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Human Evolution, Genes and E-Communication in Organizations
Abstract
Could our genes influence our behavior toward e-communication tools? This paper argues that they can and illustrates the mechanism underlying their influence. An alternative to the media richness hypothesis, proposed by media richness theory, is developed. This new hypothesis, called media naturalness hypothesis, states that there is a negative causal link between the degree of naturalness of an e-communication medium (or its similarity to the face-to-face medium) and the degree of cognitive effort required from an individual to use the medium in an e-communication interaction. The new hypothesis is based on an analysis of the evolution of the human biological communication apparatus through natural selection, according to the laws proposed by Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. Key implications for managers are discussed, particularly for the development of business-to-consumer e-communication tools.
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