COMMUNICATION RICHNESS IN ELECTRONIC MAIL - CRITICAL SOCIAL-THEORY AND THE CONTEXTUALITY OF MEANING

Information Richness Theory (IRT) has enjoyed acceptance by informatio n systems researchers throughout the last decade, but recent unfavorab le empirical evidence has precipitated a shift away from it and a sear ch for a new theory Because of this shift, a new definition of communi cation richness is needed to succeed the IRT definition. Since its inc eption, IS research on communication richness has been limited to the perspective of positivism and, more recently, interpretivism. In this study, a new perspective to the study of communication richness in com puter mediated communication, critical social theory (CST), introduced . The paper outlines (1) a CST-based definition of communication richn ess and compares it with positivist and interpretivist definitions of communication richness and (2) a CST-based social action framework for empirical study of organizational communication in any media use situ ation. The CST definition and framework are used in an intensive inves tigation of an episode of the managerial use of electronic mail in a c ompany illustrate how research on communication richness can be conduc ted from the CST-perspective. This illustration also points out the us efulness of the CST perspective in recognizing instances of communicat ion richness in electronic mail communications that would escape detec tion in not just the IRT perspective in particular, but also positivis t and interpretive perspectives in general. Finally, the paper conclud es by outlining the potential for future research on organizational co mmunication and information technology from the CST perspective. In ad dition to the specific contribution the development of a new theory of communication richness in electronic media, this study also contribut es an example of CST research on IS and extends the domain of the CST- IS research program.