A cost benefit analysis of email, video conferencing and
face-to-face meetings in culturally diverse teams
Bachelor Thesis
Future Planet Studies, major Business
Student: Mark Kapel
Date: 27/06/17
Word count: 10800
Student number: 10776931
Supervisor: Mol, Stefan
Abstract
Culturally diverse teams are becoming a critical aspect for companies to sustain corporate advantages. However, due to the wider operation spawn of the organization and culturally diverse team members, they are confronted with new cultures, with their values and norms. This resulted in the increasing risks of miscommunication and misinterpretation between team members. Organizations use computer-mediated communication systems to limit these risks. This research investigates the costs and benefits of the use of email, video conferencing and face-to-face in culturally diverse teams. To answer this question a literature study has been done and interviews have been conducted. Results reveal a clear distinction between CMCS’s based on media richness, synchrony, task fitness and service and conditions. However, cost and benefits are relative concepts and are interchangeable applicable in different situations. Managers should be aware of the situation, tasks and people they are working with before choosing a communication channel.
Statement of originality
This document is written by Student Mark Kapel who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document.
I declare that the text and the work presented in this document is original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in
creating it.
The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of completion of the work, not for the contents.
1. Inhoudsopgave
2. INTRODUCTION ... 5 3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 9 2.1.1 VERBAL COMMUNICATION ... 9 2.1.2 NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION ... 10 2.1.3 SERVICES AND CONDITIONS ... 12 2.2 LITERATURE REVIEW OF EMAIL ... 15 2.2.1 Verbal communication ... 15 2.2.2 Non-verbal communication ... 16 2.2.3 Services and conditions ... 16 2.3 LITERATURE REVIEW OF VIDEO CONFERENCING ... 18 2.3.1 Verbal ... 18 2.3.2 Non-verbal communication ... 19 2.3.3 Services and Conditions ... 20 2.4 FACE-TO-FACE ... 22 2.4.1 Verbal and Non-verbal communication ... 22 2.4.2 Services and conditions ... 23 4. METHOD ... 24 5. RESULTS ... 27 4.1 SAMPLE ... 27 4.2 ANALYSIS OF THE INTERVIEW AND THE COMPARABLE LITERATURE ... 28 4.2.1 Email ... 29 4.2.2 Video conferencing and Face-to-Face meetings ... 34 6. DISCUSSION ... 37 5.1 MAIN FINDINGS ... 38 5.2 RELATION BETWEEN FINDINGS AND LITERATURE ... 39 5.3 LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER RESEARCH ... 42 7. CONCLUSION ... 43 8. LITERATURE ... 45 9. APPENDIX ... 50 8.1 TRANSCRIPTION OF INTERVIEWS ... 502. Introduction
The term globalization has been much used over the last decades. Through technological, economic and social development, it has become easier for people to travel around the world as compared with decades ago (Levitt, 1993). Through higher national wages the relative cost of transportation has decreased over the years which made it more attractive to travel
(Guscina, 2006). Distance does not limit people anymore, and thereby national and continental borders have been removed. The internet has made it possible to connect with people all over the globe. These changes have a great impact on the business environment. Organizations that explore global markets can capitalize on many opportunities, such as a bigger sales market, cost advantages for labor and materials, and more outsourcing opportunities (Smite, Kuhrmann & Keil, 2014). But not only cost-related benefits are available; globalization opens new possibilities for organizations to broaden their human capital. Online application and virtual team composition have made it much easier for organizations to hire people, with each of them having different skills that could have value for the company (Cox & Blake, 1991). Even organizations that are not actively searching for cultural diversity are dealing with this. According to Taylor (1994), workforces in many nations are becoming more diverse since the 1990's. The emphasis on cultural diversity does not only increase due to the abundance of more culturally diverse workforces but also because organizations direct their strategies more often to the global market (Taylor, 1994). The success of these strategies will greatly depend on the understanding of their market (Taylor, 1994). A culturally diverse workforce could have a positive impact on understanding these markets and may indeed form the base for creating a competitive advantage (Taylor, 1994). Organizations may also benefit from establishing strategic alliances with other international companies (Rashmi, 2013).
Globalization does not only provide advantages and opportunities for organizations but also challenges. Due to the wider operation spawn of the organization, they are confronted with new cultures, with their values and norms. Organizations have to respond to these new ‘rules' to fit these markets (Johnson & Arunthanes, 1995). Not only external factors are affected by the global approaches to an organization, but also the internal structure of organizations have changed. Managers have discovered that cultural diversity may bring value to organizational processes (Cox & Blake, 1991; McLeod, Lobel & Cox, 1996). Cultural diversity can be defined in three distinctive types: separation, variety and disparity (Harrison & Klein, 2007). Separation refers to the composition of difference in position and belief; variety relates to the difference in knowledge, experiences and background; disparity could be best described as differences in power. Since this research is mostly focused on cultural differences, variety will be the most fitting description of diversity. The number of organizations that operate with a culturally diverse workforce is rising (Taylor, 1994). Hiring employees that originate from different cultures leads to a broader set of perspectives on problem-solving, which could eventually result in higher profits (Watson & Michaelsen, 1993).
However, cultural diversity does not only have advantages for companies but also comes with challenges. One of the greatest difficulties is communication among culturally diverse team members (eg., Harrison & Klein, 2007; Nataatmadja & Dyson, 2005; Watson, Kumar & Michaelsen, 1993; Kayworth & Leidner, 2000). Linguistic differences, such as different languages or accents, and cultural differences, such as a difference in values, norms or cultural context, could lead to miscommunication, negative impact on team relations and could eventually result in poor team performances. Therefore, managers should be concerned how to manage communication among their team members.
Due to globalization, virtual teams are becoming more significant. Virtual teams are teams that consist of members across different locations that communicate with electronic devices (Nataatmadja & Dyson, 2005). The use of these electronic devices allows companies to set up groups with members at remote locations. Remote teams have become crucial
because more companies are operating in multiple locations and their human resources are not limited to but one place (Nataatmadja & Dyson, 2005).
Although, virtual teams make it able for businesses to be globally flexible, they also come with some challenges. Some forms of virtual communication, such as email, do not offer non-verbal communication at the level of face-to-face communication (Shachaf, 2005). Facial expression, emotional cues, body language, and other signs that indicate social context can be lost when the medium does not provide these communication services. The lack of these social cues could increase the chances of miscommunication (Henderson, 2005).
Cultural diversity will increase the effect that is caused by the absence of these cues. Cultures that give a higher value to social context will be more disrupted as compared with cultures that do not value context as much (Earley, 2002).
For the management of team communication, virtual teams make use of Computer-mediated Communication Systems (CMCS). CMCS’s are sociotechnical systems that support and enhance the communication-related activities of team members engaged in computer-supported cooperative work (Warkentin & Sayeed, 1997). Two often used CMCS's are e-mail and video conferencing. These systems could facilitate the communication flow between team members. Besides the communicating features that these systems provide, they also influence the relationships between members of the team, have additional applications, such as
translation programs or storage applications, and could be cost-beneficial for the organization (DeLuca & Valacich, 2006; Shachaf, 2005).
This paper will investigate the communication channels e-mail and video
conferencing. The features of the channels will be discussed and how these may be expected to influence the quality of communication between culturally diverse virtual team members. As a reference channel, e-mail and video conferencing will be compared to face-to-face communication. Different theories will be used to distinguish between those attributes of the different channels that are likely to have a negative or positive influence on team
communication. The following research question will be answered: What are the costs and
benefits of the communication channels email, video conferencing and face-to-face meetings in culturally diverse teams. In order to address this question, interviews will be abducted with
managers that supervise culturally diverse virtual teams, to indicate how these channels work in practice.
By investigating the communication channels, certain important practical and social concepts come to play. These could influence communication efficiency among team members by virtue of practical advantages or disadvantages. The concepts that will be discussed in this research will be based on the three overarching themes: Verbal
communication, non-verbal communication and services and conditions. The third theme will contain the main services of the CMCS’s and in which situations they are most often used. This theme will also discuss the related conditions an organization should provide to maintain the CMCS operational, such as individual and organizational expenses.
The literature will be used to establish how the concepts may impact the quality of communication in teams and the abducted interviews give an implication how they work in practice. Furthermore, in the discussion section the main findings of the interviews will be summarized, the findings will be compared to the literature, unexpected findings will be explained by extended or alternative literature, possible limitations will be addressed and
suggestions for further research will be given. In the end, there will be a conclusion of the research question.
3. Theoretical framework
2.1.1 Verbal communication
In this paragraph, the concept of verbal communication will be elaborated according to various literature.
Language diversity is often the first thing which comes to mind when discussing culturally diverse team compositions. Members of virtual teams often originate from different countries or regions and therefore differ in mother tongue or accent, which are collectively referred to as differences in surface-level communication (Tenzer, Pudelko & Harzing, 2014). Surface-level diversity is the most detectable difference in language diversity, such as diversity in mother tongue or accent (Tenzer et al. 2014). Multinational teams often have a leading or official language, for example, English. Team members that are less skilled or uncomfortable to speak the leading language have a higher chance to feel restricted and reduced compared to more expert speakers (Tenzer et al., 2014). Members could express these negative feelings by avoiding collaboration with the more experienced speakers. Members that are less skilled or completely unfamiliar with the official languages of the team tend to group up with fellow less advanced speakers (Tenzer et al., 2014). The theory of similarity-attraction also supports this. According to this theory, similar attributes such as age, value, personality, or language, enhance cohesion and limits conflicts (Harrison & Klein, 2007). So, when members do not have similar attributions, they may be prone to tend to avoid collaboration which is likely to enhance the potential for conflict. Other, more straightforward complications of languages
diversity, are miscommunication through translation or accent. Information can be lost when messages are interpreted incorrectly (Henderson, 2005; Shachaf, 2005).
In the next paragraph non-verbal communication will be explained according to compatible theories and concepts.
2.1.2 Non-verbal communication
Culturally diverse teams do not only deal with verbal communication. Non-verbal communication also has a significant influence on team effectiveness. Non-verbal communication or emotional communication is more complex compared to verbal communication (Heller, 2010). As already is established in the introduction, non-verbal communication comes in many forms and is of great importance to communication effectiveness in culturally diverse teams (Henderson, 2005). Examples of non-verbal communication are body language, facial expression and volume intensity (Heller, 2010). These forms of communication are labelled as visual and vocal cues. According to Heller (2010), visual cues enable members to easier develop team relations through social presence. Socials presence refers to the ability of a communication channel to allow a member to feel present in a group interaction (Warkentin et al., 1997). The extent to which a communication medium allows social presence is measured through media richness. According to the media richness theory, media richness refers to the degree to which a medium provides contextual support, through visual and vocal cues, for interaction (Setlock, Quinones & Fussell, 2007). A medium that does not allow these signals, through lack of applications, is considered to be a lean communication medium (Setlock et al., 2007). Lean communication media are deemed to allow less social expression because fewer verbal and vocal cues can be transmitted
(Warkentin et al., 1997). Social presence is associated with higher team collaboration because members easier start a dialog and learn about the team members’ background when the other
member is socially present (Heller, 2010). The increase in connectivity could eventually build up trust between members which positively effects team relations (Heller, 2010). Lack of social presence and therefore less connectivity is associated with negative communication tones and hostile dialogues which leads to depersonalization of members (Warkentin et al., 1997).
Besides visual and vocal cues, communication could also be influenced by cultural background. Personal background affects information interpretation (Earley, 2002;
Nataatmadja & Dyson, 2005). According to the theory of cultural context, high-context communication is coded in more abstract terms and linked to emotional context (Earley, 2002; Nataatmadja & Dyson, 2005). People of high context cultures are more sensitive to how a message is communicated, in what situation is it said, and what face-expression connects to the words (Earley, 2002; Nataatmadja & Dyson, 2005).
In contrast, low context communication is more direct and concrete. People of low context cultures are more concerned about the precise data that is communicated, rather than how it is communicated Earley, 2002; Nataatmadja & Dyson, 2005). All these concepts of communication; context, visual, and vocal cues, feedback are all brought together in the media richness theory. This theory states that media that could transfer most of the concepts, mentioned above, can be considered most rich (Thomas, 2013).
However, richness of media is associated with all of these concept above, it is not directly influencing effective communication (Klitmøller & Lauring, 2013). In this study, effective communication refers to communication with the least amount of
miscommunication and misinterpretation possible. For example, people of low context culture prefer leaner media because they are more concerned with precise data. So, they will use a leaner media which will be more effective than people of high culture which prefer richer media (Klitmøller & Lauring, 2013). Besides, media richness also has a negative effect
on effective communication when there is lack of languages communality. According to Klitmøller and Lauring (2013), there is negative relation between communication
effectiveness and rich media combined with lack of languages communality. Furthermore, task fitness of the media does play an important role in communication. This will be elaborated on in the next paragraph.
2.1.3 Services and conditions
As already is established in the introduction, virtual teams offer businesses various practical advantages, but also challenges. In this paragraph, the functional benefits and cost of virtual communication will be discussed.
The first two advantages of virtual communication are already introduced in the introduction section, geographical and temporal proximity. Some forms of CMCS's enable the organization to set up virtual teams consisting of members that are dispersed over different locations. As already established, the ability for an organization to set up remote team enables them to expand their labor pool (Smite et al., 2014). Human capital can be hired from
different regions and will form teams with members of different cultures as well. According to the 'value-in-diversity' hypothesis, cultural diversity in groups promotes creativity, innovation and problem-solving (Cox & Blake, 1991). Multiple points of view in a team stimulates ideas and assists in resolving complex problems.
Besides the advantages of remote teams, they also come with some challenges. According to Smite, Kuhrmann and Keil (2014), management of geographically dispersed teams need to address the problems of shared vision and individual responsibility. It is essential for virtual team effectiveness that there is a common view among the members, a desire to reach the same goal (Smite et al., 2014). Team members need to collaborate as intensively through CMCS tools as when the communicate face-to-face. Frequent
communication between the team leader and team members about the institutional agenda increases a shared vision (Farmer, Slater & Wright, 1998). The creation of shared vision can be obstructed by destructive competition between members or teams (Smite et al., 2014). Members of multinational teams could create the feeling that they lack individual
responsibility and recognition if they are far dispersed from the rest of the team and get limited recognition for the work they do (Smite, Kuhrman & Keil, 2014). The feeling of injustice could lead to competition between members or teams and a concomitant loss of the team vision. Management should manage these feelings to minimize the risk of destructive competition (Smite, Kuhrmann & Keil, 2014).
The second characteristic of various types of CMCS is temporal proximity. Some CMCS's systems enable asynchronous communication. Synchrony refers to the need of sender and receiver of the message that uses the tool being active at the same time (DeLuca & Valacich, 2006). An asynchronous CMCS could be a very useful attribute for virtual teams with members that operate in different time zones. The sender could leave a message for the receiver, and the receiver could read that message when it seems fit to him or her (DeLuca & Valacich, 2006). The use of asynchronous CMCS's could also have a positive effect on members with little confidence in their languages skills. Members do not have to reply directly when receiving the message but could rehearse their response before transmitting (DeLuca & Valacich, 2006).
However, the ability to respond when one seems fit also pose some critical challenges. Because members are not forced to return immediately, responses could take a long time. Complex discussions could take a lot of time (DeLuca & Valacich, 2006). According to the Time, Interaction and Performance theory, the balance between conveyance and convergence is vital in deciding if asynchronous or synchronous devices should be employed (DeLuca & Valacich, 2006). Conveyance of information, or exchange of information, is the more
straightforward form of communication and is better suited to transmit no canonical data Klitmøller & Lauring, 2013). Canonical data is already defined and simple to understand. Canonical data is predominantly hard data which can be used without extensive consultation (Klitmøller & Lauring, 2013). For these tasks asynchronous communication would be more effective (DeLuca & Valacich, 2006). Members do not need much feedback on their results so responses could be received anytime. For more complex and equivocal data where many visions of the problem are required, and feedback is imperative, highly synchronous CMCS’s would be more preferred (DeLuca & Valacich, 2006; Klitmøller & Lauring, 2013).
Finally, the expense related to the communication channel should be taken into consideration. According to Nardi and Whittaker (2002), face-to-face communication has higher cost in terms of time and money compared to computer-mediated communication systems. Business trips, hotel costs, food are just some of the many expenses organizations should take into account when organizations consider a face-to-face meeting between geographically diverse team members. Secondly, management should evaluate if it is necessary to organize a face-to-face meeting. Questions should be asked if a 10 a 15-minute conversation about a less important subject worth the expensive trip? Probably not, and the organization should consider computer communicated communication.
Besides, face-to-face meetings do not only have monetary expenses. According to the research of Nardi and Whittaker (2002), team members did speak of emotional-expenses. Emotional-expenses could be described as the effort that is needed to prepare the meetings (Nardi & Wittaker, 2002). Examples of emotional expenses are preparation time, jet lags, staying away from home for a long time. Emotional expenses could have an exhausting effect on the team members, which can lead to avoidance of the meetings (Nardi & Whittaker, 2002).
CMCS systems have their cost related issues. However, these vary from system to system and will be discussed in their separate section.
In the next paragraph, email, video conferencing and face-to-face communication will be discussed and linked to the theory.
2.2 Literature review of email
2.2.1 Verbal communication
Email is the first channel that will be investigated. Electronic mail has become a very popular communication channel for both multinational organizations and smaller businesses (Byron, 2008). Some functional and social advantages explain the proliferation of the use of email. The first concept of communication that was already discussed in the previous paragraph is verbal and non-verbal communication. One of the challenges in multicultural teams were the difference in mother tongue or accents, or put differently; the difference in surface level communication (Tenzer et al., 2014). As is established, asynchrony can be used to limit the effects of surface-level differences through longer response times. According to the theory of synchrony and asynchrony, email can be considered an asynchrony
communication system because sender and receiver do not have to be active at the same time. It is assumable that the extra time is preferable for members with little confidence in their language skills because it provides them more time to comprehend and compose a response (Noll et al., 2010)
Secondly, the use of email should has a positive effect on diverse team collaboration according to the theory of similarity-attraction (Harrison & Klein, 2007). Email does not enable sender and receiver to see or hear visual and vocal cues which empazise personality traits, such as age, gender, or cultural background. Therefore, the social presence of the messenger and receiver will decrease, and less personal attributes can be given to them
(Shachaf, 2005). The impersonality will lead to a status equalization between sender and receiver (Shachaf, 2005). Which will lower the risk of attribute differences leading to avoidance of collaboration. However, it also does not lead to collaboration enhancement through similarity of attributes either (Shachaf, 2005).
The last verbal challenge of communication for diverse teams are the possible mistranslations between members. Most email systems do have applications that enable the user to translate their message to the target language (Shachaf, 2005). This application could limit miscommunication between members.
2.2.2 Non-verbal communication
For non-verbal communication, email is very limited. Email can be seen as a leaner medium than for example face-to-face media. According to the media richness theory, media richness refers to the extent to which a medium provides contextual support for interaction (Setlock et al., 2007). Seen from this perspective, there is a higher potential for a message sent by email to be misunderstood than send by a face-to-face medium. This is because there is a lack of facial expression, volume intensity, body language or any social context (Byron, 2008). The risk of misunderstanding increases when a message is sent with underlying meanings, such as sarcasm (Earley, 2002). If we compare this to the theory of high and low culture context, cultures with low context would be more content with email than high context cultures (Earley, 2002). The lack of non-verbal cues makes the message more straightforward; less context can be given to the information that is translated.
2.2.3 Services and conditions
Email as a communication channel also provides some practical benefits and challenges. The first practical concept is geographical proximity. Through the use, email sender and the
receiver of a message do not need to be in the same location. This gives organizations that use email the ability to form teams that are geographically dispersed (Shachaf, 2005). The use of email offers some positive additions regarding the challenges of geographical proximity. One of the challenges of geographic diversity was the risk that members would lose a shared vision of the institutional agenda when there was no frequent communication between leader and team members (Farmer, Slater & Wright). According to Jackson Dawson and Wilson (2002), email is one of the most frequently used communication channel media by managers, due to the small recovery time of email communication. Therefore, more communication is possible in a shorter time. Managers could more easily update the team members of the institutional agenda and keep everybody on the same track (Jackson et al., 2002).
The second practical issue that is discussed is the ability for sender and receiver to be active at separate times. Email can be categorized as an asynchronous media tool (Setlock et al., 2007). Since a message that is transferred by email can be stored, the sender and receiver do not have to be active at the same time. This could be particularly important for a dispersed team where members operate in different time-zones because members do not have to take into account if the other party is operational (DeLuca & Valacich, 2006). They could send that message, and the receiver could open it when he/she sees fit.
One of the challenges regarding asynchronous media is the risk of long discussions (DeLuca & Valacich, 2006). The previously mentioned advantage of the ability to respond later for members that are less experienced in the languages also has a downside. Because members have the choice to respond when they best seem fit, a discussion could be very time consuming when members are passive in their responses.
The last practical concept that is discussed in the previous paragraph is the cost of the media. To illustrate the monetary cost of the use of email systems, Jackson Dawson and Wilson (2002) have conducted the following formula. This method approaches the total
expenses of email use, by multiplying: total minutes*email user*average employee wage per minute. In their research, an example was given of an organization with 120 members that used an email system. The total costs were estimated at 1500 pounds per day. However, the formula does not provide elaboration on installing cost, errors and other external costs. These questions will be asked during the interviews.
2.3 Literature review of Video conferencing
The second channel that will be investigated is video conferencing. Video conferencing can be defined as systems that are capable of transmitting video and audio over distances to establish a communication channel (Daley-Jones, Monk & Watts, 1998). In the early settings of video conferencing, the term often referred to purposefully designed rooms that were equipped with cameras. In these rooms, a group of people could have meetings with other groups that were sitting in a similarly designed room at a remote location. These were mostly very expensive investments. However, over the years the term has been applied to a wider range of cheaper desktop systems (Lu, Zhao, Kuipers & Mieghem, 2010). Systems such as Skype, Microsoft office live meeting, Spier and Ventura and Silver, which enable users of camera-equipped PC's to video communicate with other parties at a remote location, can also be confirmed as video conferencing (Lu, Zhao, Kuipers & Mieghem, 2010). These
applications do differ in a number of participants the system could handle, overhead cost and quality (Lu, Zhao, Kuipers & Mieghem, 2010). However, the overall condition of video conferencing equipment is the ability to transmit real-time pictures and audio between two parties at remote locations so that these parties can communicate.
2.3.1 Verbal
As already is established, miscommunication through mistranslation is a major challenge in virtual teams. As is established in the previous paragraph, because email is an asynchrony communication channel and users do not have to reply immediately. Translation applications make it possible for email users to translate a received message and comprehend languages correct responses. But video conferencing is synchronous and participants have to actively respond to each other and therefore is little time to translate messages. However, some video conferencing media, such as Skype, do offer translation. According to their official website (www.skype.com), users can translate their received messages to their preferred language, and a written translation will appear on the screen. However, these applications do rely on constant internet connections and equipment. Conditions for video conferencing will be discussed in the practical section.
Secondly, according to the similarity theory video conferencing should have higher influences of personal attributes (Harrison & Klein, 2007). Since video conferencing makes it possible for participants to see and hear each other, more personal attributes come to the surface. However, most systems only offer facial communication. Therefore these attributes will only be limited to facial attributes (Lu, Zhao, Kuipers & Mieghem, 2010). When participants have similar characteristics they will, according to the theory, tend to enhance collaboration. Contrarily, when these attributes differ there should be a higher avoidance of cooperation between the parties.
2.3.2 Non-verbal communication
Video conferencing offer many more features to increase non-verbal communication between members as compared with email communication. According to the media richness theory, video conferencing could be characterized as more media rich than email (Setlock et al., 2007). Video conferencing makes it possible for sender and receiver can see and hear each
other at remote places (Daly-Jones, Monk & Watts, 1999). So, visual and vocal cues can be transmitted such as facial expression, body languages, and voice intensity, thereby adding contextual support (Daly-Jones, Monk & Watts, 1999). The receiver of the message could more easily spot the underlying message, the importance of the message through voice intensity or body language and could better transmit their feelings (Setlock et al., 2007).
Furthermore, video conferencing is a synchronous CMCS. Therefore, it gives the ability for the speaker to see their audience gives insight into whether the message is understood and is agreed with, or not. When the speaker indicates that the public has lost track of the context, the speaker could immediately clarify the content. The signals from the receiver can be identified as feedback (Daly-Jones, Monk & Watts, 1999). Feedback may also be provided in the opposite direction, if the receiver of the message does not fully understand or disagrees with the content, clarification can be requested (Daly-Jones, Monk & Watts, 1999). These are all concepts of feedback between sender and receiver. Actions through (non)-verbal clues provide a clarification of how the discussions are going and if it needs action to optimize them. According to the theory of high and low context culture, video conferencing would better fit people of a high culture context since it allows more context to messages. This is preferable for people of high context cultures. (Earley, 2002).
2.3.3 Services and Conditions
Comparable to email, video conferencing has the advantage that members do not have to be geographically proximate. However, video conferencing is in some situations not as flexible as email (Daly-Jones, Monk & Watts, 1999). As is established in the introduction of this paragraph, some video conferencing rooms require high investments and are bound to a certain location. So, organizations could only communicate with places that have the same rooms, capable of establishing a video connection (Daly-Jones, Monk & Watts, 1999).
However, over the years cheaper substitutes, such as Skype, made video conferencing more portable. These substitutes made it possible for people to establish a video connection over more remote places and with little monetary investment (Lu, Zhao, Kuipers & Mieghem, 2010).
As already is established, video conferencing can be classified as a synchronous communication channel; parties have to be active at the same time when communicating (DeLuca & Valacich, 2006). Meetings between team members that interact across different time-zones could create scheduling problems. Organized meetings have to take into account the time-zones of multiple members (Bergiel, Bergiel & Balsmeier, 2008). When members are spread over great distances, there is a high risk that the meetings cannot be scheduled to meet everybody's working hours or preferences (Bergiel et al., 2008).
Despite the scheduling challenges, video conferencing does also provide some advantages regarding temporal proximity. As already established in the non-verbal section, because active participation is required, immediate feedback can be given in interactions (Daly-Jones et al., 1999).
The last practical decisions themes regarding video conferencing are its features and the related cost. Until now, the use of video conferencing is investigated with the assumption that the video communication is stable, of high quality and without any delays. However, to create and maintain good quality video connecting in reality seems quite difficult. According to Lu, Zhoa, Kuipers, and Mieghem (2010), the main flaws related to video conferencing are poor video quality and audio quality, large audio-video lag, and long communication delays. Poor video quality limits the positive effect of non-verbal clues. It would become more difficult for participants to identify non-verbal cues, such as facial expressions. Poor audio quality increases the risk of miscommunication and delays discussions when content has to be
repeated (Lu et al., 2010). Communication delays are annoying during a conference and are time-consuming (Lu et al., 2010).
Poor internet connections cause most of these problems, servers that overload because they cannot handle multiple participants in one stream, or limited upload bandwidth (Lu et al., 2010). Solutions to these problems involve installing multiple servers all over the world to maintain an operational internet connection and to avoid overload of servers (Lu et al., 2010).
2.4 Face-to-face
2.4.1 Verbal and Non-verbal communication
The last channel that will be investigated is face-to-face communication. Face-to-face communication is seen as the most traditional way of communication.
On a verbal level, face-to-face communication can best be compared to video conferencing. Just as video conferencing, face-to-face communication would be more favourable for skilled official language speakers. Face-to-face communication can be
classified as a synchronous medium; both parties have to be actively participating (DeLuca & Valacich, 2006). So, parties do not have the ability to translate messages before they respond, which is unfavourable for unskilled team members. However, it is favourable for quick feedback and clarification for uncertain content (Tenzer et al., 2014).
Furthermore, attributes differentiation, the potential distinction team members make are based on visual and vocal cues, will play a bigger role in face-to-face communication (Harrison & Klein, 2007). In contrast to video conferencing where mostly only facial
attributes are transmitted, by face-to-face communication more attributes are visible. Not only attributes as physical appearance, body languages and facial expression will be seen. But also: clothing and jewellery, make-up and hairstyle. According to the similarity theory, all these attributes will be matched to the personal profile, which will lead to tendency to enhance
collaboration when there is a similarity of attributes, but will lead to avoidance when attributes do not match (Harrison & Klein, 2007).
Finally, face-to-face communication does not offer extra features for message
translation. Sender and receiver are required to speak the same level of a similar languages to communicate without miscommunication. This could lead to miscommunications in diverse teams where members are not advanced in the leading languages.
2.4.2 Services and conditions
There is a vast range of concepts that come to play when measuring the cost and benefits of a face meeting. According to Arnfalk and Kogg (2003), the cost and benefits of face-to-face meetings can be illustrated by the concept of ‘optimal meetings.' According to this concept, the benefits and costs are divided into private, organizational and societal aspects. The benefits of face-to-face meetings can be categorized in private benefits and corporate benefits. The first, private benefits, can be described as the personal profits employees gain when participating in face-to-face meetings. These personal benefits could range from: expanding personal knowledge, building personal networks and relations, and pleasure experiences by seeing new places and breaking the routine (Arnfalk & Kogg, 2003). The second aspect are the organizational benefits. Organizational benefits could be described as the primary purpose of the meetings. What are the consequences on the long and the short term of the meetings? For example, establishing a relationship with partners or transferring important information internally. Organizational benefits could also have an effect on private benefits and the other way around (Arnfalk & Kogg, 2003).
The cost of face-to-face meetings can be divided into three aspects: private, organizational and societal cost. Private cost can be described as the personal expenses and discomfort employee confront when participating in face-to-face meetings (Arnfalk & Kogg, 2003).
These costs could be the discomfort of staying away from home when the meeting is at a distant location, the discomfort of flying.
The organizational cost reflects all the cost when organizing these meetings (Arnfalk & Kogg, 2003). Some of these expenses are already introduced in the introduction, such as traveling cost, the cost of accommodation, travel allowances for employees.
The last aspect the represent cost of face-to-face meetings are the societal cost. Societal cost can best be described as the externalities from face-to-face meetings (Arnfalk & Kogg, 2003). Examples of externalities could be co2 emissions caused by transportation of employees, cost of infrastructure, health care cost for employees. Since externalities are difficult to estimate and not directly relevant to this research, they will be left out in the cost-benefit analysis.
4. Method
To analyse the main research questions a qualitative research will be conducted. The emphasize of qualitative research lies on collecting information of opinions and feeling of people. An important part of this study is to obtain information about the attitudes and views of team manager about the use of CMCS’s. Therefore, a qualitative approach has been chosen. Moreover, a qualitative approach makes it able to gain a deeper insight on how the managers feel about the communication systems. Interviewing people makes it able to ask for elaboration or comment on responses, in contrary to the limitations when you only let people fill in a questionnaire. Furthermore, this study will contain semi-structured interviews. Semi-structured interviews allow respondents to describe in depth their perspective on a certain topic but is guided by the researcher to stay on topic (Doody & Noonan, 2013). So, there will be an interview protocol. But the question will mostly be open-ended so the researcher can ask for clarification.
This research will be following an abductive approach. According to an abductive research process, existing theoretical knowledge will be matched to real life observations to come to the best fitting explanation of the research question (Kovács & Spens, 2005). The conceptual framework that is established in the previous paragraph consist of multiple theories that are relevant to the research question. However, it does not give a definite conclusion. The interviews that will be conducted will provide a practical insight on how these theories fit in real life situations. New insight could be provided by the interviews and these have to be matched to other theories. The process of re-matching new knowledge to existing literature will eventually provide the best fitting conclusion (Kovács & Spens, 2005).
In this study, the main data collection will be done by taking interviews. The
information that is conducted from the interviewed will be processed through open and axial coding. Open and axial coding can be seen as structuring the data (Brotherton, 2015). The first step of this process is open coding. After the interview is transcribed, there will be searched for similarities in the data that refers to the same thing. Similarities could be statements of the interviewee that is said in different words but refers to the same meaning (Brotherton, 2015). These similarities will be given a code. Re-coding is an essential step in structuring the data and helps to identify possible similarities with the literature (Brotherton, 2015).
After the open coding process, the data will be classified in many different codes. The open codes that have been given to the data in stage 1 were often non-coherent codes; it was hard to find any relationship between them. The second stage of the structuring is the re-examination these codes and classify these in more focused themes and overarching concepts. Restructuring of open codes is called axial coding (Brotherton, 2015). Axial coding enables the ability to find relationships between the themes and concepts and thereby give more depth to the analysis than simply identify different codes (Brotherton, 2015).
The last stage is to classify these themes and overarching concept in a few ‘core categories’ or selective coding (Brotherton, 2015). These core categories can be seen as the overall concept to which all the other categories are related. Since these interviews are constructed around concepts of the theoretical framework, it is expected that the core categories will refer to the core themes in the framework. So in summary, the data will be coded and categorized in different patterns, relations and overarching theme, which will eventually be linked to the grounded theory (See figure 1).
5. Results
4.1 Sample
To understand the quotes of the respondents and to establish links with the theoretical framework, some background information of the respondents is provided in this paragraph. For this research 4 managers have been interviewed (R1, R2, R3, R4). The respondents have been selected according to their function, the media tools that are used in their teams and the composition of the teams they supervise.
Since November 2016, R1 is operational as marketing manager of Arkin. The team of R1 consist of 11 members divided in four functions: 7 account managers, 1 communication advisor, 1 spokesman, 1 marketing manager and 1 trainee. The most used communication channels within in the team of R1 are e-mail communication and face-to-face meetings.
R2 is operational as team leader of the customer service, Ymere. R2 is functional as team leader since 2013. The team of R2 consist of 20 members. Some activities of R2 concerns performance appraisals and performance tracking of the teams. Skype, email and face-to-face meetings are daily used for communication.
R3 is functional as supervisor of the department Chemical Manufactory within Abbot. R2 manages 5 teams, with a range between 4 to 9 members. R3 is responsible for the
production of the lactulose department. Furthermore, R2 does the recruitment of new employees, performance appraisals and presents annual reports. Email and face-to-face meetings are the main channels of communication.
The last respondent, R4, is operational as Country Sales Manager at Apple. R4
supervises multiple teams, the combination of members of these team consist of 60 members. Functions in the teams vary from account managers to employees of the shop-in-shops. R4 is responsible for the indirect sales. Indirect sales are all the sales with indirect partners, such as retailers that sell Apple products. In the teams of R4, email, video conferencing and
face-to-face meetings are used as communication channels. There is no channel that is extensively used compared to other mediums.
4.2 Analysis of the interview and the comparable literature
In this section the information gathered from the responds will be analysed and matched to the theoretical framework. After the interviews have been classified in relating codes, these codes have been grouped in 4 overarching themes: miscommunication, media richness, synchrony, task fitness and indirect cost and benefits. The themes are branched into important aspects with, above, critical concepts that are discussed with the respondents. As shown in figure 2, the relations between the overarching themes from the interviews and the cost and benefits of CMCS has been illustrated. An analysis of the differences and similarities between the information from the interviews and the extended literature have been conducted. To support similarities, quotes from respondents will be provided. The analysis will be divided in two paragraphs: Email and Video conferencing & Face-to-Face meetings. Because there are many similarities between video conferencing and face-to-face meetings, there is chosen to combine the analysis of these media in one paragraph which results in a better overview of the similarities and differences.
(Figure 2, structural framework data interviews)
4.2.1 Email
The first concept that is discussed in the literature section is verbal communication.
According to the literature, one of the challenges associated with verbal communication were the potential differences in mother tongue or accent within a team and thereby increasing the risk of miscommunication. Unfortunately, there was no significant mention in the interviews that supported or opposed this claim. Most teams that collaborated in this research did operate with a leading language that the members were expected to speak on an advanced level. Miscommunication through difference in mother tongue or accents were not a significant factor. However, miscommunication through misinterpreting and misunderstanding of a message was addressed by the respondents. R4 was asked to describe a situation where he preferred the use of face-to-face communication over the use of email. He said the following:
“Meestal is het, als ik dan naar mijn eigen omgeving kijk, dan is het vaak. Om een voorbeeld te geven, als er een ongewenst incident is gebeurd. Dan moet dat in een systeem worden gemeld, een digitaal systeem, en dan wordt dat verwoord. Verwoording loopt soms niet helemaal goed, en roept uiteindelijk soms meer vragen op dan antwoorden. En dan heb ik, dan ga ik dat niet via de telefoon doen of email, dan wil ik die persoon gewoon zelf even spreken van 'wat is er gebeurt'”.
In this situation, the message was misunderstood by the receiver because the sender wrongly paraphrased the situation. A plausible explanation for the misunderstanding could be that the messenger did not have the means to translate the context of the situation, such as voice intensity or body languages. The lack of context could lead to misunderstanding of the message (Setlock et al., 2007).
According to the characteristics of media richness, email, video conferencing and face-to-face communication can be classified between lean medium and media rich medium. In short, the media theory refers to the degree a media provides contextual, support through visual and vocal cues, for interaction (Setlock et al, 2007). Email can be classified as the leanest media. Email does not offer many feature that help to transmit non-verbal cues. This claim is supported by R4:
“Email is ja nogmaals is vooral het communiceren van processen of het bevestigen van een afspraak, maar niet met mijn mensen”.
According to R4, email is not fitted to transmit emotional complex information and can better be used to transmit hard data. This supports the assumption that email is better fitted to transmit canonical data (Klitmøller & Lauring, 2013).
Email is considered a lean media, so less capable of transmitting visual and vocal cues. The interaction of visual and vocal cues is of great importance in complex conversations within teams. Multiple respondents supported this, by recognizing email as a more formal and direct medium. According to R2, email is more comprehensible and clear:
“Ja, ja en daar vind ik email gewoon niet geschikt voor. Ik vind email wel heel overzichtelijk en heel zakelijk, maar als er zich een discussie voordoet, dan doe ik dat liever telefonisch of face-to-face”.
Furthermore, the respondents were asked in what situation email was the preferred medium to communicate. The responses were predominantly similar. Respondents considered email more as a confirmation and storage tool. Processes that already have been discussed and the decisions already have been made, were send as confirmation through email. The ability to store messages gives the members the ability to process the prior made decisions and oversee them when needed. This is supported by R2:
“Ja dat denk ik wel, maar aan de andere kant denk ik dat email wel weer heel fijn is om dingen goed vast te leggen. Dus ook wel na het gebruik van de telefoon, dan uuhm, gebruiken we vaak de email om dinge nog even vast te leggen, zodat je het goed en makkelijk kan teruglezen. In je eigen tijd, zodat je je eigen gedachten er even overheen kan laten gaan en kan bedenken wat er is afgesproken. Als alles telefonisch en face-to-face gaat is het vaak niks waard”.
The use of email as a confirmation and storage tool is also in line with the literature
(Klitmøller & Lauring, 2013). According to theoretical framework, email can be considered an asynchronous communication system. The storage feature of email offers the ability for sender and receiver to not be active at the same time. Hence, in practice this feature is used in teams to oversee prior discussed processes and discussions.
Furthermore, information of the theoretical framework supports the identification of email as a confirmation tool. According to the theory of Time, Interaction and Performance, email is best fit by the conveyance of information (DeLuca & Valacich, 2006). Conveyance of information is the exchange of hard data. The data can be used without extensive
consultation to the sender, because the concerning matter has already been discussed. This claim is supported by R1. For example, R1 mentioned that in the first stage of a performance appraisal face-to-face communication is more effective because she can better and quicker recognize the employee’s reaction and adapt to it. However, when the appraisal has finished a formal confirmation of the appraisal is needed for manager and employee:
“Ja, als het een gevoelig punt is, dus vaak als het over de eerste fase van een performance gesprek is; dus als gedrag moet veranderen of dat uuhm zeg maar dat het project anders moet worden aangepakt of er gaat iets mis met het project. Dan zal ik dat face-to-face doen. Omdat ik dan ook de reactie van iemand zien en dan kan ik daar ook direct op inspelen. Het probleem is alleen dat je zeg maar als echt in een soort traject gaat komen waarbij je zeg maar verbetering wilt zien of iemand vertrekt, dan zal je al vrij snel, dan heb je toch de email nodig, want dan moet je het schriftelijk bevestigen”.
According to the theoretical framework, an important disadvantages of asynchronous media is the risk of long response-times which could result in prolonged discussions. This is supported, a reaction by R2:
“Ik ben meer van face-to-face, uuhm, ja soms heb, ik vind het een nadeel dat je ook discussie kan krijgen die mij te lang duren over de email”.
The main reason, given in the theoretical framework, to explain long response times is passive behaviour among employees. Besides the risk of passive behaviour, another possible
conversations, the problem of selective responding was addressed. According to R2 employees do not passively engage in email conversation, but rather selectively response:
“Ja dat is erg moeilijk, want ik denk niet dat ze passief op de email zitten. Maar dan selectief reageren. Ja dat vind ik vervelend. Dat ervaar ik echt als vervelend. Dan denk ik, als er iemand met een hogere functie een email stuurt, dan kun je wel reageren binnen een dag”.
The final concepts that have been discussed in the interviews are the indirect cost and benefits of the use of email. A matter of contention that is addressed by the respondents was the high usage frequency of email. According to the respondents, email was used in such a high manner that managers, and employees often had bulking mailboxes. When sending a
message, email offers the ability to send a copy of the message to another receiver, or in other terms send somebody a ‘Carbon Copy’ (CC). Multiple respondents stated that employees to easily send colleagues CC’s, even when there is no high priority that the receiver of the CC reads the message. Due to packed inboxes, R3 addressed that scanning of his inbox was necessary to find high priority messages. It was not possible to read all messages and managers risk to skip important messages:
“Mijn mailbox ontploft. Ik ga niet elke dag mijn email in foldertjes slepen, dat doe ik niet. En ik probeer op hoofdlijnen te scannen wat belangrijk is, maar als je bijvoorbeeld op me iPhone zou kijken dan staat er z’n icoontje met 1000 berichten”.
In the next paragraph the results concerning video conferencing and face-to-face will be discussed.
4.2.2 Video conferencing and Face-to-Face meetings
In the conversation with R4, the responded was asked if he felt limited in non-verbal
communication, such as body language and intonation by the use of email. He responded that the best communication medium for transmitting visual and vocal cues is face-to-face
communication. This response corresponded with the content about media richness explained in the theoretical framework (Setlock et al, 2007). So, the claim that email can be considered a leaner medium than face-to-face communication is supported.
Following the literature, face-to-face communication is the richest media. However, just as face-to-face, video conferencing does offer features to transmit verbal and non-verbal cues to high extent, such as facial recognition and voice intensity. So, the differences in media
richness between video conferencing and face-to-face meetings is hard to establish. However, R4 has said that he prefers face-to-face communication when dealing with conversation, such as performance appraisals:
“We hebben verschillende soorten gesprekken het hele jaar: voortgangsgesprekken, functioneringsgesprekken, beoordelingsgesprekken. Dat is allemaal face-to-face. Dat vinden we ook belangrijk om dat op die manier te doen, omdat het vaak wat zwaardere boodschappen kunnen zijn”.
However, video conferencing is considered a rich media, it is not as well fitted for complex conversation as face-to-face meetings. An important factor that influence the fitness for complex conversations is the concept of social presence (Heller, 2010). In short, social presence refers to the ability of a channel to allow a member feel present in a conversation (Heller, 2010). As already is established in the theoretical framework, social presence is positive related to the degree of media richness (Heller, 2010). Therefore, one would assume that video conferencing and face-to-face meetings both offer the sender a high degree of social presence. Although video conferencing and face-to-face communication are nearly
similar in features that offer the sender to transmit visual and vocal cues, according to some respondents they do differ in their abilities to create social presence. According to R4, when communicating in a video stream, with multiple participants, some information is lost:
“In een video conference call hangt het er een beetje vanaf. 1-1 conference calls zijn natuurlijk prima, maar op het moment dat je groep na groep doet, dan wordt het al wat minder. Dan zijn mensen al wat minder engaged. Dan wachten ze op een beurt, totdat ze wat mogen zeggen en als ze dan niet aan de beurt zijn, dan gaat toch die aandacht spannen wat naar beneden. Op het moment dat je zo zit (face-to-face), dan is dat toch vrij lastig want dan is het meteen duidelijk”.
It is assumable that the little differences in social presence are critical in deciding whether managers chose video conferencing or face-to-face communication when dealing with complex conversations like performance appraisals. In conversation, such as performance appraisals, non-verbal communication is of great importance and miscommunication could have significant consequences (Meuse, 1987).
Another major difference between video conferencing and face-to-face meetings are the tasks they are used for. According to information from the respondents, face-to-face meetings are often used to update daily process status, establishing relations with new partners, confront colleagues when something undesirable has happened or to complement employees when they did something to extent their normal routines. Most of these processes require quick feedback between sender and receiver, so they can adapt and react.
Furthermore, R3 addressed that face-to-face meetings are critical in the first stages of establishing relations.
But, one would assume that video communication would be just as effective to fit these functions as face-to-face meeting. Both media are synchrony, so both have quick response and feedback. Both offer sender to transmit visual and vocal cues, which are
essential in these conversations. However, the main difference between face-to-face meetings and video conferencing is the context in which the medium is used. According to respondents, face-to-face meetings could be used in formal and informal situation. Face-to-face meetings are used in formal situations, such as performance appraisals. However, R4 addressed that he also used face-to-face in informal situations to establish new relations, to expand its own knowledge and share ideas:
“Absoluut! Dat is om alle dingen te bespreken die ik niet in een ander format kan bespreken. En dat is bedoeld zodat ik daar mijn ideeën eens kan pitchen, dat is bedoeld om de vragen te stellen die ik in een ander format niet kan stellen. En dat is ontzettend waardevol”.
On the other hand, video conferencing was recognized by respondents as a formal CMCS. Video conferences were often used to announce new projects, strategies or introduce new products. Since sender and receiver were often geographically dispersed conferences had to be scheduled. According to R4, because the conference had to be scheduled and were often only used for business related issue, there was no room for informal conversations:
“Het is ook veel informeler. Want als jij een afspraak maakt en dat staat dan in de agenda, dan wordt het bij voorbaat al wat afstandelijker, wat professioneler”.
R4 addresses that video conference is not as fit for establishing relations as face-to-face media because they are too formal. The formality of the media influences the context of the
conversations; it becomes too professional. So, according to R4 informality is needed when teams want to create or increase team relations and this can better be achieved when
The final topics that has been discussed are the indirect cost and benefits of video conferencing and face-to-face communication. The main expenses for face-to-face
communication that are addressed by the respondents are hourly wages and business meeting related cost, such as travelling costs. According to R3, effectiveness of face-to-face meetings is of great importance:
“Kijk, als een meeting effectief is en de punten worden opgelost dan levert het z’n geld op. Maar als we hier met z'n 10en zitten en we lossen het probleem niet op, dan worden de uren doorbetaald voor niks. Er werken hier hoogopgeleiden mensen, die goed worden betaald, dus reken maar het verlies uit als deze gesprekken niet effectief worden gebruikt”.
However, R3 and R4 addresses that the real expenses and benefits of face-to-face meetings are difficult to describe in monetary value. It is simple to calculate the price of flight ticket or the cost of accommodation. However, it is difficult to estimate the monetary value of
increased team relations or expanding of personal knowledge, which certainly have value. To link this to the theoretical framework, it is much easier to estimate the physical organization and personal benefits and cost. But it becomes difficult when measuring indirect cost and benefits.
Unfortunately, there were no mentions of cost concerning video conferencing. Most respondents did not know what cost are related to organize a video conference.
6. Discussion
The aim of this study was to identify the related cost and benefits of the communication media: Email, Video Conferencing and Face-to-Face meetings. In order to investigate the cost and benefits, a theoretical framework was constructed and interviews have been abducted. In
this section the main findings of the interviews will be discussed and the process will be evaluated. First, the major findings and unexpected results of the interviews will be briefly discussed. Secondly, the meaning of these findings and their relations to the research question will be explained. Furthermore, the results will be compared to the theoretical framework and possible explanation for unexpected results will be given. Thirdly, limitations of the study will be identified. Unanswered questions, issues that not have been addressed or limitations in methods will be elaborated on. Finally, suggestions for further research will be given.
5.1 Main findings
In the first paragraph of the result section, email have been analysed. The study confirms that email can be classified as a media lean and formal CMCS. Email has limited features that enable transmitting of visual and vocal cues, which makes it inappropriate for non-verbal communication. This was expressed in the tasks email communication was used for. Most email communication was used for conveyance of canonical information and confirmation of prior processes. Due to ability of email systems to store messages, employee could oversee them when needed. However, the asynchrony features of email also increased the risk of prolonged discussion. Besides risks of long discussion, email and CC messages were used in such high extend that managers experienced overflow of data which increased the risk of overseeing important data.
In the second paragraph of the result section, video conferencing and face-to-face meetings have been analysed and compared. The study confirms that both media can be considered a media rich CMCS’s. However, video conferencing and face-to-face meetings do differ in the employees perspective on task fitness. Video conferencing was recognized as formal communication, which is often used in special occasions and important
cues, it was not often used for complex discussions or emotional conversations. Most important reason given, was that video conference lack the ability to create social presence compared to face-to-face meetings. Furthermore, due to the need to schedule gatherings and limited meeting time, video conferences were considered too formal to establish new
relations. Face-to-face meetings are recognized as both informal and formal communication channel. It was used for emotional complex conversations, such as performance appraisal. But also for informal conversations to establish or increase external and internal relations. Finally, hourly wages and travel cost were seen a most significant cost concerning face-to-face
meetings. However, these cost were relative to the effectiveness of the meetings.
5.2 Relation between findings and literature
In the following paragraph the findings of the results will be related to the theoretical framework and other studies. Furthermore, any difference between results and extended literature will be approached with possible alternative explanations.
In the first paragraph of the results, the first major finding was the confirmation of email as a lean media. The respondents addressed multiple times that email was not fit for complex situations, because the sender was not able to see reaction of the receiver which correspondents to the media richness theory provided in the literature section (Setlock et al., 2007). However, after one of the interviews, so recording equipment was already offline, I talked about the use of other communication media, such as WhatsApp. During this
conversation the use of emoticons in virtual messaging was discussed. However, the use of emoticons in email messaging was left out of the study area, the effects are worth to mention. According to Huang, Yen and Zhang (2008), the use of emoticons in instant messaging, such as email, is positively related to perceived media richness of people. Furthermore, their research suggest that emoticons are directly related to enjoyment which in turn is related to
personal interaction. In conclusion, Huang et al. (2008) suggest that emoticons are positively related to media richness and personal interaction. One remark on this study is the release date which was in 2008. 2008 can be considered rather out of date. However, the suggestions made by Huang et al. (2008) are supported by other, more recent studies. According to Skovholt, Grønning and Kankaanranta (2014), emoticons are positively related to media richness. They supported the transmitting of emotional markers, which helps to provide context. This makes it easier for the sender to interpreted messages. Furthermore, also Skovholt et al. (2014) addresses that emoticons support organizational relations. So, it can be assumed that the use of emoticons could have a positive influence in culturally diverse teams. The emoticons moderate non-verbal communication which is critical in communication between culturally diverse members.
Secondly, the asynchrony of email was confirmed. The asynchrony features of email made it able for employees to respond when they see fit. This would lead to responses of higher quality, which is supported in the results. Unfortunately, in the sample of this study there was no manager that could tell the effect of asynchrony on communication between culturally diverse team members. However, one could assume that miscommunication would reduce when communicating with an asynchrony CMCS. Since, sender and receiver have more time translate the message if needed and comprehend a languages qualitative response. In the theoretical framework, the disadvantages of asynchrony, such as prolonged discussions were discussed (DeLuca & Valacich, 2006). These were supported by information from the responders.
Thirdly, the task fitness of email was discussed. Results suggests that email is best fit to exchange data rather than a media to discuss data. As already is established in the result section, the task fitness of email is supported by the theory of Time, Interaction and Performance (DeLuca & Valacich, 2006).
