Personal nature and ambiguity as sources of message equivocality: an extension of media richness theory

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 equivocality. 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 ambiguity. 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 and new media are drawn