Communicator Style, Media Use, Organizational Level, and Use and Evaluation of Electronic Messaging

Abstract

This article analyzes the role of communicator style, other media use, and organizational level in influencing the adoption, use, and evaluation of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in two organizations. Although overall, communicator styles have only a very weak influence, the relaxed and precise styles (in the hypothesized direction) and the friendly style (opposite to the hypothesized direction) do maintain some slight associations in multivariate analyses. Although the characteristics of media suggested by theories of social presence and information richness provide some foundation for these influences, other CMC characteristics and organizational contexts, as well as other approaches, also provide useful frameworks for understanding the slight role of communicator style.