Personal Nature and Ambiguity as Sources of Message Equivocality: An Extension of Media Richness Theory

and Christie, 1976). A current debate concerns the explanatory power of various theories, and in particular media richness theory (e.g., Kinney & Dennis, 1994; Markus, 1994). Media richness theory (Daft & Lengel, 1986) has been one of the most cited, yet controversial, theories explaining media choices. In this paper, we attempt to clarify media richness theory by more precisely characterizing its key construct, the concept of message equivocality. We identify two sources of equivocality as personal nature and ambiguity of the message, and then present results from three studies incorporating over 700 employees. Media richness theory has become one of the most cited, yet controversial, theories of media choices in organizations. In this paper, we refine and extend media richness theory by more precisely characterizing its key construct, the concept of message equivocal@. We identify two sources of message equivocality, personal nature and ambiguity. We then present results from three studies that demonstrate their differential effects on media choices. Personal nature explains variance in media choices over and above that explained by ambiguiry Further, employees prefer to send personal messages via face-to-face meetings, telephone, and voice mail, and impersonal messages via electronic mail, facsimile, and memos. Implications for research ana’ new media are drawn.