Productive Management CommunicationOnline and Face-to-face

• Choice of channel is dependent on technology, workforce characteristics, and information

• Face-to-face communication is always considered the most effective way whenever it's available

• Communication technologies become the alternatives of face-to-face as it is more convenient

• Controversy is made- Which is the best choice?

Choice of Communication Channel

Questioning from Management• How is the specific types of messages tran

smitted affects the effectiveness of the particular media used?

• How their employees are affected by the way in which information is provided to them?

Conducting a StudyPurpose:

• Determine employee perceptions about the types of information that can be

• PRODUCTIVELY conveyed through both electronic communication and face-to-face communication

1. Social Presence Theory (SPT)

2. Media Richness Theory (MRT)

3. Organizational Justice Theory

Guidelines: Theories

• Intimacy (eye contact, proximity and body language)

• Immediacy (verbal and nonverbal cues)

• This approach is the groundwork for many theories on new medium effects(Short, Williams and Christie,1976)

• Think about other persons, their characteristics, qualities and inner states(Short et al., 1976)

Social Presence Theory (SPT)

Non-verbal Communication:

(a) Gestures & Postures - slouching (b) Vocal Characteristics - tone(c) Expression & Eye Contact - attention, feelings(d) Appearance - grooming, physical attractiveness(e) Touching behavior - warmth, comfort

• "Face-to-face" shows the highest social presence

Social Presence Theory (SPT)

• Initially examined more traditional communication tools (information richness theory)

• Face-to-face meetings

• People want to overcome equivocality and uncertainty in organizations and a variety of media commonly used in organizations work better for certain tasks than others(Daft and Lengel ,1984)

Media Richness Theory (MRT)

Organizational Justice Theory• Perceived fairness of a communication exchange in the social interaction(Kupritz and Cowell,2011)

• Informational justice and interpersonal justice

• Consider the impact of media choice

• An additional reason for the effectiveness of particular channels

Organizational Justice Theory• Informational justice:

Focuses on explanations provided to people that convey information about why procedures were used in a certain way or why outcomes were distributed in a certain fashion (Colquitt et al., 2001)

Organizational Justice Theory• Interpersonal justice:

An individual is treated politely and respectfully by the decision maker while enacting procedures or communicating outcomes (Kupritz and Cowell,2011)

Employees Channel Preference • Employees perceive that each medium appears

to be more effective for specific types of information

E-mail

Face-to-Face

Participant• 24 participants from a bank institution are i

nvolved in the case study.

• Both face-to-face communication and e-mail are utilized between the participants and their management.

Result of Study

Critical Face-to-face Contact• Transmitting confidential (private) issues suc

h as HR issues, annual reviews, discipline

• Personal issues (like conflict) are always forbidden when using e-mail

• Using E-mail will make the conflict worse. (Smith, n.d.)

• Misinterpretation can occur

• Face-to-face communication is the best facilitates of SPT and MRT

• Preferable in uncertain and equivocal situations

• In our opinion, face-to-face communication facilitates the clues of non-verbal signals, avoiding the uncertainty in using plain text.

Critical Face-to-face Contact

Critical Face-to-face Contact• It enable multiple context cues to be present

• It is essential for developing trust and assessing the trustworthiness of the other person

• Face-to-face contact help building connection between individuals

• People hold more information about an individual (Dietl et al., 2012)

Critical E-mail Contact• Transmit the information that not deemed

confidential to employees

• To alert and remind the employees (Kupritz and Cowell, 2011)

• When the questions need to be answered ASAP

•  In touch with a person who is hard to reach via telephone ( Sandra, 2010)

Critical E-mail Contact• Transmitting confidential(private) issues su

ch as human resource reviews, discipline

• Personal issues are always forbidden when using e-mail

• Feedback/ Review should be received as personally

Misuse of E-mail• Negatively affect an organization

• E-mail misinterpretation and miscommunication

• Conflictual situations

• Decreased worker productivity

• Information is highly confidential could be forwarded on to other people (Sandra, 2010)

Understanding• The findings help organizations better

understand productivity of each channel used to convey specific messages

• The success in managing the effective selection of channel is crucial as it helps to maintain a balance internal communication environment

UnderstandingThe effectiveness in using particular channel

depend upon:

• the nature of the message• the goals you are trying to achieve• strength and weakness of the available

media

Individual thought• Selection of channel in conveying messages is vital

to build effective communication

• We communicate over email and phone, but even then, the sense of personal connection is never truly established or maintained through technologies

• However, we can't underestimate the potential of communication technologies

Conclusion• Nothing can replace face-to-face

communication.

• Non-verbal communication is crucial

• The choice of media is dependent on the types of messages transmitted