Effects of Communication Media on Intellective and Negotiation Task Performance

Among several theories to explain how different communications media affect task performance, media richness theory is one of the most frequently cited. Media richness theory proposes that task performance will be improved when task information requirements are matched to a medium’s ability to convey information. The main objective of this research is to examine the media richness theory in a laboratory experiment. The investigation focuses on the effect of four different communication media (text, audio, video, and face-toface) on objective task performance on an intellective task and a negotiation task. For the negotiation task, a social psychological factor, consonancy, was involved to examine the interaction effect with media on performance. The results of this study did not support media richness theory in general. Audio was the most efficient medium for the intellective task, but there was no significant difference among medium groups in terms of effectiveness measure. For the negotiation task, this study failed to support the combined theory of media richness and social psychology. There was no significant media-by-consonancy interaction on the negotiation payoff.