TESTING MEDIA RICHNESS THEORY IN THE NEW MEDIA - THE EFFECTS OF CUES,FEEDBACK, AND TASK EQUIVOCALITY

Media richness theory argues that performance improves when team membe rs use ''richer'' media for equivocal tasks. This experiment studied t he effects of media richness on decision making in two-person teams us ing ''new media'' (i.e., computer-mediated and video communication). M edia richness was varied based on multiplicity of cues and immediacy o f feedback. Subjects perceived differences in richness due to both rue s and feedback, but matching richness to task equivocality did not imp rove decision quality, decision time, consensus change, or communicati on satisfaction. Use of media providing fewer cues (i.e., computer med iated communication) led to slower decisions and more so for the less equivocal task. In short the results found no support for the central proposition of media richness theory; matching media richness to task equivocality did not improve performance.