An exploratory investigation of two internet-based communication modes

Abstract

Instant messaging (IM) was first introduced in the late 1990s. It has a relatively short history of adoption compared to other electronic media such as e-mail. In the first few years, the majority of IM users were teenagers. Only a relatively small portion of adult Internet users used IM. Recently as the young IM users gradually enter the workforce, an increasing popularity of IM among working professionals is expected. Consequently, the use of IM in the workplace for job-related task becomes more likely. The potential impact of IM will also become a more important organizational issue. This study compares the use of IM versus e-mail as the communication tool to facilitate group task for geographically dispersed teams. An experiment using 44 teams in the United States was conducted. The results show that teams using e-mail are more effective in terms of generating ideas than teams using IM. There are no significance differences between the two communication methods, in terms of task difficulty, playfulness, and ease of use.

Introduction

Since the inception of the Internet in the 1990s, personal and work-related communication has been the most important usage of the Internet for the majority of users. After nearly a decade of development, numerous Internet-based communication applications have appeared on the market. Some of these applications quickly gain popularity and acceptance. Others gradually disappear from the horizon. The potential impact of such Internet-based devices on individuals, organizations, and the society has been widely discussed in literature [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8]. However, most existing studies focus on applications such as e-mail, due to its wide acceptance and longer history [1], [4]. Far less attention has been devoted to other Internet-based applications, such as instant messaging (IM) [9], [10].

Since its introduction to the general public in 1996, IM applications have spread very quickly and are gradually gaining acceptance in the workplace. Like e-mail, IM is an application that takes advantage of the many unique capabilities of the Internet. Both applications allow users to conveniently stay connected with their friends and colleagues with very low marginal cost. Both applications are easy to learn and use. In most cases, both applications provide text-based communications. The most significant distinction between the two is that IM is more interactive and its response time is near instantaneous. Users of IM tend to use concise messages with more frequent interactions. E-mail, on the other hand, usually provides delayed responses. E-mail users tend to take more time to write longer messages. They usually do not expect immediate responses and thus result to less frequent interactions. In other words, IM provides near synchronous communication whereas e-mail is more asynchronous in nature.

Unlike the newly adopted IM, e-mail has been used in the workplace for years. It is used for both formal and informal communications in almost every aspect of businesses by almost everyone. Its popularity and wide acceptance is the strongest testimony for its effectiveness and efficiency. IM, while relatively new, also has the potential of becoming another important channel of business communication. It provides a different mode of electronic communication that might fill the gaps left by e-mail and other methods. For example, a commonly recognized drawback of e-mail is information overload [1]. Many people often receive too many messages to read each one carefully. IM users do not have such a problem, because it is instantaneous. Information exchanged is normally digested by users immediately. Yet, the effectiveness and efficiency of IM in the workplace is unknown despite its initial success among young users. It has also been noticed that the unique style of IM communication could cause record management problems [2].

The purpose of the study is to investigate the differences between IM versus e-mail as a communication tool to facilitate problem-solving task in geographically dispersed teams. This is an exploratory study. The results will provide some initial insights and may be used as the foundation for more in-depth future studies.