The impact of status and audio conferencing technology on business meetings

✍ Scribed by EMMA F FRANCE; ANNE H ANDERSON; MICHAEL GARDNER

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 314 KB
• Volume: 54
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1071-5819
• DOI: 10.1006/ijhc.2001.0464

✦ Synopsis

This "eld study examining the e!ects of organizational status and multimedia audio communications technology on communication patterns in business meetings con"rms that high status group members verbally dominate discussions and have more control over the #ow of the proceedings. However, it reveals a new and surprising "nding: multimedia communications technology can in fact exaggerate status constraints in contrast to "ndings that there is no e!ect or an equalizing e!ect on status inequalities of text-based conferencing technology. It appears that in audio conferences, the lack of non-verbal cues that can aid turn-taking combined with (1) the participants' knowledge of the group's status hierarchy and (2) the tendency to compare oneself unfavourably to those of higher status, makes it more di$cult for lower status individuals to contribute verbally to discussions than in face-to-face interactions. Such status constraints may have both positive and negative impacts on group communication e!ectiveness, these and implications for the design and implementation of multimedia communications technology are discussed.

2001 Academic Press