Working In the New Way: A Preliminary Study of Media Synchronicity and Job Satisfaction

For many organizations, it is not feasible to expect all or some of the members to be able to meet physically. Members of organizations use different types of media to communicate information and to make decisions. In this paper, we completed an initial study that looked at how the type of media, specifically the level of synchronicity supported by the media, influenced individuals’ job satisfaction. We used two different levels of media synchronicity represented by two systems, virtual worlds and email. We predicted that individuals perceive greater job satisfaction when they use media higher in media synchronicity. We also predicted that presence and social presence would play a role this relationship. In a study consisting of 56 participants, we used vignettes to manipulate perceptions of using one of the two systems. We found support for our main hypothesis that when there is higher media synchronicity, individuals perceive greater job satisfaction.