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

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. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.