Communication
Communicating virtually in a global organization
Céleste M. Brotheridge ESG UQAM, Montréal, Canada
Derrick J. Neufeld Richard Ivey School of Business,
The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada, and Bruno Dyck
I.H. Asper School of Business, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider the extent to which changes in communication media are associated with changes in the nature of manager-expatriate employee communications. Using an affordance lens, the authors explore how hierarchical level and communication medium interact to influence status dynamics manifested in communication attributes. Design/methodology/approach – The hypothesis was tested with a 2 (hierarchical level) × 3 (communication media) multivariate analysis of covariance (experience level) in a sample of 1,193 messages that were transmitted between managers and field employees in a global organization over a ten year period. Findings – The authors found significant interaction effects between communication media and hierarchical level on communication attributes such that changes in communication media intensified status differences between managers and their employees. Research limitations/implications – Communications media may be appropriated differently depending on one’s hierarchical level. Practical implications – Managers should adopt new communication media more consciously given their potential influence of how people communicate. Originality/value – Unlike many computer-mediated communications (CMC) effects studies that compare face-to-face communications with CMC or employ self-report questionnaires or laboratory designs with student samples, this study examines a complete set of manager-employee communications over an extended period of time. Keywords Expatriates, Communication technologies, Managers, Virtual work, Electronic mail Paper type Research paper
Organizations are increasingly adopting distributed structures such as virtual teams and remote work arrangements (Beranek and Martz, 2005). Fostering effective communication between managers and their employees in such settings is particularly challenging (Fiol and O’Conner, 2005). Unlike traditional workplaces where managers and employees communicate face-to-face, geographically dispersed work settings often involve multiple time zones, languages and cultures and the use of computer-mediated communications (CMC). CMC are at the heart of communications and, indeed, managing in virtual organizations since they enable managers and employees to bridge “space, time and cultural distances” (Riemer et al., 2008). But, their use is not necessarily neutral, given their potential to influence message transmittal (DeRosa et al., 2007). Consequently, there is ongoing interest in understanding how CMC, especially e-mail, affects how people communicate and how this influences an important aspect of organizational life: the manager-employee relationship.
Journal of Managerial Psychology Vol. 30 No. 8, 2015
pp. 909-924 © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0268-3946 DOI 10.1108/JMP-06-2013-0191
Received 25 June 2013 Revised 31 January 2014
16 April 2014 Accepted 10 July 2014
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/0268-3946.htm
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This study employs an affordance lens (Leonardi, 2011; Treem and Leonardi, 2012) to understand how communication media shape status dynamics in a manager- employee dyad in a global organization. It examines manager-employee interactions in a virtual organization as the dominant communication medium shifts from written letters to faxes and, finally, to e-mail over a ten year period. This study addresses several gaps in the media effects literature. First, few studies have compared the effects of two or more non-face-to-face media on communications (Walther, 2012). Media effects studies typically assume that face-to-face communications and CMC are available to organizational members. Although usually employed to supplement face-to-face communications, CMC may be the central communication medium employed in global organizations since it allows geographically dispersed workers to readily communicate with each other (Monge and Fulk, 1999). By “controlling” for face-to-face communications, this study provides a more accurate view of communications in global organizations.
Also, existing research tends to consider status effects in relation to team-based communications such as group decision support systems (Tan et al., 1998). Such research is typically undertaken in an experimental setting with students as participants. When undertaken in field settings, it focusses on the perceptions of organizational members and/or team decision making. Very little research has examined CMC within a manager-employee dyad in a natural setting (Zack and McKenney, 1995).
Finally, we know very little about how the manager-employee relationship plays out on a micro level (Fairhurst et al., 1987). Most studies solicit the perceptions of leaders or their followers. As argued by Fairhurst et al., this emphasis on perceptions and interpretations is subject to numerous weaknesses (e.g. social desirability, rating errors), provides little understanding of how leadership is exercised at the microstructure level, and loses the dynamism that is possible when organizations are studied in situ.
We begin this paper by presenting the theoretical grounding for our paper. We then consider the affordances of various communication media in relation to six attributes and how differences in these attributes reflect status dynamics. Next, we discuss the context and design of our study and the nature of the data set. We then present our findings and discuss their implications for understanding CMC’s introduction in organizations.
Theoretical perspectives There are two primary perspectives regarding the potential for the introduction of communication media to alter existing social arrangements: constructivism and determinism. First, the constructivist perspective suggests that managers and employees appropriate CMC in a manner that reinforces or echoes existing social structures and, thus, preserves the existing system of relations (Ducheneaut, 2002; Yates et al., 1999). In other words, introducing new communication technology essentially has no effect on status because existing assumptions about how work gets done and how hierarchical interaction should proceed are retained (Poole, 1999). Although support for this constructivist perspective is limited, two noteworthy studies are Gutek et al.’s (1984) self-report survey of the impact of new office information technology on employees’ task activities, and Arrow’s (1997) finding that introducing CMC in groups that had otherwise met on a face-to-face basis caused only a slight and temporary fluctuation in member influence structures.
Second, the deterministic perspective views technology as a catalyst of change in organizational functioning and, thus, posits that CMC has the potential to alter the
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nature of hierarchical communications that occurs within an organization (Lemke, 1999; Sherblom, 1988). However, it is unclear whether changes in CMC serve to reduce or widen any status differences between organizational members. Some argue that CMC results in status leveling because employees view the introduction of CMC as an opportunity to increase their influence levels, resulting in reduced hierarchical differences in communications (Bryant, 1988) and balanced participation. What little support exists for this status leveling perspective comes primarily from group decision-making experiments that found that lower and higher level participants contributed more equally in e-mail discussions than in face-to-face discussions (Chidambaram, 1996). Since these laboratory studies relied heavily on the use of ad hoc groups of students, their results may not be generalizable to ongoing manager-employee relationships dealing with real issues (Spears and Lea, 1992).
Others argue that, in contrast to the foregoing no effects and status leveling perspectives, the introduction of new communications media are associated with intensified status differences. According to this perspective, managers are expected to appropriate CMC in a manner that increases their oversight and control of remote operations, thus enabling them to makes decisions that may have previously been made by employees (Malone, 1997). Because CMC permits increased centralization of information and control by managers over distant sites, its introduction may erode employees’ relative status level. Consistent with this perspective, field research indicates that CMC participants draw on social contexts and norms in deciding how to communicate (DeSanctis and Monge, 1999), and, over time, occupational roles become even more salient in determining communication patterns (Saunders et al., 1994).
Affordances of communication media Hutchby (2001) and Boudreau and Robey (2005) bridge the constructivism-determinism gap using the notion of affordances. Gibson (1979) coined the term “affordances” as a way of explaining “how people and other animals orient to the objects in their world in terms of the possibilities that objects afford for action” (Zammuto et al., 2007, p. 752). Thus, each communications medium has features or characteristics associated with it (Walther, 2012), and individuals appropriate a medium based on what it affords or permits them to do. Organizational researchers have employed this concept as a means of understanding the effects of information and communication technologies (Conole and Dyke, 2004), social media (Treem and Leonardi, 2012) and flexible technologies (Leonardi, 2011) on social arrangements. Consistent with this perspective, our study explicitly examines the affordances associated with the various media, which is in contrast to constructivist and deterministic approaches that look at changes in communications media without giving much consideration to the qualities of the media themselves. Thus, unlike constructivism and determinism:
[…] technology is enacted from an evolving human agency, but it may also constrain that agency. […] Although IT [information technology] and organization features may exist independently of each other, their value for explaining organizational form and function comes from how they are enacted together (Zammuto et al., 2007, p. 753).
We propose that the status dynamics evident in hierarchical communications are informed by what a communication medium allows. The following discussion considers the affordances of various communication media in relation to six attributes: communications frequency; feedback immediacy; message length; information seeking; idea generation; and socio-emotional expression.
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Frequency of communications Relative to letters and faxes, e-mail allows people to communicate more frequently and more easily at less cost (Fulk and DeSanctis, 1999; Louhiala-Salminen, 1995). An increase in the frequency of employee initiated communication (i.e. an increase in the number of messages) has been associated with increased decentralization (Harrison, 1985) and trust ( Jarvenpaa and Leidner, 1999). Frequent shared communication amplifies the quality of the relationship and denotes active participation and an increased sense of control as well as a more open flow of information (Yum and Hara, 2005). However, higher status individuals tend to initiate more communications and participate more frequently than lower status members, regardless of the communication medium used (Bonito and Hollingshead, 1997; Weisband et al., 1995). Whereas status leveling would be evidenced by no hierarchical differences in communications frequency, intensified status differences would be demonstrated by more frequent managerial communications. The latter may increase managers’ knowledge of distant operations and, as such, provide them with more opportunities for involvement and control in these operations (Straub and Wetherbe, 1989).
Feedback immediacy Feedback immediacy refers to how quickly one person responds to a communication received from another person. Of the three media in our study, letters are likely to offer the lowest feedback immediacy. Although faxes may be transmitted reasonably quickly, because fax machines are typically not located in individual offices, faxes often take longer than e-mail to reach their addressee. In contrast, empirical studies have demonstrated the near instantaneous feedback potential of e-mail (Lucas, 1998). In sum, we expect feedback immediacy to be higher (faster) for e-mail compared with letters and faxes. However, given that e-mail permits relatively immediate feedback, it is also associated with an increased expectation of responsiveness (Slembrouck, 1998). Delays in responding to others’ communications may suggest that an individual is otherwise occupied or that the communication is not considered to be urgent or important. It is possible that higher status individuals may be less responsive to communications initiated by lower status individuals (and vice versa). When two parties are of relatively equal status, the responsiveness to each other’s communications is not likely to differ significantly.
Message length Faxes tend to be more succinct than written letters. The relatively high transaction cost of transmitting facsimiles constrains their length, the frequency with which they are sent and the ability to include lengthy informational documents (Louhiala-Salminen, 1995). Fax communications are likely to invoke Grice’s et al. (1975) maxim of communicative efficiency which favors brevity, with little attention paid to social niceties or explaining decisions or requests. However, the added cost of using fax vs letters may imply that whatever is being communicated by fax is more urgent (Thornton, 1993). E-mails tend to be significantly briefer than letters (Bertacco, 2007; Slembrouck, 1998). Since longer messages may be attempts to influence the receiver and engage in sense-making or sense-giving (Vuori, 2011), they would be expected from higher status individuals. Communications between two parties who are of relatively equal status would more likely be of equivalent length.
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Information seeking Due to their ease of access, savings in time and money, the opportunity to consult multiple experts simultaneously, and benefits related to asynchronous channels (Savolainen, 1999), information seeking behavior is likely to be more frequent in e-mails than in faxes or letters. Such behavior is often at the heart of arguments for CMC’s potential for either status leveling or increased managerial oversight of local operations. CMC can provide geographically dispersed employees with the global information they need to make decisions and do so fairly rapidly (Fulk and DeSanctis, 1999). However, it can also facilitate the centralization of decision making: it can “make distance less important in determining where decisions should be made by bringing information to decision makers wherever they are” (Malone, 1997, p. 28). While status leveling would be signaled by relatively equal levels of information seeking by employees and managers, higher levels information seeking by managers indicate that they may be involving themselves more frequently in local operations.
Idea generation Information seeking and idea generation represent proactive task management and involvement. Although the idea generation potential of letters has not been considered in past research, numerous group support systems studies have reported that electronic brainstorming is more effective in generating ideas than is face-to-face brainstorming (Baruah and Paulus, 2009). Thus, we anticipate that idea generation will be higher for e-mails relative to faxes and letters. Whereas mutual sharing of ideas at relatively equivalent levels indicates status leveling, relatively higher levels of idea generation by managers may be attempts to shape local operations.
Socio-emotional expression An important attribute of relationships and the communication media used to establish and maintain those relationships is the capacity to communicate emotions (Walther et al., 2010). This study examined primarily socio-emotional content; i.e., the sharing of basic personal and emotional issues. Research has linked a shift from synchronous to asynchronous communications with reduced socio-emotional content (Sarbaugh-Thompson and Feldman, 1998), which may have important consequences for relationship building and perspective taking. In contrast to faxes, which tend to be concise and task-oriented, letters and e-mails permit more socio-emotional content to be communicated. Relative to letters, e-mails tend to be less formal, more conversation-like, and they contain more humor, topic shifts and tangential asides (Slembrouck, 1998). Socio-emotional expression, combined with responsiveness, signal relationship building (Yum and Hara, 2005). However, managers are less likely than lower status employees to send socio-emotional content in e-mails (Ku, 1996). Given the foregoing, status leveling is indicated by relatively equivalent levels socio-emotional expression. Reductions in socio-emotional expression signal increased psychological distance and reduced social presence (Golden, 2000); i.e., the outcome of intensified status differences.
Based on the foregoing discussion, we present the following hypothesis:
H1. There are significant interaction effects between communication media and hierarchical level on communication attributes.
H1 posits that the introduction of CMC will be associated with specific communication attributes, and that their association depends on the hierarchical level of the communicator.
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Intensified status differences are indicated by: increasing volume and length of communications from managers, lower managerial responsiveness to employee messages, increased information seeking and idea generation by managers and less socio-emotional expression in communications from managers.
Methods Study context The Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is the cooperative relief, service and development agency of the Mennonite and Brethren churches in North America. It seeks to build mutually transformative relationships, peace, justice and the dignity of all people by sharing critical resources with those in need. MCC espouses a consultative, “listen and learn” approach to dealing with clients and seeks to carry out its mission in a “participatory, transforming process leading to greater dignity and self-reliance, greater vision and possibility, greater community and interdependence” (Mennonite Central Committee, 1999). With field operatives in 63 countries, typically with minimal financial, social or other support locally, senior managers recognize the importance of maintaining close communication ties with their distant staff. To keep expenses low, most communications between field employees and their North American managers are in written form. On average, they have a face-to-face meeting once per year. Until the early 1990s, MCC relied almost entirely on the postal system or couriers to deliver letters between its North American managers and its field employees. Letters could take weeks to arrive at their destination. Telephone was rarely used because of its high cost and logistical difficulties related to time zone differences. Reliance on postal communication declined with the introduction of facsimile technology and, later, the adoption of electronic mail. Today, headquarters (HQ) and field employees communicate almost exclusively via e-mail.
The specific research site for the present study is MCC’s Burkino Faso operation. During this study, MCC employed a Country Manager, approximately ten expatriate volunteers and 25 local staff in Burkina Faso. Burkina Faso was selected as the research site given its economic and political stability relative to other countries in which MCC operates. During a crisis, communications become more frequent (Danowski and Edison-Swift, 1985). Also, high levels of uncertainty affect managerial behaviors such as assertiveness and information search (Hannaway, 1985). Thus, CMC’s introduction was “relatively uncontaminated by other forms of social intervention” (Gutek et al., 1984, p. 235).
Data collection Through MCC’s archives, we accessed the complete set of written communications (n ¼ 1,198) across several media between the HQ manager and the field employee located in Burkina Faso over a ten year period. A total of 32.4 percent of these messages were sent by postal mail or courier, 34.4 percent by facsimile and 33.2 percent by e-mail (see Table I). Two shifts in media usage occurred. First, when facsimile technology was introduced, the growth in fax usage was accompanied by a decline in letters sent. The second shift began when e-mail usage became predominant. By Year 9, letter and fax communications had dropped off completely.
Measures Feedback immediacy. Feedback immediacy for each document was calculated as the elapsed number of days since the date of the most recent message sent from the
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remote location. For example, consider four messages beginning with Message no. 87, sent from the field employee to the HQ manager on June 1st:
• Message no. 88, HQ→field, June 11 ¼ 10 days since last message from field. • Message no. 89, field→ HQ, June 14 ¼ 3 days since last message from HQ. • Message no. 90, HQ→field, June 18 ¼ 7 days since last message from field.
Message length. The total number of words for each document was calculated using Microsoft Word’s word count feature.
Information seeking. We performed a detailed examination of the messages to identify requests for information. We included requests for specific information (e.g. “We’re beginning to feel concerned about the Hounde/Bombi placement, and because of that delay, we’re antsy about this year’s, I guess. Any hopeful news?”), rather than requests that were routine or social in nature (e.g. “How are you?”).
Idea generation. We examined the messages to determine the extent to which individuals generated new ideas. We included discussions that specifically addressed program-related issues or the strategic direction of MCC’s work in Burkina Faso (e.g. “It seems to me that MCC might wish to establish a longer term food assistance program agreement with FEME. Such an agreement would first of all enable FEME to not only count on MCC’s commitment, but also plan and strategize more effectively. Further, if MCC would do a three-or five-year commitment, then we would on an annual basis build this commitment into our total picture […]”). We ignored ideas generated about mundane things (e.g. travel arrangements or other day-to-day matters).
Socio-emotional expression. We analyzed messages for communication of a clearly social nature. We did not code any salutations, greetings or casual references to the weather. Rather, we included multi-sentence discourse that was not work-related such as lengthy discussions of personal health, spiritual concerns or family matters (e.g. “I write to you from the village of Zam, where I have been staying for the past few days and will be staying for several weeks to come. The day of a Burkinabe villager revolves around the very basics of life, and I imagine that its activity is much the same as it was one hundred or one thousand years ago. Yet amidst the mud huts, the bare women, the termite hills, the roaming goats, the nasal language, I forget that I am in Africa. It ceases to be the mysterious, romantic far-away land that it once was in my mind”).
Year Letter (n ¼ 388) Fax (n ¼ 412) E-mail (n ¼ 398) Total (n ¼ 1198) Field HQ Field HQ Field HQ Field HQ Total
1 58 43 5 4 0 0 63 47 110 2 49 43 19 30 0 0 68 73 141 3 24 12 32 44 0 0 56 56 112 4 21 19 35 55 2 0 58 74 132 5 16 10 21 48 8 0 45 58 103 6 26 16 37 30 2 2 65 48 113 7 18 14 32 19 14 25 64 58 122 8 11 3 0 0 16 44 27 47 74 9 2 1 1 0 28 123 31 124 155 10 0 1 0 0 33 101 34 102 136 Total 226 162 182 230 103 295 511 687 1198
Table I. Number of
documents sent using each
communication medium
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Organizational level. Messages were coded as originating from either the field employee or the HQ manager.
Experience with medium. We used experience with a medium as a control variable given that communication attributes may change over time as individuals become more familiar with a medium (Carlson and Zmud, 1999). To operationalize this variable, we first numbered each message chronologically for each medium. For example, the first letter sent in Year 1 was coded no. 1, the second no. 2 and so on until the last one in Year 10, no. 388. The first fax sent in Year 1 was no. 1, and the last fax sent in Year 9 was no. 412. The first e-mail sent in Year 4 was no. 1, and the final one in Year 10 was no. 398. In other words, experience for each message was calculated simply as the number of prior messages sent using the same medium. We then split the data set into three groups based on the median prior experience score (low prior experience; n ¼ 299, medium prior experience; n ¼ 598, high prior experience; n ¼ 300).
Results Preliminary analyses Table II presents the overall means and correlations for the study variables. Table III presents the mean scores for the communication attributes per communication medium for managers and employees. As indicated in Table III, facsimiles appear to serve as an approximate midpoint for half of the communication attributes (five of ten), as the transition from letter-to-fax-to-e-mail unfolded. With the introduction of e-mail, feedback immediacy lengthened for managers (from 6.1 to 15.6 days) and shortened for field employees (from 7.8 to 4.3 days). Similarly, whereas message length doubled for
Variable M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1. Feedback immediacy 8.52 13.35 – 2. Message length 584.98 940.11 0.08* – 3. Information seeking 1.40 2.28 −0.05* 0.05* – 4. Idea generation 0.10 0.30 −0.05* 0.10* 0.16** – 5. Socio. expression 0.19 0.54 0.02 0.14** 0.01 0.00 – 6. Medium – – 0.17** −0.02 0.07* −0.03 −0.15** – 7. Experience – – 0.20** 0.13** −0.03 −0.04 0.11** 0.10** – 8. Level – – 0.14** −0.13** −0.23** −0.10** −0.15** 0.27** 0.14** Notes: **p ⩽ 0.01; *p ⩽ 0.05
Table II. Descriptive statistics and correlations between study variables
HQ managers Field employees Letter Fax E-mail Letter Fax E-mail
Variable M SD M SD M SD M SD M SD M SD
Feedback immed. 6.11 7.48 5.87 7.96 15.66 21.25 7.84 9.74 5.69 7.83 4.31 5.94 Length 305.54 347.38 348.26 310.10 681.67 1178.28 960.20 1460.45 563.69 461.14 492.15 545.82 Information seeking 0.42 0.92 1.53 1.47 0.79 1.25 0.90 2.10 3.48 3.67 1.91 2.38 Idea generation 0.09 0.35 0.10 0.34 0.11 0.40 0.20 0.53 0.17 0.48 0.18 0.54 Socio-emot. exp. 0.09 0.39 0.17 0.47 0.10 0.41 0.45 0.80 0.16 0.49 0.09 0.35
Table III. Mean scores per communication medium
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managers (from 305 to 681 words), it dropped by approximately 50 percent for field employees (from 960 to 492 words). Also, information seeking doubled for both managers (from 0.42 to 0.79 incidents) and field employees (from 0.90 to 1.91 incidents). Although there were no significant changes in levels of idea generation with the introduction of e-mail for either managers (from 0.09 to 0.11) or field employees (from 0.20 to 0.18), the latter consistently generated more ideas that the former. Finally, although there were no significant differences in socio-emotional expression with the introduction of e-mail for managers (from 0.09 to 0.10), levels of this attribute dropped significantly for field employees (from 0.45 to 0.09).
We performed a χ2 test of goodness-of-fit to determine whether managers and employees used the three media to the same extent. Relative to employees, managers sent significantly fewer letters ( χ2 ¼ 84.75, p ⩽ 0.05) and significantly more faxes ( χ2 ¼ 86.86, p ⩽ 0.05) and e-mails ( χ2 ¼ 84.18, p ⩽ 0.05). Indeed, managers sent almost three times more e-mails than did employees.
Hypothesis testing The hypothesis concerned the presence of interaction effects between communication media and hierarchical level on communication attributes. It was tested with a 2 × 3 multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) in a sample of 1,193 documents. Independent variables were hierarchical level (managers, employees) and communication media (letters, faxes, e-mails). Experience level was the covariate. Dependent variables consisted of five communication attributes.
The overall MANCOVA revealed significant multivariate main effects for both independent variables as well as for the covariate and a significant multivariate effect for the interaction between communication medium and hierarchical level on communication attributes (see Table IV). With one exception, univariate results indicated significant main effects of both communication medium and hierarchical level on all communication attributes. The main effects of communication medium were such that: feedback immediacy was slower for e-mails than for letters or faxes; the length of e-mails was not significantly different than that of letters, but it was significantly greater than the length of faxes; and information seeking in e-mails was significantly more frequent than in letters, but significantly less frequent than in faxes. The frequency of idea generation did not vary significantly depending on the medium being used. Finally, the frequency of socio-emotional expression in e-mails was not significantly different from faxes, but it was significantly lower than in letters. The main effects of hierarchical levels were such that feedback immediacy was lower for managers than for employees; message length was greater for employees than for managers; and instances of information seeking, idea generation and socio-emotional expression were more frequent for employees than for managers.
Significant interactions were found for all DVs except idea generation. When e-mails are used as the communication medium, managers’ feedback immediacy drops and their message length increases, while employees’ message length drops significantly, and information seeking and socio-emotional expression drop significantly for both parties. Idea generation is not predicted by type of medium and hierarchical level when experience level is controlled. Thus, the hypothesis was supported (except for idea generation), and the results reveal the presence of intensified status differences. Relative to employees, managers sent more e-mails, were slower in responding to e-mails, sent longer e-mails, asked fewer questions, proposed more ideas, and did less
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M ul ti va ri at e re su lt s
U ni va ri at e re su lt s
V ar ia bl e
F df
(b et w ee n, w it hi n)
p Z2 p
D ep en de nt
va ri ab le
F df
(b et w ee n, w it hi n)
p Z2 p
H ie ra rc hi ca l le ve l
22 .7 8
(6 ,1 18 4)
< 0. 00 1
0. 10
F ee db
ac k im
m ed ia cy
(d ay s)
8. 82
(1 ,1 18 9)
0. 00 3
0. 01
L en gt h (w or ds /d oc )
23 .0 9
(1 ,1 18 9)
< 0. 00 1
0. 02
In fo rm
at io n se ek in g
92 .3 9
(1 ,1 18 9)
< 0. 00 1
0. 07
Id ea
ge ne ra ti on
8. 46
1, 11 89 )
0. 00 4
0. 01
So ci o- em
ot io na l ex pr es si on
17 .8 9
(1 ,1 18 9)
0. 00 0
0. 02
C om
m un
ic at io n m ed iu m
19 .0 2
(1 2, 23 68 )
< 0. 00 1
0. 09
F ee db
ac k im
m ed ia cy
(d ay s)
10 .5 5
(2 ,1 18 9)
< 0. 00 1
0. 02
L en gt h (w or ds /d oc )
4. 38
(2 ,1 18 9)
0. 01
0. 01
In fo rm
at io n se ek in g
78 .5 5
(2 ,1 18 9)
< 0. 00 1
0. 11
Id ea
ge ne ra ti on
0. 17
(2 ,1 18 9)
0. 85
0. 00
So ci o- em
ot io na l ex pr es si on
10 .1 8
(2 ,1 18 9)
< 0. 00 1
0. 02
E xp
er ie nc e
11 .0 1
(6 ,1 18 4)
< 0. 00 1
0. 05
F ee db
ac k im
m ed ia cy
(d ay s)
33 .8 2
(1 ,1 19 5)
< 0. 00 1
0. 03
L en gt h (w or ds /d oc )
15 .3 8
(1 ,1 19 5)
< 0. 00 1
0. 01
In fo rm
at io n se ek in g
3. 84
(1 ,1 19 5)
0. 05
0. 00
Id ea
ge ne ra ti on
1. 54
(1 ,1 19 5)
0. 21
0. 00
So ci o- em
ot io na l ex pr es si on
10 .2 8
(1 ,1 19 5)
0. 00 1
0. 01
H ie ra rc hi ca l le ve l×
C om
m un
ic at io n
m ed iu m
7. 91
(1 2, 23 68 )
< 0. 00 1
0. 04
F ee db
ac k im
m ed ia cy
(d ay s)
12 .4 2
(2 ,1 19 5)
< 0. 00 1
0. 02
L en gt h (w or ds /d oc )
9. 36
(2 ,1 19 5)
< 0. 00 1
0. 02
In fo rm
at io n se ek in g
13 .7 9
(2 ,1 19 5)
< 0. 00 1
0. 02
Id ea
ge ne ra ti on
0. 55
(2 ,1 19 5)
0. 58
0. 00
So ci o- em
ot io na l ex pr es si on
10 .1 2
(2 ,1 19 5)
< 0. 00 1
0. 02
Table IV. MANCOVA results of the interaction of hierarchical level and communication medium controlling for experience on communication richness
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relationship building via socio-emotional expression. For their part, relative to managers, employees sent fewer e-mails, were more responsive to e-mails, sent shorter e-mails, asked fewer questions, proposed more ideas, and shared less personal information.
Discussion This study responds to Walther’s (2012) call for research that compares how individuals use CMC and other forms of communication and that considers the relationship between various affordances and status differences within an organization. The results suggest that there are significant interaction effects between communication media and hierarchical level on communication attributes; in other words, the introduction of CMC was associated with intensified status differences. Thus, pre-existing communication and status patterns were not simply preserved, nor did they simply evolve with gradual changes (Poole and DeSanctis, 1992; Yates et al., 1999). Rather, significant variations in the nature of manager-employee communications occurred. Although some aspects of their communications were reproduced (idea generation levels, e.g.), changes in medium were associated with changes in the communications that occurred depending on who was doing the communicating.
Our study suggests that the use of communications media by managers and employees can serve as an important occasion for changing communication processes and, potentially, organizational outcomes (Sherblom, 1988). Even in an organization that seeks to be egalitarian such as MCC, the introduction of new communications media seemed to be associated with less egalitarian hierarchical relationships. Is this something inherent in e-mail? Does its immediacy without “face” serve to undermine egalitarianism?
Like many organizations, MCC was attracted to the promises of e-mail such as the capability to instantaneously send and receive messages, frequently stay in touch with remote personnel and easily share or broadcast information with multiple parties, all at a low cost. And yet, senior managers shared with the researchers some concerns about the communications media transition. For example, prior to e-mail, field employees would make significant decisions autonomously (e.g. purchasing a $5,000 jeep from their budget). The advent of e-mail, however, presented an opportunity to defer decisions to managers, who in turn may be enticed and, perhaps, provoked to micro-manage. As one manager put it, “E-mail is driving $100 decisions to the top.” He explained that, in the days of postal communications, managers had more time for reflective, strategic thinking, time to focus their attention on the oversized world maps lining their walls and to consider how to best allocate MCC resources to meet the needs of suffering people.
Limitations and implications for future research This study overcame a longstanding obstacle in CMC effects research: the lack of access to a complete set of employee/manager communications. Also, since the data were collected from a single organization, any potential variations due to an organization’s way of functioning were held constant (Barley, 1995). Finally, this setting served as a critical test of existing theory (Yin, 1989) given that MCC’s egalitarian culture is such that status dynamics were particularly unlikely to be found.
Although conducting research in a single organization offers the noted advantage, it also requires that the results be interpreted in light of this context. The extent to which the study’s results generalize to other settings is an empirical question that can
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only be determined in additional research. Examining CMC’s introduction in other global organizations would permit researchers to determine if the results were unique to the research setting or whether they can be replicated in more traditionally structured, hierarchical organizations in other sectors of the economy. It is possible that this study’s findings were an artifact of a regression toward the mean: MCC is relatively egalitarian, and a new technology prompted communication patterns that were more hierarchical. Perhaps, in hierarchical organizations, the introduction of CMC would be associated with a move toward more egalitarian communications.
It would also be interesting to examine the nature of the communication patterns and status differences that may be associated with the next wave of communications media, such as video conferencing technologies like Skype. As these technologies become more dependable and useful in international communication, and as environmentally and/or cost-conscious organizations become more hesitant to burn fossil fuels for international travel, it is possible that video conferencing will become more popular. If so, will the greater emphasis on “face” that such technology affords be associated with status leveling, intensification, or not have an effect?
Practical implications This study has several implications for the effective management of new CMC. What would have happened if managers in this study had used new communication media with a more deliberate consideration of its implications for their organization’s culture (Becerra and Gupta, 2003)? Perhaps the managers would have consciously reduced message volume and length or ensured that they were being responsive to employees’ messages, and so on. Research suggests that managers tend to use communication media frequently and repetitively in an overlearned manner, thus without deliberately thinking through their implications of communication and status patterns (Timmerman, 2002). Just as fish may be unaware of the water in which they swim, communicators become oblivious to the underlying meaning of how their communications are structured. Thus, managers must become conscious of what they want to accomplish when they are communicating, set precedents early on to ensure that their goals are met, and be more mindful of the ways in work context may influence the use of technology (Swanson and Ramiller, 2004). As found by O’Kane et al. (2007), although the introduction of e-mail has the potential to increase innovation through idea generation (Damanpour, 1991), information sharing, collaboration and participation in decision-making (Simonin, 1997) and to increase manager-employee connections, unless its use is consciously managed, there is a risk that it will serve primarily for information transfer and its negative aspects (such as information overload and time wasting; Hiltz and Turoff, 1985) will emerge.
Managers should not automatically expect the introduction of CMC to deterministically enrich or enhance communication patterns. As suggested by Ngwenyama and Lee (1997), a medium’s richness or affordances are not inherent qualities, but, rather, occur as a result of the interaction between the medium and its organizational context. It is not that e-mail is incapable of engendering status leveling, for example, but simply that harnessing those capabilities can be demanding and time-consuming.
Finally, this study reinforces the practical observation that socialization and relationship building must be continuous in a virtual organization. Organizations cannot simply rely on irregular face-to-face meetings to socialize employees about organizational norms and expectations for performance and collaboration (Oshri et al., 2007). Although task-oriented communication is especially important at the beginning
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of a collaboration, social-oriented exchanges become even more important as a means of maintaining trust, satisfaction and sense of belonging over time (Flammia et al., 2010; Rico et al., 2009; Zornoza et al., 2009). In summary, although Handy (1995) believed that touch was essential for trust, virtual organizations must strive to develop trust without touch (Zheng et al., 2002).
Acknowledgments Funding for this research was received from the Centre for International Business Studies and the I.H. Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba, and the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. The authors also wish to thank the Mennonite Central Committee for providing access to the data, previous reviewers of this manuscript for their helpful feedback (Deborah Compeau, Abhijit Gopal, and Sandy Staples), as well as Monique Grimard, Vern Klassen-Wiebe and Brenda Doerksen for their outstanding research assistance.
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Corresponding author Dr Céleste M. Brotheridge can be contacted at: celeste_brotheridge@yahoo.ca
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