Thesis
CHAPTER 2:
A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
"The future is likely to belong to those organizations that never stop asking, `How can we better organize and manage ourselves?'"
(Galbraith and Lawler, 1993.)
2.1. INTRODUCTION
What determine managers' choice of communication media? Why do managers prefer to use one communication media over another? Within the domain of information system and communication research there exists a substantial body of theories that explain manager's media choice. The purpose of this chapter is to review the theories on media choice and to identify the deficiencies of these theories.
2.2. EARLY RATIONAL THEORIES
The early theories on media choice tend to be from the rational and individual school of thought. The first theory is the social presence theory of Short, Williams and Christie (1976). This theory emphasises the psychological aspect of using communication media: media choice hinges upon the ability of the media to convey the nature of the relationship between the communicators. In this regard, communication media can be described as warm, personal, sensitive or sociable.
A few years later, Daft and Wington (1979) proposed a language variety theory to explain media choice. It evolved from the idea that certain media, such as painting or music, are capable of conveying a broader range of ideas, meanings, emotions compared to mathematics. Such media have a higher language variety. This led to the suggestion that language variety needs to be matched with the communication task. Equivocal and complex social tasks are said to require a medium with high language variety.
Obviously, this is not directly applicable to manager's choice as they do not use painting or music as a mean of communication, but this notion lays the foundation for media richness theory. This is where the discussion will turn to next.
2.3. MEDIA RICHNESS THEORY[1]
The previous two theories are fragmented and non-comprehensive. With media richness
A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
"The future is likely to belong to those organizations that never stop asking, `How can we better organize and manage ourselves?'"
(Galbraith and Lawler, 1993.)
2.1. INTRODUCTION
What determine managers' choice of communication media? Why do managers prefer to use one communication media over another? Within the domain of information system and communication research there exists a substantial body of theories that explain manager's media choice. The purpose of this chapter is to review the theories on media choice and to identify the deficiencies of these theories.
2.2. EARLY RATIONAL THEORIES
The early theories on media choice tend to be from the rational and individual school of thought. The first theory is the social presence theory of Short, Williams and Christie (1976). This theory emphasises the psychological aspect of using communication media: media choice hinges upon the ability of the media to convey the nature of the relationship between the communicators. In this regard, communication media can be described as warm, personal, sensitive or sociable.
A few years later, Daft and Wington (1979) proposed a language variety theory to explain media choice. It evolved from the idea that certain media, such as painting or music, are capable of conveying a broader range of ideas, meanings, emotions compared to mathematics. Such media have a higher language variety. This led to the suggestion that language variety needs to be matched with the communication task. Equivocal and complex social tasks are said to require a medium with high language variety.
Obviously, this is not directly applicable to manager's choice as they do not use painting or music as a mean of communication, but this notion lays the foundation for media richness theory. This is where the discussion will turn to next.
2.3. MEDIA RICHNESS THEORY[1]
The previous two theories are fragmented and non-comprehensive. With media richness