Table 2.4: Summaries of Studies on Media Richness.
| |||||
Studies Supporting MediaRichness Theory:
| |||||
| Papers
|
Main
Research Question(s)
|
Research
Methodology
|
Measure
of Media Richness
|
Subjects
|
Findings
Pertaining to Media Richness
|
| Daft,
Lengel and Trevino (1987)
|
To
examine why mangers often prefer face-to-face communications for problem
solving and decision making.
|
Subjects
were surveyed; They were asked to select communication medium (10) they would use for 60 incidents;
But the medium did not include the modern CMCs technologies.
|
Model
based, where the ranking is determined by the inherent characteristics.
|
95
managers in the petrochemical company (positions not specified)
|
* Majority of managers reported that they would choose face-to-face, a rich media, for incidents high in ambiguity |
| Russ,
Daft and Lengel (1990)
|
To
investigate three theoretical approaches (language variety, symbolic
interactionism, media richness) to organizational communication patterns.
|
Subjects
were surveyed;
They were asked to select communication medium (10, same as above) they would
prefer for 60 incidents.
|
Model
based.
|
108
managers from three divisions of a petrochemical company (positions not
specified)
|
* Managers tend to select face-to-face medium for highly equivocal communications and written media for clear, objective communication. |
| Trevino
et al (1987)
|
To
the process of media choice by using the theory of symbolic interactionism (in
addition to message ambiguity and situational determinants).
|
Subjects
participated in a structured open-ended interviews;
The purpose is to identify incidents (and the reasons) in which they use
different medium (face-to-face, telephone, email, written media).
|
Not
specifically asked; but indirectly inferred from the reasons supplied.
|
65
Upper level managers from 11 organizations
|
* Managers said that they are more likely to use face-to-face communication where the message to convey is ambiguous.
|
| Trevino,
Lengel, Bodensteiner, Gerloff and Muir (1990)
|
To
explore the relationship between individual differences (characteristics) and
media choice.
|
Subjects
participated in an experimental style study over two sessions in which their
media choice in relation to the two tasks (one high and one low) are
measured.
Media richness was measured through a separate survey of 40 professionals in a
computer centre.
|
Directly
measured; 40 management and professional personnel in a computer center of a
large university were asked to rank email on the richness scale using the
original criteria.
|
91
employed graduate business school students
|
* The media was ranked in the order predicted by media richness theory.
|
| Whitfield,
et al (1996)
|
To
examine the effect of divisionalization and centralization on the information
processing behaviour of managers- the use and importance of rich media
|
A
survey was sent to 293 firms listed on the 1991 Fortune 500. The instrument was
designed to measure frequency and importance of each media for both product and
country matter.
|
Use
media richness scores from prior study (ie. Zmud et al (1990)).
|
86
CEO
|
* The use of rich information depended on: (i) design parameters (centralisation and divisionalization; and (ii) type of strategic issues involved (eg. product or country).
ie. rich media is required to supplement the more equivocal tasks.
|
| Zack
(1994)
|
To
examine the use of electronic messaging vs traditional modes of communication
in an on going work group performing a cooperative task
|
A
multi-method field study that involves questionnaire, observation, email
capture and interview.
|
N/A.
|
18
senior/ middle newsroom editors in a large daily newspaper
|
* If the task has a low shared context (equivocal), then face-to-face is preferrable and more effective; whereas if the shared context is high, or if the message is factual, then computer mediated communication like email can be effective. |
Studies Showing Conflicting Evidence:
| |||||
| Papers
|
Main
Research Question(s)
|
Research
Methodology
|
Measure
of Media Richness
|
Subjects
|
Findings
pertaining to media richness/ media usage
|
| Cadwell
et al (1995)
|
To
examine how media use in organizations is affected by situation requirements
and media characteristics
|
15
government employees completing a survey in which they are asked to rank the
appropriateness of using different media (12) under 8 hypothetical situations
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
* Situations (ie. urgency of message, amount of message content, distance between communicators) have a significant influence on perceived media appropriateness. |
| D'Ambra
(1995)
|
To
empirically measure equivocality and media richness constructs.
To investigate the underlying assumptions and the applicability of media
richness theory to individual media choice.
|
The
media preference of an organization was investigated in 3 time periods through
the survey. In these survey realistic tasks (16)- generated by content
analysis- are used. Using these tasks the subjects are asked to rank the
communication media in order of preference.
|
Directly
measured using a self-develop scale based on the four original criteria.
|
42
managers in an insurance organization
|
* While managers do have a preference for rich media in relation to equivocal task, however this is not a linear relationship;
|
| Fulk and Ryu (1990)t |
|
Directly
measured
|
65
petrochemical researchers
|
* The richness rating from 65 petrochemical researchers indicated that electronic mail is ranked much lower than formal written documents. | |
| Lee
(1994)
|
To
examine the notion of richness in relation to email.
|
An
interpretive (based on hermeneutics) approach is adopted to understand the
user's media usage behaviour from their perspective.
|
N/A
ie. not really a measure of richness as such; rather, this paper seek to
provide an account of how "richness" occurs.
|
N/A
|
* Richness is found not to be an inherent property of email;
|
| Markus
(1994)
|
To
assess the power of information richness theory in relation to alternative
social theories;
To explain and predict manager's use of email.
|
A
multi-method investigation is used: (i) Subjects surveyed in relation to media richness;
(ii) For the social theories, archival data in the form of actual emails were
collected, interview with 29 persons (from chairman to administrative
assistants), and written comment to a survey.
|
Model
based; (based on Trevino et al, 1987)
But the interview approach provide a better understanding of manager's
subjective perception and reasons.
|
504
managers covering positions such as supervisors, managers, directors and vice
president in a risk management industry
|
* The result of the survey suggest that managers did not find email to be particularly rich;
|
|
Rice and Shook (1990)
|
To
investigate the relationship between individuals' job category, organizational
level and pattern/ level of media usage from information processing theory
angle.
|
A
meta-analysis of prior quantitative studies of media use in organization was
conducted. This is supplemented by individual-level statistical analysis of
media use in four organizations.
|
Not
measured; traditional ranking using the model is used as basis of comparison of
the results
|
N/A
|
* Media use patterns by job category and organization level were inconsistent with predictions from media richness theory |
| Schmitz
(1987)+
|
* Found that supervisor's system use provided a better prediction of an individual media use than the traditional features like accessibility and perceived utility. | ||||
| Steinfield
and Fulk (1986)+
|
* Found weak support for richness theory only;
| ||||
| Schmitz
and Fulk (1991)
|
To
investigate the effect of perceived media richness and social influences on the
uses and assessments of email.
|
Everyone
who had an email account in the organization was sent a questionnaire that
elicits information such as: actual email usage, perceived information richness
of media, usefulness of email, experience with email, and whom (in the
organization) they communicate with most using all media.
Post-survey interviews are also conducted with 27 respondents.
|
Respondents
asked to rank each media for their own work need on a 5-point likert scale
(from not at all rich to extremely rich). The respondents are asked to based
their perceived information richness on the four criteria of Daft and Lengel
(1984).
|
All
members of the organization that have an email account
|
* It was found that: (i) perceived email richness varied across individuals and covaried with relational social influences and with media experience; (ii) perceived email richness predicted individuals' electronic mail assessment and usage; (iii) social influences of colleagues and pervasive effects on others' media assessment. |