The process of organizational communication: a model and field study

Research in computer-mediated communication has usually emphasized the cognitive over the social aspects of communication, the medium over the message, and the product of communication over the process. In contrast, this paper emphasizes three constructs of the communication process: goal-based communication strategies, message form and medium. We seek to balance cognitive and social communication strategies and to combine new and old measures of the message form (organization, formality and size). A field study in an academic institution examined the content of text-based communication delivered by letter, memo, fax and e-mail. As expected, people preferred certain message and medium attributes for certain strategies. These findings are further investigated using open-ended interviews. We conclude with examples of practical implications on designing and implementing computer-mediated communication.