An Empirical Evaluation of Organizational Media Use in Singapore

This paper reports on the organizational and individual determinants of media use in Singaporean organizations. While past research on media use has focused on matching a particular medium with a particular type of task, the current study proposes a "media coexistence" approach. This approach suggests that different media have, at the same time, both unique attributes (which allow them to exist as complements in a portfolio of choices) and similarities (which allow users to substitute one medium for another when needed). Data was collected using a survey from 151 respondents — comprised of managers and professionals — working in a variety of organizations located in Singapore. The results suggest that media use is multidimensional and not nearly as dichotomous as media richness theory suggests. For example, the same medium, telephones, can play a dual role depending on the circumstances: as a substitute for face-to-face communication and as a complement to other media such as e-mail or written communication. The media coexistence approach therefore provides a contingency view of media use wherein different media can, depending on individual and organizational factors, serve as substitutes for and complements of each other. Surprisingly, the results also highlight the predominance of traditional media in some organizational contexts, even in a high-tech city-state such as Singapore. The implications of these results for practice and research are discussed.