TY - GEN
T1 - Personal nature and ambiguity as sources of message equivocality
T2 - 29th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 1996
AU - Webster, J.
AU - Trevino, L. K.
AU - Stein, E.
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank John L. White for his research assistance, Michelle Gillner for her assistance with data collection, and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Information Systems at the Pennsylvania State University for their financial support.
Publisher Copyright:
© 1996 IEEE.
Copyright:
Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 1996
Y1 - 1996
N2 - Media richness theory has become one of the most cited, yet controversial, theories of media choices in organizations. In this paper, we refine and extend media richness theory by more precisely characterizing its key construct, the concept of message equivocality. We identify two sources of message equivocality, personal nature and ambiguity. We then present results from three studies that demonstrate their differential effects on media choices. Personal nature explains variance in media choices over and above that explained by ambiguity. Further, employees prefer to send personal messages via face-To-face meetings, telephone and voice mail, and impersonal messages via electronic mail, facsimile and memos. Implications for research and new media are drawn.
AB - Media richness theory has become one of the most cited, yet controversial, theories of media choices in organizations. In this paper, we refine and extend media richness theory by more precisely characterizing its key construct, the concept of message equivocality. We identify two sources of message equivocality, personal nature and ambiguity. We then present results from three studies that demonstrate their differential effects on media choices. Personal nature explains variance in media choices over and above that explained by ambiguity. Further, employees prefer to send personal messages via face-To-face meetings, telephone and voice mail, and impersonal messages via electronic mail, facsimile and memos. Implications for research and new media are drawn.
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U2 - 10.1109/HICSS.1996.493174
DO - 10.1109/HICSS.1996.493174
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85036968790
T3 - Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
SP - 34
EP - 40
BT - Information Systems - Collaboration Systems and Technology
A2 - Nunamaker, Jay F.
A2 - Sprague, Ralph H.
PB - IEEE Computer Society
Y2 - 3 January 1996 through 6 January 1996
ER -