Communication Strategies

This paper would attempt to critically discuss and analyze the media richness theory. This is more important because it would provide some insight into the ongoing research on why people choose a particular medium of communication in different situations. It would also be an important scholarly material as it looks at the side argument of how media type affects the effectiveness of both personal and organizational objectives.

The theory was first proposed by Daft and Lengel (1984). The premise of this theory is that media has an ability to minimize ambiguity and uncertainty surrounding reporting of information and this would increase the level of understanding in human (Lee, 1994). The concept is sometimes termed as equivocality or information richness theory. Equivocality in this case refers to the ambiguity of information or variety number of conflicting understanding (Kahai  Cooper, 2003). It is therefore the work of the appropriate media to reduce equivocality by either clarifying andor explaining a complex data. There two basic assumptions of this theory as put forth by its proponents. First the theory claims that people would have desire to avoid ambiguity and uncertainty in every organization. While the second assumption is that in every organization, different media work better than others in different tasks (Kahai  Cooper, 2003). The proponents use four different illustrations to show how different media types solve ambiguity and uncertainty in every communication.
           
The first criteria look at the availability of feedback. The immediacy of response to the information being communicated comes into scrutiny when the richness of a media is considered.  According to Kahai and Cooper (2003), the ability of the medium to transmit multiple signals, it looks at the ability of a given medium of communication to transmit the information simultaneously to a number of users.
             
How natural language is used in general communication and its variety among the receipts also came into focus in the study of how richer a medium of communication is. Then it also considers the personal focus by the media. The intention of focus on the recipient of the information must be considered and that would determine the richest media of communication to be used.

When the four criteria were analyzed, it was found that the rich medium of communication would be face-to-face encounters. Telephone, e-mails memos and letters would follow in that order (Markus  El-Shinnawy, 1997). This ranking of medium of communication does not mean that one is better than the other but every type has got its merits and demits and is suitable in different situations. In essence the media theory attempts to shed light on the suitability of different medium of communication in different situations. Therefore one is supposed to choose the most appropriate media type that would provide the highest efficiency and accuracy for the intended receiver (Dennis  Kinney, 1998). The media richness theory thus put it that one must make rational decisions by linking a particular tasks and objective to  a particular medium of communication as well as the degree of success needed in that task.

The strength of this theory is that it helps improve social perception. This is much evidence where a media type that provides multiplicity of cues and immediate feedback is used (Mintzberg, 1973). The richer media provides the opportunity to analyze the recipients understanding and expertise on a certain topic or information.
The richer media according to the media richness theory have been found to have greater and positive impacts on the quality of decisions made when the tasks knowledge by the participant is greater (Markus  El-Shinnawy, 1997). This makes richer media more appropriate in where immediate response is required on known task, for example in educational revision of tests.  

Limitations
The argument goes that there should be more research to fill the gaps left by the media richness theory. There is much focus on the perceptions that leaner media do not provide effective and accuracy in most cases. According to Dennis and Kinney (1998), there is therefore need for more research that would analyze actual performance rather than perceptions.

Another shortfall in the media richness theory is the generalization its outcome to other tasks. As Dennis and Kinney (1998) put it, the theory suffers from the limitations that are common in laboratory research where students are usually not familiar with the task they are required to do. And because there were no rewards on a particular performance, the students saw no need to put in more efforts. In these two case scenarios, lack of knowledge on a particular task could not be the sole reason for lack of performance. Lack of involvement or commitment could simply mean that the task would not be done.

Another limitation of the theory is that it involves a single size of team, in this case dyadic. Majority of managerial meetings are dyadic (Panko  Kinney, 1995a, as cited in Dennis  Kinney, 1998). In most cases, the technologies for communication are designed for dyadic communication, (Dennis  Kinney, 1998). But research shows that large groups may hamper communication hence the need for richer media. Again, in some cases, there are a lot of tasks that require many people to work together for a longer duration, unlike the managerial meetings that would run for short times (Panto  Kinney, 1995a in Dennis  Kinney, 1998). When the tasks require a longer period to finish, then there is the need for a richer media. The theory does not consider the variation in size and duration as factors that could influence the richness of media in its studies.

Media theory has also drawn much criticism in its deterministic approach. According to Markus and El-Shinnawy (1997), social issues can influence how the media is used more than richness. This could be much more inconsistent with the basic tenets of the media richness theory. Research has also shown that media choice is influenced by the socio-cultural background of an individual, with the predictions of the media richness theory notwithstanding.

Conclusion
The limitations of this theory clearly call for more research on the media choice that would shed more light on the media usage. The future research must fully explain the media choice in relation the communication tasks as well as contextual issues involve in ones decision. Credit must be given to the proponents of this for laying ground for future improvement.