This research provides strong support for the existence of dominant media norms within organizations and describes their influence on employees' (a) perceptions of organizational norms, (b) reported media use, and (c) performance evaluations. Survey results demonstrate the presence of strong organizational norms for instant messaging (IM) and e-mail use within a large, high-tech organization, These norms, as well as supervisory behavior, may influence employees; use of IM and e-mail and even more so when employees have strong polychronic orientations. In addition, employees who reportedly followed organizational norms by using IM and e-mail were awarded higher performance ratings by their supervisors, with 30% of the variance explained. The authors support the survey findings with in-depth interviews with participants exploring media use.

Keywords: media use; organizational norms: polychronicity; performance

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I get to work and turn on my computer [and buddy list] to let everyone know I am here. Then I usually start getting IMed [receiving instant messages]. I sometimes have four or five instant messages going at once. Then I will take a phone call and while I am in that conversation I will reply to my instant messages and then open my e-mail. I always have at least three things going at once.... That is how it is around here.

--Employee, High-Tech Communications

Communication technologies enable new forms of interaction within organizations. For example, with full-time connectivity to the Internet, presence within an organization can be indicated by connecting to an instant messaging (IM) system. (1) This establishment of a virtual presence is growing. According to one estimate by the Radicati Group, IM is being used in 85% of all companies worldwide (Perey, 2004). Presence can now be identified not through a person's actual appearance in an office setting but rather his or her online appearance through IM availability and the use of IM and e-mail. This new dynamic creates an interesting opportunity to explore how organizational norms might influence use of these newer media, as well as how the use of these media influence performance. Responsiveness to communication through the availability of multiple media options becomes a new way to generate "face time" within an organization.

Considerable research has explored employees' communication behaviors regarding the use of communication technologies. Research has explored the influence of message characteristics (Daft & Lengel, 1986; Daft, Lengel, & Trevino, 1987), situational constraints (Trevino, Lengel, & Daft, 1987), media perceptions (Carlson & Zmud, 1999), and personality factors (Reinsch, Steele, Lewis, Stano, & Beswick, 1990; Russ, Daft, & Lengel, 1990; Trevino, Lengel, Bodensteiner, Gerloff, & Muir, 1990).

Research has also embedded the use of communication technology within the social situation. Starting with the investigation of workgroup norms (Fulk, 1993; Fulk, Steinfield, Schmitz, & Power, 1987), researchers have explored the impact of social relationships on media use, suggesting that communication technology is socially constructed and embedded within the fabric of an organization (DeSanctis & Poole, 1994; Fulk, 1993; Orlikowski, Yates, Okamura, & Fujimoto, 1995; Yates & Orlikowski, 1992). Although not specifically explored, the social nature of communication technology suggests that media use would be influenced by organizational norms for such use. However, research exploring social influence theory has been equivocal (Kraut, Rice, Cool, & Fish, 1998; Rice, 1993; Rice & Aydin, 1991), leading Rice and Gattiker (2001) to argue that social influence is one microprocess in a complicated system governing an organization's adoption and implementation of communication technologies. They encouraged future research on social influence to contextualize the conditions under which adoption and implementation are affected.

In this study, we explored participants' media use of IM and e-mail as a function of how they perceived that their supervisors used media and their perceptions of organizational use. We then examined media use and employee performance ratings by supervisors. We also identified two individual factors (commitment to the organization and polychronic orientation) that may moderate the influence of organizational norms on media use. In doing so, we created a multilevel study that examined organizational and individual factors simultaneously influencing communication technology use, while linking this use to performance. To triangulate the survey results, we provide an analysis of interviews with organizational members describing communication media norms within the organization surveyed. Our research extends the literature on communication technology use by exploring organizational norms and providing a better understanding of the embedded nature of communication technology use.

LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES

Organizational Context and Media Choice

The social influence model of technology use (Fulk, Schmitz, & Steinfield, 1990; Fulk et al., 1987), which draws on social information processing theory (Salancik & Pfeffer, 1978), social learning theory (Bandura, 1986), and symbolic interactionism (Mead, 1934), suggests that media perceptions and use are influenced by (a) direct statements by coworkers in the workplace, (b) vicarious learning, (c) norms for how media should be evaluated and used, and (d) social definitions of rationality (Fulk & Boyd, 1991).

Taking a similar perspective, Zack and McKenney (1995) argued that a group's social structure is influenced by its social context. Their research showed that two organizations performing similar tasks in different social contexts appropriated technology in different ways. This research suggests that the social context provides clues to organizational members as to how communication technologies should be used (Zack & McKenney, 1995). Social learning theory (Bandura, 1986) posits that there are many sources of modeling within and outside an individual's immediate social network. Using social influence theory and social context research as a framework, we explored the organizational context by assessing both the influence of the supervisor and the norms of the organization on employees' use of communication media.

Many communication norms in place within organizational environments provide rules for employees to follow. For example, a face-to-face norm might involve making eye contact during a meeting. A telephone norm might involve specific rituals for opening and closing a conversation. These norms often transcend specific organizations because these communication media have been in place for a long time. However, new media may not be as tightly embedded within individual communication behaviors as are more traditional media (Markus, 1994). For example, individuals tend to have stable norms for how the telephone is used (when and for what purpose) within an organization, whereas norms for e-mail or IM may be emerging. In such a case, influential members within a workgroup may support certain communication behaviors over others (Fulk et al., 1990; Markus, 1994). One specific individual who may model media use is the supervisor. Research has found that managers' support of certain types of communication technology may influence use within organizations (Igbaria & Chakrabarti, 1990; Stevens, Williams, & Smith, 2000).

Because managers make up an integral part of workgroups, we argue that managers' communication behaviors will influence others' communication technology use through role modeling. In addition, because the supervisor assesses employees' performance, subordinates' need to manage the impression that they make to managers will influence how they communicate, particularly with respect to upward communication (Goffman, 1961; Sosik & Jung, 2003). We extended social influence theory and social context research by examining the influence individuals' perceptions of their immediate supervisors' communication technology use has on their own media use. Specifically, we hypothesized the following:

Hypothesis 1a: The more a supervisor is perceived to use e-mail, the more an employee will use e-mail.

Hypothesis 1b: The more a supervisor is perceived to use IM, the more an employee will use IM.

An organization as an entity can create a dominant media norm and influence media use. Specifically, organizations will promote their own norms for how employees should communicate with one another with respect to types of conversations that demand face-to-face conversations instead of electronic media. Feldman (1984) argued that group norms develop around activities that help a group maintain its social relationships and manage tasks. Communication technologies serve that function within organizations.

Past research on the implementation of new forms of communication within a community of users has demonstrated that groups create norms for interacting (Yates, Orlikowski, & Okamura, 1999). Other researchers have even suggested that an organization itself is a language-based entity that emerges through conversation (Robichaud, Giroux, & Taylor, 2004). We suggest that the medium through which conversation occurs serves as a metamessage that signals organizational members as to the appropriate ways to interact. Research has demonstrated that continuous interaction between human communication practices and institutionalized practices of groups and organizations serves to influence one another (Yates & Orlikowski, 1992), suggesting that people look for organizational guidance in determining how to use communication media. We extended social influence theory and social context research by examining the influence of individuals' perceptions of their organizations on their media use. Specifically, we hypothesized the following:

Hypothesis 2a: The stronger the perceived organizational norms for e-mail, the more frequently an employee will use e-mail.

Hypothesis 2b: The stronger the perceived organizational norms for IM, the more frequently an employee will use IM.

Most of the support for the social influence model has come from studies of groups using e-mail. For example, Fulk (1993) found that individual technology use was predicted by workgroup technology use, especially among those individuals who were attracted to their workgroups. In addition, Fulk found that the pressure to conform to workgroup attitudes toward technology was a strong predictor of communication technology use, particularly when individuals were attracted to their workgroups. In fact, attraction to a workgroup was more important than social or "ego" networks.

Fulk's (1993) work makes an explicit link between members' attraction to their workgroups and their communication media use. We follow this research stream on an organizational level, suggesting that organizational commitment will be an important variable influencing the compliance with organizational norms. Employees psychologically attached to their organizations want to remain (cf. Meyer & Allen, 1997) and therefore would be more likely to comply with organizational norms, including those dealing with communication media use. Recent research has demonstrated that compared with employees with weak commitments, employees with stronger commitments engage in more compliant behavior (Rogelberg, Luong, Sederburg, & Cristol, 2002). Thus, we offer the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis 3a: The relationship between perceived norms for e-mail use and reported use of this medium will be stronger for those who are more, rather than less, committed to an organization.

Hypothesis 3b: The relationship between perceived norms for IM and reported use of this medium will be stronger for those who are more, rather than less, committed to an organization.

Polychronic Orientation and Media Choice

Although the social environment might exhibit some pressure to use media in certain ways, an individual must also have the ability to do so. Polychronicity reflects an individual's preference for engaging in two or more tasks simultaneously and the belief that this is the best way to accomplish tasks (Bluedorn, Kallaith, Strube, & Martin, 1999). Polychronicity describes the behavior of engaging in more than one activity apparently at the same time (Kaufman, Lane, & Lindquist, 1991) or treating unplanned interruptions as equal to planned activities (Bluedorn, Kaufman, & Lane, 1992). The research of Haase, Dong, and Banks (1979) extended the definition of polychronicity to measuring the extent to which an individual can cope with "environmentally produced stress stemming from stimulus-intense, information overload" (p. 271). This definition underscores the importance of examining polychronicity in the context of the message environment created by new communication technologies.

Both e-mail and IM allow for individuals to either (a) do other things while they are communicating or (b) communicate with multiple people at the same time. With IM, a message appears on a receiver's screen the instant it is sent, and multiple messages often appear at any one time. Hence, an individual can reply to one instant message and, while waiting for a response, reply to another. Therefore, the individual is involved in more than one conversation at any one time. With e-mail, a message is sent, and it resides in an e-mail program until it is opened by the receiver. Although a receiver may open many messages at once, he or she generally replies sequentially to messages, suggesting multiple sequential conversations (rather than simultaneous conversations). Hence, both e-mail and IM technologies provide new opportunities for multitasking managers.

New communication technologies such as IM and e-mail produce a stimulus intense information environment. The polychromic orientation of an employee should affect how he or she copes in this environment. Previous research has alternately described polychronicity as either a personality construct (Bluedorn, 2002; Bluedorn et al., 1992, 1999) or an adaptive ability learned through cultural exposure (Hall, 1973, 1983). We believe that both concepts are correct. Polychronicity is an individual propensity, and therefore, some individuals will be inherently more inclined to multitask than others. As well, though, pressure to learn or develop this skill can emanate from an organization when this skill is viewed as valuable. However, an individual with a higher polychronic orientation may find it easier to respond to organizational norms for using IM and e-mail than someone with a lower polychronic orientation. Thus, we expected that polychronic orientation would be a significant moderator between norms and use.

Hypothesis 4a: The relationship between perceived norms for e-mail use and reported use of e-mail will be stronger for those who identify themselves as having more, rather than less, of a polychronic orientation.

Hypothesis 4b: The relationship between perceived norms for IM use and reported use of IM will be stronger for those who identify themselves as having more, rather than less, of a polychronic orientation.

The Link to Performance

Jablin and Sias (2001) suggested that communication competence in the information age requires an "understanding and ability to use computer-mediated communication systems to send and receive messages and to obtain, process, and interpret information at all levels of the organization" (p. 840). With more and more jobs becoming "information based" (Andrews & Herschel, 1996), the skill to select the right media for the right situation becomes an important criterion for judging overall performance. However, empirical research linking media use and performance is scarce.

Studies of media choice suggest that individuals make media choices on the basis of their perceptions that these choices will result in effective communication. One often-cited study supports a bold conclusion regarding media choice and performance. Following information richness theory, Daft et al. (1987) suggested that media use reflects a match between the content of a message and the characteristics of the medium chosen. In that study, the investigators demonstrated that higher performing managers were more sensitive to the needs of certain communication situations than their lower performing counterparts. That study is the only explicit link between media use and performance within an organization. Other studies have tried to replicate this link in laboratory experiments, with mixed results (Dennis & Kinney, 1998; Dennis, Kinney, & Hung, 1999; Sheffield, 1995; Suh, 1999).

We suggest that media use, in addition to reflecting objective norms as reflected in media richness research, may also reflect the subjective norms of an organization. Employees are rewarded for adhering to the norms of an organization, particularly if such behaviors are consistent with the values of the organization or those conducting performance appraisals. For example, person-organization fit has been used to explain individual success within organizations, as well as long-term organizational effectiveness (Jablin, 2001). According to this framework, the more an individual shares the values, interests, and attributes of an organization, the more effective that individual will be within the organization (Kristof, 1996). In part, information reflecting the extent to which an employee shares values is gleaned from behaviors, including those of communication media choice. In this study, we suggest that supervisors will rate employees' performance higher when employees' communication media use is consistent with organizational norms. Because the dominant media within the context of this study are IM and e-mail, we proposed the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 5a: There will be a positive association between employees' reported use of e-mail and their performance evaluations.

Hypothesis 5b: There will be a positive association between employees' reported use of IM and their performance evaluations.

To address these hypotheses, we used both quantitative and qualitative methods. First, we generated items to measure employees' perceptions of their use, their supervisors' use, organizational norms, organizational commitment, polychronic orientation, and performance. Next, using a sample of surveyed employees, we conducted in-depth interviews to develop additional support for the norms of the communicative work environment within a high-tech telecommunications company. These data brought additional richness to the survey data and a means of triangulating survey responses. We have separated the study into two phases. Phase 1 describes our hypothesis testing, and Phase 2 explores the context of communication technology use within the organization.

PHASE 1: HYPOTHESIS TESTING

Method

Data and Sample

We obtained management approval to distribute a survey to all 115 employees within two areas of the interactive marketing division of High-Tech Communications (a pseudonym). High-Tech employs 19,000 people worldwide and provides telecommunication services to more than 30 million members. In addition to using IM and e-mail for intercompany communication, High-Tech pioneered many of the products associated with computer-mediated communication (e.g., browsers, IM systems, computer conferencing formats). This suggested that High-Tech would have strong core values for using IM and e-mail.

The specific areas within the division we investigated were finance and operations. Following standard organizational protocol for information gathering, a director within the division sent an e-mail to employees describing the study and encouraging their participation. One day later, employees received an e-mail with a hyperlink embedded within it directing them to the survey. The survey took approximately 20 minutes to complete. Employees were given 1 week to respond. At the end of the week, a reminder e-mail was sent out. We received 88 e-mail responses (a 76% response rate). Fifty-three percent of the respondents were male. The average age of the respondents was 29 years. Seventy-eight percent of the respondents had at least a college education. Twenty-seven percent of the respondents came from non-White ethnic backgrounds. The average organization tenure was 4 years.

In addition to the Web-based survey, we also asked each supervisor within each division to fill out an assessment of each of their employees' performance. One-hundred percent of the supervisors returned performance appraisals on their employees.

Measures

General polychronic orientation. General polychronic orientation was measured using the Inventory of Polychronic Values (Bluedorn et al., 1999), a 10-item, Likert-type scale assessing an individual's preference for polychronic behaviors. Scale items included "I like to juggle several activities at the same time" and "I prefer to do one thing at a time" (reverse coded). The response scale ranges from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Cronbach's [alpha], a measure of internal reliability, was .76 for the items in this scale.

Organizational commitment. Organizational commitment was measured with nine items from Mowday, Steers, and Porter's (1979) organizational commitment questionnaire, which measures affective commitment. Some examples of items from this scale included "I am proud to tell others that I am a part of this organization," "I find that my values and the organization's values are similar," and "I am willing to put in a great deal of effort beyond what is normally expected in order to help this organization be successful." The response scale ranged from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Cronbach's [alpha] was .89 for this scale.

Communication media use. Communication media use was measured with single items asking respondents about the extent to which they used IM and e-mail during a typical day (1 = never, 5 = all of the time). For comparison purposes, we also collected data on telephone and face-to-face communication.

Organizational norms and supervisor media use. Perceived organizational norms for media use were measured with single items asking respondents to indicate the extent to which the organization valued the use of IM and e-mail (1 = does not value, 5 = strongly values). In addition, respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which their supervisors used IM and e-mail to communicate with them during a typical workday (1 = never, 5 = all the time).

Performance. Performance ratings for each employee were provided by their respective supervisors. Separate from the initial survey, supervisors were given an evaluation tool (approximately 2 months after the initial survey was completed) to specifically assess the performance of each of their employees. The instrument consisted of six items measured on a 7-point, Likert-type scale asking supervisors to evaluate overall performance, the quality of work, the effectiveness of work, and communication and to compare employees with respect to other employees. Sample items included "How effective is this employee in his or her job?" "In general, how would you characterize the performance level of this employee?" and "Please rate the quality of work this employee produces." With the exception of the communication item ("Please rate the appropriateness of this employee's use of communication media to communicate with you"), the content of the performance scale (e.g., quality, effectiveness, overall satisfaction) is similar to the content of measures used in many empirical studies examining job performance (e.g., (Meyer, Paunonen, Gellatly, Goffin, & Jackson, 1989; Welbourne, Johnson, & Erez, 1998). Exploratory factor analysis supported a single factor, and Cronbach's [alpha] for this scale was .88.

Control variables. To reduce biased relationships, we included control variables within the survey. Specifically, we controlled for reported hours worked and organizational commitment when regressing performance on employees' use of IM and e-mail. Hours worked would be expected to increase IM and e-mail use because of an increase in the opportunity to use these media given the extra hours of work. It would also be a visible behavior that may influence supervisors' performance ratings. Because we hypothesized that committed employees would be more likely to follow norms regarding dominant media use and because there is past empirical support linking organizational commitment and performance, we also controlled for commitment.

We controlled for tenure, age, sex, race, education, and supervisors' media use to reduce "noisy relationships" (Schwab, 2005) because there are studies suggesting that demographics and "similar-to-me bias" can influence performance ratings (cf. Bernardin, Hennessey, & Peyrefitte, 1995; Ford, Kraiger, & Schechtman, 1986; Pulakos, White, Oppler, & Borman, 1989).

We also controlled for education when regressing employees' use of IM and e-mail on model variables because past research has demonstrated a relationship between education and polychronicity, and it is likely that education also influences the use of IM and e-mail.

Analyses

Hierarchical regression was used to test the hypotheses. Predictors in the interaction terms were centered before forming the interaction term. Because our sample size was small (n = 88), missing values analysis (MVA) using SPSS was conducted to (a) determine if the values were missing randomly; (b) estimate means and standard deviations using listwise, pairwise, expectation-maximization, and regression methods; and (c) impute missing values with estimated values to evaluate the effects on the regression results.

MVA was conducted for all variables. Overall, with the exception of hours worked and performance, very few data were missing. Of the 15 variables, one scale item was missing in fewer than 5% of the cases, and two scale items were missing in fewer than 10% of cases. Hours worked (a control variable) was missing in 17% of the cases, and supervisors' assessments of employees' performance were missing in 27% of the cases. Randomness was examined using Little's missing-completely-at-random test, which had a chi-square value of 197.05 (df= 166, p = .05; Little & Schenker, 1995). Although just significant, this indicated that the values for some variables were not missing completely at random. Inspection of separate variances suggested variables responsible for departure from randomness. Specifically, tenure was greater for those subjects reporting hours worked than for those not reporting hours worked (t = 2.1). In addition, hours worked was greater for those reporting organizational commitment than for those who had missing values for some scale items for organizational commitment (t = 2.1). Thus, it appeared that the missing values may be conditionally missing at random. Hours worked seemed to be the common link and had a much larger percentage of missing values than either tenure or organizational commitment. In fact, when hours worked was dropped from the MVA, Little's missing-completely-at-random test was nonsignificant. Because hours worked was a control variable, it was possible to test models with and without this particular control variable to see if the results were differentially affected. Overall, the means and standard deviations were remarkably similar across all methods. Thus, it seemed reasonable to impute missing values with expectation-maximization values for all variables except performance. Thus, we had a sample size of 88 except for the analysis of performance, for which we had a sample size of 64.

Results

Descriptive statistics and intercorrelations are presented in Table 1. As suggested, organizational norms for IM and e-mail appeared strong, as judged by the reported frequent use of these communication media and relatively small variance. For comparison purposes, we examined information on IM and e-mail use in a typical day from 235 M.B.A. students at an eastern university. The mean for IM use for the student sample was 2.32 (SD = 1.45), compared with a mean of 4.78 for subjects in this study (t = 18.36, p [less than or equal to] .001). For e-mail use, the mean was 4.70 (SD = 0.72), compared with a mean of 4.67 for the study sample (t = 0.29). Thus, employees in our firm looked different from the "average" employee with respect to the use of IM but not necessarily e-mail.

We further reasoned that IM and e-mail would be the dominant media in this organization. We collected data on telephone and face-to-face communication. Mean phone (M = 3.83, SD = 0.85) and face-to-face (M = 3.61, SD = 0.90) communication by employees was significantly lower than employees' use of IM and e-mail, with greater variance. Similarly, supervisors' use of phone (M = 2.76, SD = 1.43) and face-to-face (M = 3.80, SD = 1.09) communication on a daily basis was significantly less than their use of IM and e-mail. Finally, the value the organization placed on phone (M = 4.22, SD = 0.72) and face-to-face (M = 4.26, SD = 0.80) contact was significantly lower than values for IM and e-mail, although the differences were less striking. These results suggested that IM and e-mail were identified as dominant communication media in this organization.

The results of the hierarchical regression on employees' communication use are displayed in Table 2. The relationship between supervisors' use of IM and e-mail and subordinates' use of e-mail and IM was statistically significant, thus supporting Hypothesis 1a and 1b.

The relationship between employees' use of IM and e-mail and the perceived value the organization placed on use of these media was significant at the .10 level, demonstrating marginal support for Hypotheses 2a and 2b. These relationships were moderated by organizational commitment, but the nature of that interaction was not as hypothesized. As Figure 1 depicts, as norms for IM and e-mail strengthened, media use by individuals with low levels of organizational commitment increased. When norms for media use were strong, there was little change for employees with high commitment. In fact, the line for high commitment is virtually parallel to the x-axis for IM use. Thus, although there was marginal support for Hypotheses 2a and 2b, the interactions between commitment and use were not in the predicted direction. Thus, Hypotheses 3a and 3b were not supported.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

We also proposed that polychronicity would moderate the relationship between organizational value for media and employees' use of the media. Our results demonstrated that when polychronicity was high, the magnitude of the relationship between the organization's value of IM and e-mail and employees' use of these media was greater than when polychronicity was low (see Figure 2). In fact, there appeared to be almost no relationship for the low-polychronicity situation; the "slope" is virtually parallel to the x-axis. Hypotheses 4a and 4b were therefore supported.

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

Table 3 displays the results of the regression on performance. In support of the Hypotheses 5a and 5b, employees' use of IM and e-mail was associated with higher supervisory assessments of performance after controlling for demographics, supervisors' media use, hours worked, and organizational commitment. (Removing hours worked from the equation did not influence the results.) Approximately 30% of the variance in performance was explained by the model. This explanation of the variance in performance was considerable. Thus, Hypotheses 5a and 5b were supported.

PHASE 2: ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION NORMS

Phase 1 of our research showed the perception of IM and e-mail as dominant media within the organization and supported a relationship between use of these dominant media and performance. We also found a positive correlation between polychronic orientation, or the ability to multitask, and the reported use of IM and e-mail. We hypothesized this connection because these media lend themselves to participation in multiple conversations at any one time. In Phase 2, we used in-depth interviews with survey participants to explore the extent to which these findings resonated with the way employees described their communication technology use and its value within the organization. We asked the following research questions:

Research Question 1: Are IM and e-mail the dominant media used within the organization?

Research Question 2: How are these media used within the organization?

Research Question 3: Is the use of IM and e-mail rewarded by the organization?

Method

Data Collection

As recommended for qualitative research (Eisenhardt, 1989), we used theoretical sampling to identify interviewees for participation. In theoretical sampling, cases are chosen on the basis of their theoretical categories to provide examples of polar types rather than generalization to a larger population. Using the surveys received, we identified participants to ensure a mix of our variables of interest: polychronic orientation (high and low, determined by location above and below the mean) and performance (high and low, also determined by location above and below the mean). A total of 20 interviews were conducted in October 200l (approximately 6 months after the survey data collection). Interviews were conducted in person in a room away from the participants' work areas to prevent interruptions and ran between 45 and 90 minutes in length. The interviews were semistructured to provide some consistency while allowing participants to raise issues as appropriate. The interview protocol included questions about media use, norms for communication within High-Tech, and the managing of multiple conversations at one time.

Data Analysis

All of the interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and checked for accuracy by the interviewer. For this study, we focused on how participants described norms for communication within High-Tech. We explored which media were used most often, the pace of communication within High-Tech, and the pressures associated with communication technology use.

Results

Analyses of the interviews support the survey data that the primary modes of communication as reported within High-Tech involved IM and e-mail. The interviews also provided a window into the communication environment within High-Tech to provide additional support to the potential benefits of a polychronic orientation and the potential connection between communication media use and performance.

Dominant Communication Norms

Consistent with the survey results, participants reported that IM and e-mail were the primary modes of communication within High-Tech. As one participant described it, "People are relying so much on e-mail or instant messages. A lot of people just forget that they can just pick up the phone." Said another, "Since I started working here, IM has become like the backbone of what we do here and how we communicate.... I feel that without IM we would be so paralyzed just because we've gotten so used to it." Said another participant, "Being online is like breathing, I mean, you have to be there."

Not only did IM and e-mail emerge as dominant media choices for communication, participants also reported that they felt the pressure to manage multiple conversations at the same time, or communicate polychronically.

Polychronic Communication

The participants reported the benefits surrounding IM and e-mall that allow a communicator to manage multiple conversations at any one time. In fact, IM was equated with participating in multiple conversations at one time because participants usually had more than one IM session open (in progress) at any one time. Said one participant, "I'd say pretty much everyone engages in multiple instant messaging. All the time." The primary benefit of this type of communication was the efficiency. Said one participant,

   A lot of times you instant message someone just for the convenience
   of being able to talk to them and to someone else at the same time.
   You can do other things while you instant message.... I would say
   the majority of people that I work with would rather talk over
   instant message just for the same reasoning that they can get more
   done instead of having to be hogged down on the telephone going back
   and forth.

Another participant underlined the importance of multitasking: "You have to be able to multitask around here." Another participant talked about the benefits of multitasking:

   I can talk to five different people at once and pay attention while
   doing like five different IM.... it gets really hectic when you
   are trying to do your busy work on top of an Excel or whatever
   document you're working in and on top of that switch it back and
   forth to an Excel and browser so you can IM people but it really
   doesn't bother me that much. I've gotten used to it so it's a norm.

Phase 1 indicated that those with low polychronic orientations would be less able to follow the norms of the organization through their use of IM and e-mail. Interviewees with both high and low polychronic orientations referenced the stress associated with participating in multiple conversations at one time. Said one participant with a low polychronic orientation,

   I think some people get very stressed out when a lot of things
   happen around them. If they have people IMing them, people on the
   phone, people e-mailing. I don't think they know how to handle
   that situation where you got to decide what's the most important
   thing going on.

Said another with a high polychronic orientation, "Sometimes it's stressful when I have five [instant messages at once]. It's usually end of the quarter. Everyone's frantic."

However, strategies participants reported using when engaging in multiple conversations at once seemed different. For example, participants with low polychronic orientations might engage in multiple conversations at once if they all involved IM but would not mix different types of media. For example, one participant with a low polychronic orientation said,

   If I get a phone call, I try to stop [IM].... People can hear you
   typing when you're on the phone with them and I don't like
   that.... Even though that is done by other people if that's your
   personal preference I guess.... Sometimes I feel like I'm on
   the phone with someone and I can hear them typing. I'm like, "Are
   they listening to what I'm saying?"

Participants with high polychronic orientations also mentioned the disruptive nature of trying to participate in multiple conversations at once but were more likely to do so if the other individuals could not see them. Therefore, face-to-face conversation required total focus on the other individuals, but the telephone provided an opportunity for multiple conversations through IM and e-mail because these conversations could not be readily observed. For example, a participant with a high polychronic orientation said,

   If you're there face-to-face with somebody I think you should be
   giving him or her all your attention. That's why I don't mind
   being on the phone and IMing someone too much. That doesn't bother
   me. But if someone walks in my office or I'm in a
   meeting, that's when I draw the line.

The challenge that some of the participants with low polychronic orientations noted when trying to switch modes of communication may reflect the difficulties associated with switching tasks. IM still required participants to switch conversations, but switching conversations and modes of conversation appeared to be easier with a polychronic orientation. Also, the comments of participants with high polychronic orientations regarding their concerns associated with mixing face-to-face and other modes of communication were based not so much on the difficulty of carrying on the conversation but on their concern that observers might think that they lacked focus.

These qualitative findings that further detail the differences experienced by those with low polychronic orientations versus those with high polychronic orientations suggest that it was harder for those with low polychronic orientations to follow the norms for high IM and high e-mail use (Hypotheses 4a and 4b). IM necessarily demands polychromic abilities because it often involves multiple messages at any one time. E-mail supports the polychronic management of time because it also allows an individual to perform multiple tasks at once (talk on the phone while answering e-mail or instant messages). These communication technologies contribute to a message environment that could be overwhelming to someone with a low polychronic orientation but stimulating to someone with a high polychronic orientation.

Pressure to Perform

The need to manage multiple conversations at once was connected to participants' perceptions of their frenetic work environment. Participants referred to the "need for availability," the "need to respond," and the "need to prioritize" associated with a desire to answer the questions and concerns presented to them as soon as possible. Participants wanted to be viewed as responsive. Some of this pressure to be responsive stemmed from "escalation," a term used by a few participants. Escalation refers to a situation in which a person needs an answer to a question. If the person does not receive an answer within a reasonable amount of time (a subjective construct), the person is encouraged to "escalate" the issue to a supervisor. Explained one participant, "If you need the answer within the day and that person hasn't gotten back with you then you escalate it." Escalation created an environment in which participants were concerned if they did not respond to messages quickly enough, before the other communicators could notify their supervisors. If a supervisor received too many such notifications, the participant might be perceived as ineffective.

The sense of urgency within High-Tech also led individuals to use multiple means of communicating to communicate the same message. Said another, "I might use three at once.... If there is information that I need by a certain time I'll do whatever I can. I'll bug the heck out of them."

Many participants linked the ability to participate in multiple conversations at once to the ability to be successful at High-Tech. Said one participant,

   It's [communicating in several forms at once] a very important skill
   to have to work in our department. I wouldn't say that if you can't
   you won't fit in but they sort of force you to learn. I think she
   [my supervisor] values it. You need to have that capability
   to be flexible and being able to communicate better or communicate
   in several different forms.

The interviews underlined the important role that IM and e-mail played within the communication environment of High-Tech. It also reinforced the potential benefit of a polychronic orientation and the link between communication and performance, as suggested by the findings supporting the connection between e-mail and IM use and performance. The interviews suggest that the environment at High-Tech demanded that individuals be able to process multiple messages at one time and to he comfortable processing messages online.

DISCUSSION

This research contributes to the literature in three main ways. First, it integrates past research of communication media use with performance evaluation. Second, it demonstrates how communication media use is embedded within the organizational culture. Finally, consistent with social influence theory, the results demonstrate how organizations can promote dominant communication norms. These norms, combined with individual personality characteristics, in this case polychronic orientation, may influence media use within the organization. We discuss each of these contributions in turn.

Theoretical Implications

Performance Evaluation

Few connections have been made between communication media use and employees' performance as evaluated by supervisors; this study addresses this concern. In addition to showing that individuals match their communication use to their perceptions of an organization's norms and supervisors' norms, this research also suggests that such matching may influence supervisors' assessment of performance. It further suggests that the evaluation of media use may be a socially constructed process, complementing previous performance-based research based on media richness theory.

Conceptually, we argued that normative pressure to use the dominant media would influence the use of these media and subsequent performance evaluations. However, in addition to compliance with norms, the appropriate use of media within the context of the job may also influence performance evaluations. For example, past research connecting performance to media choice found that managers who were sensitive to the equivocality needs of messages and matched those messages to richer media were also found to be better performers, as indicated by performance review information (Daft et al., 1987). This finding suggests that managers who are sensitive to communication task needs perform better.

Similarly, we would expect that appropriately matching media use to the demands of the job would influence performance evaluations. As part of the initial survey, we asked respondents to indicate the average number of e-mails they received on a typical day. We would expect that receiving a large number of e-mails each day would require more time using e-mail to send responses to coworkers, supervisors, customers, and so on. Conversely, relative to high receivers, those who received less e-mail would have less reason to spend time using e-mail. Those who match use with the demand of the e-mails received would likely receive higher performance evaluations. We explored this on a post hoc basis by adding the interaction to the e-mail model depicted in Table 3. As suspected, matching e-mail use to the number of e-mails received influenced performance. The interaction between the reported number of e-mails received and e-mail use was significant (B = .03, p < .05) and explained an additional 4% of variance in performance beyond the initial model. Specifically, performance evaluations were higher when those who reported receiving many e-mails also reported higher e-mail use and when those who reported receiving few e-mails also reported lower e-mails use. Performance ratings were lower when e-mail use was reported low but the number of e-mails received was reported high. Figure 3 depicts the relationship. This finding makes sense. Certainly, coworkers and customers might complain to supervisors about a lack of response to their e-mails. In fact, participants referred to this problem specifically in their discussion of escalation. This problem would not likely be true for those who receive few e-mails but have high use of e-mail. One might speculate that in this case, such use was nonproductive and therefore led to lower performance evaluations.

[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]

Our study situates media use within the norms of organizations. It suggests that the ability to match the content of a message to the right medium may be relative to the organization in which the message takes place. For some organizations, IM may be valued, whereas in other organizations, face-to-face communication could be the norm.

Media Use and Culture

Little research attention has explored the idea that the communication medium itself may serve as a meaningful organizational symbol (Sitkin, Sutcliffe, 8,: Barrios-Choplin, 1992). Our study examined the use of IM and e-mail in the context of supervisors' use. In doing so, it suggests that an individual's use of media may be an important factor to consider in addition to his or her actual message content when assessing performance. It is not just what is said but also how it is said and through what channels that contribute to communication competence. Thus, communication choices are both products of dominant organizational norms and symbolic reinforcements of these norms.

Although our research explored only one organization, the finding that individuals within an organization recognize dominant norms of media use speaks to the visibility of communication behavior. It also suggests that communication media use is an integral part of an organization's culture. The next intuitive conclusion would be that employees would recognize the norm and then try to follow it. Judging from the high mean use of IM and e-mail and the low variance, this may be true for this organization. Furthermore, it is possible that compliance with these norms would be rewarded with higher supervisor assessments of performance.

This finding builds on social influence theory that an organization supports dominant communication norms. Social influence theory suggests that individuals look to their immediate work environments for cues to model behavior. Our research suggests that organizations may develop dominant media use norms that influence the overall work environment. Therefore, organizational norms are a critical element to unpacking the various influences directed toward individuals as media choices are made.

The nature of the interaction between perceived norms and commitment was unexpected. We hypothesized that organizational norms for IM and e-mail would have a greater influence on reported use of these media for those who were highly committed to the organization. In fact, the opposite occurred. Those with low commitment increased their use of media norms as the strength of the norms increased. There was no significant change in media use levels for those with high commitment. In fact, in the case of IM use, there was virtually no slope. A likely explanation is that media use, particularly IM, in the highly committed group was already extremely high. These individuals may be committed to the technology and might use it regardless of where they are employed. Therefore, it is possible that these employees were highly committed to the organization because of the technology from the onset of their employment. Also, it could be that in a typical day, there is only so much time an employee can spend on IM and e-mail, so there was no room for growth. On the other hand, the basis of commitment for the employees with low commitment may be something other than the technology, and their increase in use reflected compliance with norms.

Polychronic Orientation

However important organizational norms are, as the competence literature reminds us, individuals vary in their ability to accommodate the norms and values of an organization as they relate to communication behavior (Gilsdorf, 1998). One personality trait or proclivity that appears to modify the ability to adapt to the communication environment is polychronic orientation. The results of our study suggest that those individuals with high polychronic orientations were most flexible in their ability to adapt to the communication needs of the organization. Similarly, those with low polychronic orientations seemed unable to adapt to the organization's communication media norms. The slope of the interaction terms was essentially flat across varying levels of organizational communication media use. This lack of slope may reflect the fact that the polychronicity trait is somewhat stable. Therefore, a person with a low polychronic orientation may be unable to change or match his or her communication use despite organizational norms. As a result, under conditions of low norms for IM, low-polychronic individuals may use IM more than high-polychronic individuals. (In fact, the bottom panel of Figure 2 suggests that low-polychronic individuals instant messaged more than polychronic individuals during low-norm conditions). On the other hand, those with high levels of polychronicity seemed to be able to match their own use to that expected by the organization. It could be that use of IM was seen as part of a communication strategy by high-polychronic individuals, whereas low-polychronic individuals were less sensitive to context demands. High-polychronic individuals might be savvy enough to adjust their use, whereas low-polychronic individuals were perhaps not as sensitive to context needs and therefore could not adjust their use.

The interviews support this finding and provide interesting implications regarding media switching through multiple conversations. Individuals with low polychronic orientations reported having a difficult time switching modes of conversation. They might be able to participate in multiple conversations at once if they were all instant messages but not when they involved telephone and instant messages. All of the participants noted that it took time to get used to the pace of communication within High-Tech. However, each individual reported developing their own strategies for handling the onslaught of conversations.

Managerial Implications

Our research demonstrates a positive correlation between media use by employees and the performance ratings they received from their supervisors. Our study does not determine a cause-effect relationship. For example, does media use affect performance ratings, or do employers receive more messages to respond to because their performance is highly valued? If it is determined that media use by employees affects performance ratings, then this evaluation criterion should be made visible, and "rules" regarding use should be explicit to be fair to employees. IM and e-mail use was not an explicit part of the performance evaluation criteria used in this organization despite the fact that these media are core products the company sells as important to the productivity and efficiency of other businesses.

The strategy of explicitly invoking media use as a criterion for performance evaluation, however, is not without drawbacks. Our research also suggests that an orientation toward polychronicity moderates the relationship between the use of e-mail and IM and perceived organizational norms. Therefore, if an organization does explicitly formalize rules regarding communication preferences, does it also create an unfair bias toward certain methods of communication that are not "natural" to some employees? Are some employees more productive using other means of communicating? By making certain communication norms explicitly tied to performance, managers may be limiting some of their employees' true potential.

Finally, if organizations communicate dominant media norms, managers must be aware of the potential influence of these norms and the extent to which information is filtered. For example, at the organization at which we conducted the present research, individuals were known to participate in IM and e-mail conversations throughout the day with persons located in the cubicles next to them. If each would have stood up, they could have had face-to-face conversations. The dominant use of media that lack visual and tonal cues necessarily leaves out information that could be relevant for some decisions. The extensive use of IM and e-mail at the expense of face-to-face communication could cancel out many of the benefits of working within the same organization rather than telecommuting. Also, research has suggested that individuals use limited-cues channels differently to represent themselves (Walther, 1996). If an organization moves too extensively to relying on limited-cues media for the majority of decisions, it can be missing important information.

Limitations

As with all studies, there are limitations associated with this investigation that can provide some direction for future research. In this investigation, we examined polychronic orientation and the use of IM and e-mail to determine the extent to which a polychronic orientation was associated with use of these media. Although these media provide the opportunity to communicate polychronically, there is no guarantee that individuals use them in this manner. Therefore, future measures of polychronic orientation need to capture both simultaneous and general use. In addition, it would be useful to establish which communication media are most frequently paired during simultaneous use.

The study involves a relatively unique firm and technology, particularly with respect to IM. Thus, these findings regarding communication media may not generalize to other organizations in the same or different industries. However, its distinctiveness in its use of IM and e-mail made it particularly rich for examining our research questions.

Because performance data originated from a different source and at a different time than other data collected, it seems unlikely that common method bias influenced the performance results, but it may have inflated the observed relationships between employees' media use and supervisors' use. The small sample size prohibited us from conducting a confirmatory factor analysis to address the issue of method variance. However, we did conduct an exploratory factor analysis on items for measures of polychronicity, employees' use of e-mail and IM, supervisors' use of e-mail and IM, and the value the organization placed on e-mail and IM use. The scree test appeared to support five factors (there were seven components with eigenvalues greater than 1). These five factors explained approximately 62% of the variance, with all loadings exceeding .40. Overall, the rotated solution supported the various scales. Polychronicity had two factors (negatively and positively worded items), and organizational values for IM and e-mail loaded separately from employees' and supervisors' use of e-mail and IM. Although Harman's single-factor test has limitations, it offered some support that the findings were not merely reflection of common method bias.

Given the cross-sectional nature of our data, we cannot conclude that media use caused performance rating to change. In fact, as one reviewer commented, it could be that better performance leads to the more frequent use of e-mail and IM. If one employee is perceived to be more knowledgeable than another, that employee is probably also considered to be a better performer. As a knowledgeable employee, this person may be sought (through e-mails and instant messages) for answers to questions. Therefore, more use of IM and e-mail might be a symptom of a better employee rather than the cause of higher performance ratings. We tried to control for this phenomenon by examining the match between e-mails and instant messages sent and e-mails and instant messages received. The nature of e-mail and IM use is knowledge exchange, so someone with "better" knowledge should necessarily be at the center of IM and e-mail exchanges. Finally, we asked respondents about their IM and e-mail use, but we never tracked their actual use. Therefore, our knowledge of their use is limited to self-reported data.

Future Research

We initially suggested that communication media use becomes a way of exhibiting presence within organizations. This study's link between communication media use and performance suggests that a virtual presence may be a factor in performance evaluation. Future research should further explore how characteristics of certain communication media provide the opportunity to communicate presence and examine how supervisors' assessments of performance are connected to assumptions about virtual presence.

This research study also suggests that certain communication media within an organization can become the dominant norm. Future research might explore other ways that dominant media influence organizational practice. In what ways might adhering to a dominant communication norm be potentially damaging to an organization? For example, IM and e-mail may be effective as a dominant norm for a small, entrepreneurial organization but not as effective as the organization gets larger and more bureaucratic. When an organization is small, there is the likelihood that individuals know one another and meet face to face on a regular basis. In this situation, information gathered through other interactions can help fill in the gaps created by the leaner media of e-mail and IM. As an organization gets larger, richer opportunities for interacting are less likely. Future research might look at the complementary nature of both message characteristics and organizational norms in evaluating media performance.

A future research step should be an assessment of the extent to which communication media use is a valid indicator of actual productivity and improved work quality. This step is particularly important given that the correlation between subjective and objective performance has been shown to be modest (Bommer, Johnson, Rich, Podsakoff, & MacKenzie, 1995). Given the nature of the findings on commitment, future research on communication media should allow for measures of commitment that include technology as one commitment focus to better elucidate relationships. In light of the findings regarding performance, it would be important to ascertain if new members can be socialized into a polychronic culture, if this socialization changes the strength of their polychronic orientations, and what this socialization looks like. Testing this assertion would require a longitudinal study that tracks polychronicity from the time of "attraction" and "selection" through socialization.

Finally, as this research study indicates, the polychronic use of communication media or polychronic communication (Turner & Tinsley, 2002) or multicommunicating (Reinsch, Turner, & Tinsley, 2005) is a critical means through which messages are processed in organizations today. How individuals are able to participate in simultaneous message exchanges involving different topics is an important area to understand as more organizations rely on communication tools that support a multicommunicating environment.

CONCLUSION

This article extends the literature on media use by examining organizational and individual factors that influence an individual's media selection. It also connects these factors to performance ratings. In doing so, we have embedded communication media use within the organization from a performance-based perspective and enhanced our understanding of the microprocesses that contribute to the organizational structuring of media use. By exploring the interaction between individual communicative characteristics and the factors within the workplace, we have been able to strengthen our understanding of how communication channel choices are made.

NOTE

(1.) An IM system provides the opportunity to communicate in nearly real time chat mode with multiple individuals at the same time.

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Jeanine Warisse Turner (PhD, The Ohio State University) is an assistant professor in the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. Jean A. Grube (PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison) holds adjunct faculty positions in the Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the Medical College of Wisconsin. Currently, she is vice president of research design and strategies at MyInnerView, Wausau, Wisconsin. Catherine H. Tinsley (PhD, Northwestern University) is an associate professor in the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. Cynthia Lee (PhD, University, of Maryland) is a professor in the College of Business Administration at Northeastern University. Cheryl O'Pell (MBA, Georgetown University) currently works as a marketing manager in New Jersey. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jeanine Warisse Turner, Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business, G-04 Old North, Washington, DC 20057; e-mail: turnerjw@georgetown.edu.

Jeanine Warisse Turner

Georgetown University

Jean A. Grube

Medical College of Wisconsin

Catherine H. Tinsley

Georgetown University

Cynthia Lee

Northeastern University

Cheryl O'Pell

Georgetown University

Table 1. Descriptive Statistics, Correlations,
and Cronbach's a Coefficients (n = 88)

                                    M       SD     1      2      3

 1. Age                           28.58    5.40    --
 2. Gender (1 = female, 2 =                        .15    --
    male)                           --      --
 3. Race                            --      --     .12    .27    --
 4. Education                       --      --     .02   -.12    .28
 5. Tenure (months)               21.51   13.82    .23   -.03    .08
 6. Frequency of IM use by         4.78    0.51   -.20    .15   -.19
    employee
 7. Frequency of IM use by         4.16    1.04   -.18   -.09   -.08
    supervisor
 8. Organization's value for IM    4.71    0.62    .05    .03    .01
 9. Frequency of e-mail use by     4.67    0.64   -.15    .03   -.05
    employee
10. Frequency of e-mail use        4.27    0.85   -.36   -.05   -.20
    by supervisor
11. Organization's value for       4.74    0.51    .05    .09   -.09
    e-mail
12. Organizational commitment      4.26    0.64   -.01    .06   -.07
13. Polychronicity                 3.29    0.59    .02   -.05    .21
14. Performance ratings (n =       5.47    0.85   -.16   -.07   -.09
15. Hours worked                  50.22    5.94    .19   -.00    .04

                                   4       5      6      7      8

 1. Age
 2. Gender (1 = female, 2 =
    male)
 3. Race
 4. Education                       --
 5. Tenure (months)                 .09    --
 6. Frequency of IM use by         -.08   -.08    --
    employee
 7. Frequency of IM use by          .05   -.01    .50    --
    supervisor
 8. Organization's value for IM     .07   -.01    .20    .12    --
 9. Frequency of e-mail use by      .03   -.15    .55    .32    .11
    employee
10. Frequency of e-mail use        -.03   -.20    .33    .49    .01
    by supervisor
11. Organization's value for        .08   -.01    .22    .16    .73
    e-mail
12. Organizational commitment      -.04   -.12    .24    .16    .10
13. Polychronicity                  .13    .08    .01   -.01    .22
14. Performance ratings (n =        .10    .04    .31    .12   -.05
15. Hours worked                    .12   -.01   -.15   -.01    .01

                                    9     10     11     12     13

 1. Age
 2. Gender (1 = female, 2 =
    male)
 3. Race
 4. Education
 5. Tenure (months)
 6. Frequency of IM use by
    employee
 7. Frequency of IM use by
    supervisor
 8. Organization's value for IM
 9. Frequency of e-mail use by      --
    employee
10. Frequency of e-mail use         .58   --
    by supervisor
11. Organization's value for        .26    .15   --
    e-mail
12. Organizational commitment       .27    .13    .19   .89
13. Polychronicity                  .06   -.06    .30   .12    .76
14. Performance ratings (n =        .25   -.01   -.13   .29   -.01
15. Hours worked                    .16   -.20   -.20   .20    .21

                                    14    15

 1. Age
 2. Gender (1 = female, 2 =
    male)
 3. Race
 4. Education
 5. Tenure (months)
 6. Frequency of IM use by
    employee
 7. Frequency of IM use by
    supervisor
 8. Organization's value for IM
 9. Frequency of e-mail use by
    employee
10. Frequency of e-mail use
    by supervisor
11. Organization's value for
    e-mail
12. Organizational commitment
13. Polychronicity
14. Performance ratings (n =        .88
15. Hours worked                    .34   --

Note: Cronbach's [alpha] coefficients appear on the diagonal.
Correlations greater than .21 were (in absolute value) significant at
p < .05; those greater than .26 were significant at p < .01; those
greater than .36 were significant at p < .001. Expectation-maximization
was used to estimate missing (mean) values except for performance
ratings. IM = instant messaging.

Table 2. Results of Hierarchical Regression Predicting Instant
Messaging (IM) and E-Mail Use (n = 88)

                                    Model 1: IM Use

Variable                    Step 1    Step 2       Step 3

Education                   -.064    -0.084        -.048
Supervisors' use of IM                 .231         .217
  (e-mail)                          ([dagger])   ([dagger])
Organization's value                   .112 *       .245 ***
  for IM (e-mail)
Polychronicity                        -.021        -.062
Organizational commitment              .123 **      .147 ***
Polychronicity x                                    .354 ***
  Organization's
Value for IM (E-Mail)
Organizational                                     -.619
  Commitment x                                   ([dagger])
  Organization's Value
  for IM (E-Mail)
[R.sup.2]                    .006      .302         .509
[DELTA][R.sup.2]             .006      .296         .207
F                           0.560     7.10         7.49
                                    ([dagger])   ([dagger])

                                   Model 2: E-Mail Use

Variable                      Step 1     Step 2       Step 3

Education                      .029       .039         .077
Supervisors' use of IM                    .407         .399
  (e-mail)                             ([dagger])   ([dagger])
Organization's value                      .159 *       .214 **
  for IM (e-mail)
Polychronicity                            .022         .002
Organizational commitment                 .189 **      .196 ***
Polychronicity x                                       .318 **
  Organization's
Value for IM (E-Mail)
Organizational                                        -.395 ***
  Commitment x
  Organization's Value
  for IM (E-Mail)
[R.sup.2]                      .001       .401         .454
[DELTA][R.sup.2]               .001       .400         .053
F                             0.071     10.97         8.76
                                       ([dagger])   ([dagger])

Note: Unstandardized regression coefficients are shown. All
significance tests were one tailed for main effects and interactions
and two tailed for controls.

* p < .10. ** p < .05. *** p < .01. ([dagger]) p < .001.

Table 3. Influence of Media Use on Performance Ratings
(n = 64)

                              IM                      E-Mail

Variable                 Step 1      Step 2      Step 1    Step 2

Age                      -.158      -.088       -.174      -.189
Gender                   -.044      -.116       -.058      -.074
Race                     -.159      -.144       -.162      -.196
Education                 .131       .132        .123       .071
Tenure                    .199       .185        .193       .152
Hours worked              .234 **    .266 **     .234 **    .200
Organizational            .268 **    .239 **     .274 **    .209
  commitment
Supervisors' media use    .046      -.146       -.043      -.316 **
Use of IM (e-mail)                   .358 **                .376 **
  by employees
[R.sup.2]                 .231       .313        .230       .297
[DELTA][R.sup.2]          .231       .082        .230       .067
F                        2.06 **     2.73 ***   2.05 **    2.53 **

Note: Standardized coefficients are shown. All significance tests are
one tailed.

**p < .05. *** p <.01.