Appropriateness of communications media use in organizations: situation requirements and media characteristics

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to examine media use in organizations as affected by situation requirements and media characteristics. This paper discusses the strength of four existing models describing communications media use in individuals and organizations. The paper also presents research which evaluated interactions of multiple situation variables affecting communications media appropriateness in a survey population. Participants rated die acceptability of each of twelve communications media in each of eight hypothetical organizational situations. Situations varied based on high or low levels of three factors: message urgency, amount of message content, and distance between communicators. Results indicated (1) situations have unique and significant contributions to media appropriateness; (2) appropriateness of media usage depends on the match between situation requirements and media characteristics, and (3) situation effects are more salient in some ‘situation-dependent’ media. Another survey of 1072 voice mail users confirmed die validity and reliability of these results.