Message Delivery Performance Research Articles

Perceptions of leader charisma and effectiveness: The effects of vision content, delivery, and organizational performance

This study examined the effects of vision content, delivery and organizational performance on perceptions of leader charisma and effectiveness. Subjects included 304 undergraduates who were presented videotaped speeches by a bogus CEO of a software company. A 2 × 2 × 2 design was employed in which message content (visionary/non-visionary), delivery (strong/weak), and organizational performance (high/low) were manipulated. A modified, 7-item version of Meindl and Ehrlich's (1988) Romance of Leadership Scale (RLS-D) served as a covariate. A MANCOVA analysis indicated significant effects of delivery, content, and organizational performance on both perceived leader charisma and effectiveness. The RLS-D was unrelated to either dependent variable as a covariate. The results suggest that strength of delivery is an especially important determinant of perceptions' of leader charisma and effectiveness. Although speech content and organizational performance cues likewise accounted for variance in these perceptions, their effects were at times offset by those of delivery.

Situation and User Experience Influences on Voice Mail System Performance Evaluations

This paper presents results of a large evaluation of user perspectives on voice mail system performance as measured by message transmission delay. Over 1000 state employee respondents completed survey questions rating system speed (as presented in a standardized user interface questionnaire) and tolerance for message transmission delay in a variety of situational task contexts. Results of the study indicate that situation variables (message urgency, message context, and sender-receiver distance) affected user ratings of maximum acceptable transmission delay. In addition, user experience as measured by frequency of system use, but not length of exposure to the system, was a significant predictor of evaluations of what constituted acceptable voice mail message delivery performance. Users dynamically change their expectations and tolerances for “adequate” system performance based on system use and task demands. These results provide implications for future studies of diffusion of innovations and organizational implementation of new information technology systems.