The study investigates the media selection behavior of directors (executives) and managers through the use of multiple methods. The findings indicate the directors were more "self" oriented in their media choices, more often choosing media based on access/ease of use criteria, while the managers were more "other" oriented, more often making choices based on media richness/social presence criteria. These differences have implications in the interpretation of communication from directors and managers to the rest of the organization and suggest a model for understanding the use of "rich" and "lean" communication media. The literature review of the study makes a major contribution by fitting together the multiple theories applied to the area and showing how conflicting results from all the established media selection theories make sense in different circumstances.
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Abstract from MIS Quarterly. This page is maintained by Susan Scanlan, who can be reached at sscanlan@csom.umn.edu. It was last updated on September 25, 1998.