Elsevier

Information & Management

Volume 34, Issue 5, 30 November 1998, Pages 295-305
Information & Management

Research
Can communication medium limitations foster better group outcomes? An action research study

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-7206(98)00066-4Get rights and content

Abstract

Media richness theory has been an influential deterministic theory of communication media adoption and use since its development in the mid-1980s. However, there has been mounting evidence, particularly in the 1990s, that predictions based on the media richness theory do not always hold. For example, there has been evidence that a lean communication medium can be the choice of groups engaged in complex tasks, such as strategic decision making, even when richer media are available. The two main shortcomings of most studies aimed at testing the media richness theory have been: (a) an orientation toward controlled settings, which hampers the drawing of implications for the usually `non-controlled' situations found in organizations in general; and (b) a focus on media adoption patterns, which has led to lack of evidence regarding group task outcomes. Here, we go some way towards filling this research gap by providing evidence that non-controlled groups can voluntarily adopt a communication medium that they perceive as lean. Moreover, we show that, due to a perception of the limitations imposed by the medium, group members can adapt their behavior in order to overcome such limitations, producing outcomes whose quality is perceived as higher by them than in richer media. We studied five process improvement groups in a New Zealand university. The groups, which redesigned typical university processes, voluntarily conducted most of their interactions through an e-mail conferencing system developed by the author.

Introduction

The literature on the impact of group support technologies has grown steadily in the 1990s [7], reflecting their increasing use as tools to enable efficient communication in organizations 1, 26, 37, 38. This literature, however, has been filled with mixed findings [30], where success in the introduction and use of group support systems (GSSs) has been as commonplace as failure 6, 8. A number of theories and theoretical frameworks have been proposed which provide a basis for the understanding of these mixed findings. Examples of such theories are media richness theory 3, 11, adaptive structuration theory 32, 33, systems rationalism [23], genre-based communication structuration 41, 31, the affective reward suppression model [34], and the social construction influence model 14, 24.

Among these theories, one has been particularly influential among designers and users of group support technologies – the media richness theory – to the extent that several other theories and theoretical frameworks have emerged from attempts to show, in several cases successfully, that the media richness theory cannot be used alone to explain certain group support technology adoption and use patterns. Studies based on the social construction influence model, in particular, have provided some compelling evidence that the media richness theory loses its predictive power as the compatibility between the shared mental models of the users of a GSS grows. The studies by Huang et al. [14]and Lee [24], for example, suggest that in groups where there is a previous history of interactions among their members, `lean' media, such as e-mail, can be successfully used to reduce task equivocality (i.e. can be used for `rich' communication) – a finding that is inconsistent with predictions based on the media richness theory.

Here, we attempt to show that the media richness theory does not hold in some specific group situations. We try to do this by analyzing five computer-supported process improvement groups – that is, groups whose main goal is to improve sets of interrelated organizational activities [19]. These five groups have, when given the choice of using a range of media with varying degrees of richness, spontaneously decided to use one of the leanest available to them – e-mail conferencing. Moreover, the final outcome of these groups – process redesign proposals – was qualitatively perceived by the group members as better than those likely to be generated with richer media (these perceptions were based on the respondents' previous participation in face-to-face process improvement groups). These two research findings combined are contradictory to predictions based on the media richness theory.

However, our study takes a different path from most of the studies that aimed at disconfirming the media richness theory so far, by pointing to a new explanation for its findings – a form of constraint-induced adaptation. In addition, some elements of the adaptive behavior displayed by the groups in our study were remarkably similar; this may suggest a certain degree of generality in these elements. Finally, the type of adaptive behavior described here cannot, to our knowledge, be explained by any single existing media adoption theory or theoretical framework.

Section snippets

Media richness theory

Our discussion of the media richness theory, as well as some of the findings of this research, is based on the concepts of information and knowledge and their interrelationship. Kock et al. 21, 22present a detailed discussion of these concepts. For the purpose of our discussion, the following distinction between information and knowledge is drawn. While information is eminently descriptive, and can be seen as a collection of facts about the past, present, or future; knowledge is either

Organizational context

We studied five process improvement groups over a period of 7 months at the University of Waikato. Forty-eight staff and faculty from 15 different departments participated as members in the groups. All groups comprised members from at least four different departments, and redesigned cross-departmental processes (see Table 1). At the time this study was conducted, the University of Waikato had approximately 1,300 employees – 550 faculty and 750 administrative staff – all based in the same

Group process and structure

MetaProi, which stands for meta-process for process improvement, comprises a meta-process (i.e. a process to guide process improvement) around which a structured set of activities, guidelines, and graphical tools were developed to help the work of process improvement groups. This methodology draws on our previous work in process improvement projects [17]and on general normative literature in the field (e.g. 5, 13). MetaProi has been summarized in a manual [16], which was given to group members

Research method

The research method used was of the action research genre 9, 12, 15. Three main features must be emphasized: (a) it was low in control; (b) it relied on previous research findings as a basis for comparison; and (c) it relied on the perceptions by group members about face-to-face process improvement discussions in which they had been recently engaged.

Adaptation of the groups through stages

Groups consisted of 7–13 members, and lasted, on average, 41 days. Each group selected, analyzed and conceptually redesigned one or a few organizational processes. This section describes the evolution of the groups through four main stages.

Conclusion

We described in this paper a 7-month study of five process improvement groups in a New Zealand university. Those groups had from 7–13 members, and altogether involved 46 staff and faculty from 15 distinct university departments. The groups studied identified, analyzed, and conceptually redesigned one or a few processes. Redesign proposals were later implemented, resulting in process quality and productivity improvements.

The main goal of this paper was to show that groups can decide to adopt a

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the staff of the University of Waikato, particularly the members of the five groups, for their time and collaboration. Thanks are also due to Robert Wellington and Andrea Jenkins, for their help in the facilitation of some of the groups and in the interviewing of group members; and to Bob McQueen, for his valuable suggestions throughout this study and for generously providing research data obtained from his investigation of face-to-face business group meetings. An earlier

Ned Kock is a professor of information systems at Temple University. He has been working as a systems analyst and organizational development consultant since 1987. He is the author of the book Process Re-engineering, PROI: A Practical Methodology, published in Brazil by Vozes. His articles have appeared in Communications of the ACM, Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, Information Systems Journal, and Information Technology and People. Kock serves on the editoral boards

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    Ned Kock is a professor of information systems at Temple University. He has been working as a systems analyst and organizational development consultant since 1987. He is the author of the book Process Re-engineering, PROI: A Practical Methodology, published in Brazil by Vozes. His articles have appeared in Communications of the ACM, Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, Information Systems Journal, and Information Technology and People. Kock serves on the editoral boards of the Journal of Systems and Information Technology and Journal of Information Technology Cases and Applications.

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