TY - JOUR

T1 - The medium isn’t the message: Introducing a measure of adaptive virtual communication

AU - Handke, Lisa

AU - Schulte, Eva Maria

AU - Schneider, Kurt

AU - Kauffeld, Simone

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by Forschungsgemeinschaft [KA2256/9-1]. Funding Information: Lisa Handke and Eva-Maria Schulte are research associates at the Department of Industrial/ Organizational and Social Psychology at the TU Braunschweig (Germany). While Lisa’s research interests include communication and virtuality in teams, using both behavioral and survey data, Eva’s research focusses on teams, leadership, well-being, and coaching. The current article relates to an interdisciplinary project funded by the German Research Foundation, analyzing communication in software engineering teams. The project is led by Kurt Schneider (Department of Software Engineering, Leibniz Universität Hannover), who conducts research on requirements engineering and determinants of software project sucesss and Simone Kauffeld (Department of Industrial/Organizational and Social Psychology, TU Braunschweig), who focusses on various aspects concerning competencies, team interaction, consulting, and leadership. Funding Information: We acknowledge support by the German Research Foundation and the Open Access Publication Funds of the Technische Universität Braunschweig.

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - Media use can be considered as an integral part of virtual communication and thus of present-day human interaction. Nevertheless, research on media use and effects still largely relies on laboratory experiments, treating it as a stable input condition, rather than as a function of human appropriation. In this study, we propose a conceptualization of virtual communication as a dynamic construct dependent on media appropriation, particularly of compensatory adaptation processes. Using longitudinal data gathered from 165 individuals, nested in 34 project teams, we explore compensatory adaptation as a function of communication intensity and physical media richness and develop a continuous score of virtual communication accounting for these compensatory processes. Multilevel analyses demonstrate a significant influence of this communication measure on team performance, increasing over time. These results are discussed with regards to their implications for theories of media use and effects and their relevance for real-life communication processes.

AB - Media use can be considered as an integral part of virtual communication and thus of present-day human interaction. Nevertheless, research on media use and effects still largely relies on laboratory experiments, treating it as a stable input condition, rather than as a function of human appropriation. In this study, we propose a conceptualization of virtual communication as a dynamic construct dependent on media appropriation, particularly of compensatory adaptation processes. Using longitudinal data gathered from 165 individuals, nested in 34 project teams, we explore compensatory adaptation as a function of communication intensity and physical media richness and develop a continuous score of virtual communication accounting for these compensatory processes. Multilevel analyses demonstrate a significant influence of this communication measure on team performance, increasing over time. These results are discussed with regards to their implications for theories of media use and effects and their relevance for real-life communication processes.

KW - Analysis of variance

KW - Communication research methods

KW - Media

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85060629068&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/23311983.2018.1514953

DO - 10.1080/23311983.2018.1514953

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85060629068

VL - 5

JO - Cogent Arts and Humanities

JF - Cogent Arts and Humanities

IS - 1

M1 - 1514953

ER -