Air Force Media Use and Conformance with Media Richness Theory: Implications for E-Mail Use and Policy

ISBN: 1288285833

Author: Adams, Heather L

Condition: New

Communication has become a major aspect of a manager's job. When communicating, they are faced with many choices of what media to use--some include face-to-face, telephone, e-mail, or written. Managerial effectiveness can improve if managers make appropriate media choices. Thus, it is important to study how Air Force managers perceive media and what kind of choices they are making based on those perceptions. Media Richness Theory suggests that media choices are affected by content reasons, situational reasons, and symbolic reasons. This study examined Air Force managers and found they conform highly with Media Richness Theory in their media choices. Their perceptions of media richness also closely agreed with MRT. However, higher level managers did not conform better than lower level managers as MRT would suggest. This study supports Media Richness Theory and the model used to apply it. The results indicate that Air Force managers are making effective media choices. This gives implications for using newer media such as e-mail and creating policy for such media which is a paramount issue today.