The Message is More than the Medium: A Study of Media Theories and Impacts

The use of virtual teams is prevalent in organizations. Managers and CIOs face questions and issues regarding the organization and effectiveness of virtual teams. It is important for information systems researchers to study and understand virtual team and communication media issues. The objective of this research is to provide clarity to media impacts theories and better understand media impacts and team issues. An experiment involving a novel team task that required large amounts of information sharing and exchange was conducted. Using a combination of ANOVA and HLM, results from a sample of 152 individuals organized into 50 teams showed that the media itself did not significantly affect task performance. Teams communicated poorly or effectively in spite of the media. However, the media did have a significant impact on the time required to complete the task, on individuals’ satisfaction with the communication process, and individuals’ perceptions of their level of participation.