of communication richness and compares it with positivist and interpretivist definitions of communication richness and (2) a CST-based social action framework for empirical study of organizational communication in any media use situation. The CST definition and framework are used in an intensive investigation of an episode of the managerial use of electronic mail in a company to illustrate how research on communication richness can be conducted from the CST perspective. This illustration also points out the usefulness of the CST perspective in recognizing instances of communication richness in electronic mail communications that would escape detection in not just the IRT perspective in particular, but also positivist and interpretive perspectives in general. Finally, the paper concludes by outlining the potential for future IS research on organizational communication and information technology from the CST perspective. In addition to the specific contribution to the development of a new theory of communication richness in electronic media, this study also contributes an example of CST research on IS and extends the domain of the CST-IS research program.

Electronic Mail as the Medium of Managerial Choice

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.

RELATIONSHIPS OF JOB CATEGORIES AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEVELS TO USE OF COMMUNICATION CHANNELS, INCLUDING ELECTRONIC MAIL: A META‐ANALYSIS AND EXTENSION*

ABSTRACTThis study tests hypotheses derived from information processing theory concerning relationships between individuals' job category, organizational level, and levels and patterns of media usage. Media studied include face‐to‐face, meetings, memos/letters, telephone and electronic mail. In the meta‐analysis of over 40 studies, usage of different media was significantly different for managers/executives versus others, and was highly correlated with organizational level. In the individual‐level analyses of four organizations, the majority of respondents were classified into their actual job categories, and according to distances between organizational levels, by a discriminant function involving only relative extent of media use, especially participation in meetings. Contrary to information richness theory, upper‐level respondents (managers) did not necessarily use electronic mail less than did lower‐level respondents (clerical workers). The article concludes by discussing implications for theories of organizational media use and implementation of electronic mail systems.