M Lynne Markus, Tora K Bikson, Maha El-Shinnawy and Louise L Soe
The findings are reported of a field study of media use in 4 sizable subunits within 2 large organizations where most employees had access to electronic mail, voice mail, and fax. Respondents tended to use multiple electronic media rather then relying on one. However, they also showed a tendency to prefer one medium for asynchronous communication and to use the others for occasional, specialized purposes. Further, there were considerable differences across subunits in typical media use patterns. Although respondents expressed strong desires for multimedia integration, the study suggests that technological integration may not necessarily result in seamless, collaborative work.