Media use and work relationships in a research group

Analyses the choices made between alternative communication media in different work relationships by 25 university researchers using unscheduled and scheduled face-to-face contact, e-mail, telephone, fax and desktop videoconferencing. A social network survey provided information about what they communicated, how they communicated, and with whom they communicated. Communication was predominately through unscheduled encounters, e-mail and scheduled meetings; people rarely videoconferenced, telephoned or faxed. Factor analysis reduced the 24 work relationships to 6 dimensions: receiving work, giving work, collaborative writing, emotional support, sociability, and computer programming.<>