C13. Rice,
R. E. & Shook, D. (1990). Voice messaging, coordination and
communication. In J. Galegher, R. Kraut, & C. Egido (Eds.), Intellectual
teamwork: Social and technological bases of cooperative work (pp.
327-350). New
Jersey: Erlbaum.
What are the conditions under which users will
take advantage of sophisticated
communication systems to enhance their coordination and collaboration?
Voice
mail systems include both simple answering machine functions and more
sophisticated,
communication-oriented features such as sending messages directly or
with
a time delay to other users, forwarding messages, diverting on-going
calls
for later retrieval, and broadcasting messages to a distribution list.
This
chapter examines voice mail use in several division of a nationwide
insurance
company. Users report that voice mail was useful for time-delayed
communication
and for retaining affect in delayed communication. Workers used
sophisticated
communication features most in complex, nonroutine jobs. In more
complex
jobs, the communication behavior of peers strongly influenced the
degree
to which workers used voice mail, while in less complex, more routine
jobs,
the communication behavior of one’s supervisor predicted the use of
voice
mail.
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