A study of media richness theory, and the impact of message valence on media choice of managers of the commander, fleet & industrial supply centers, U.S. Navy

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine whether or not relationships existed between media choice and equivocality, complexity, and effective communication under the purview of media richness theory (MRT). It also was conducted to address a gap in MRT, specifically, if valence of a message (positive or negative) had an impact on media choice. The target population included managers at the Fleet and Industrial Supply Center, Jacksonville (FISCJ) and a survey instrument was used to determine which communication mode was endorsed when choosing a media applicable to specific workplace scenarios presented. The four media choices given were face-to-face, telephone, letter, and e-mail. Eight separate workplace situations were presented (i.e., give an employee a bonus early, postpone a bonus, increase or decrease their salary, present an employee with an excellent performance appraisal or a poor assessment, and notify an employee that they would be receiving a promotion or a demotion). Managers at FISCJ were also asked whether they deemed these workplace situations to be equivocal (ambiguous), complex, and whether their choice of media improved organizational communication for each of these workplace scenarios. Chi-square and Kruskal--Wallis tests were performed on the data. Results of the statistical analysis indicated that managers did not deem any of these messages to be either equivocal or complex in nature. A significant finding was that in all workplace situations presented the communication mode endorsed by these managers in both positive and negative valence situations was face-to-face. Additional significant findings dealt with salary increases and decreases, promotions and demotions, when managers chose face-to-face to convey messages that had both a current and future impact to an employee's compensation. Conclusions drawn from this research study were significant to FISCJ because it did signify that managers strongly endorsed face-to-face to convey messages that contained content that would permanently impact an employee's current and future earning capacity. This improved understanding of organizational communication is an extension of basic media richness theory and reinforces that use of face-to-face media leads to improved communication since messages can be transmitted using both words and body language to enhance the entire communication process.