All about virtual: an exploratory study on the characteristics of virtual image in relation to the frequency in usage of computer-mediated communication

Abstract

Communication in today's organizations plays an important role in overall organizational effectiveness. Undoubtedly, face-to-face communication among employees is the richest form of communication in organization. However, it is very difficult to arrange frequent face-to-face communication, especially when there are organizational issues that need to be addressed with sense of urgency. Through computer-mediated communication (CMC), provision on easy access to working among employees is evident in organizations, playing significant role in organizational effectiveness, particularly in building the characters of employees. The study explores the connection between the employee's frequency in usage of computer-mediated communication and employee's trust and honesty to organizational authority. The study determines the frequency of the employees in checking their company-related e-mails, and how does it affect their trust and honesty character-building towards organizational authority; hence it is divided into two phases- Phase 1: Classify and Phase 2: Qualify. Phase 1 seeks to provide classification on how trust and honesty character of employees are being reflected to their relationship with organizational authority when it comes to their usage of e-mails. Phase 2 focuses on qualitative measures on answered survey forms which determine the initial responses of the sample population. Based on the context of the framework of the study, it has not incorporated the issue of credibility of medium based on the information source. With that being said, the specific medium of a company is significant in realizing what connection is specified for the employees to rely upon its credibility. Based on the gathered data, the results manifest that employees rely on the content they receive from organizational authority since they consider that source of information as significant in relation to company strategies, among others. The emphasis tends to be on the value of social presence in facilitating the interaction and in making communication more "personal" and "social" as the efficacy of a medium is at least partly determined by its capacity to facilitate socially rich and personalized interactions even if it is through computer-mediated communication. Moreover, the virtual identity being identified among employees are divided into two characteristics-task characteristics and communication characteristics - in which the former covers the motivation, knowledge, and skill characteristics of employees, and the latter furthers the media, message, and context of communication of employees. The motivation characteristics of the employees are comprised of the rate of their knowledge of the company, its strategies, and its ongoing accomplishments. As for the knowledge characteristics of the employees, they believe that the company keeps them fairly and adequately well informed with regard to their impression of communications within the organization. In terms of the skills characteristics of employees, they typically read most of the company e-mails regardless of the content of the e-mail of the company. The information items employees believe to be very important in which they receive media communications would be about on the company's strategies, capabilities, and new policies and regulations. Each employee has an impression that the communication in their company keeps them fairly and adequately informed. Thus all of them believe in the importance of the message content and context of the e-mails they receive. Given the analyzed results gathered from data of the respondents in context of advertising and media company, the frequency of usage of an employee's computer-mediated communication has a significant connection on his trust and honesty to organizational authority. Thus, through task characteristics and communication characteristics of employees, they develop credibility and reliability perception; this is followed by task and communication competence of their task performance and satisfaction, and communication appropriateness and effectiveness outcomes.