User Acceptance of Videoconferencing:
Perceptions of Task Characteristics and Media Traits
John A. Campbell
School of Information Systems and Management Science
Faculty of Commerce and Management
Griffith University
Logan Campus
Nathan 4111 Australia
[email protected]
Abstract
While there are several theoretical models that might explain the acceptance and usage of videoconferencing systems, little empirical research has been conducted to corroborate these theories and to establish which factors are important to videoconferencing participants. This study draws on the trait theories of media selection to assess the associations between user acceptance of videoconferencing technology and user perceptions of task characteristics and media traits. The findings show that perceptions of task characteristics and media traits are associated with the perceived utility and ease-of-use of videoconferencing systems.
1. Introduction
Communication activities are the most important aspect of managerial work and account for around 75 percent of the working time of managers [24]. Communication itself is a complex phenomenon involving a variety of norms, rules and assumptions that exist primarily for the purpose of face-to-face communication. While managers still rely predominantly on face-to-face communication, they are becoming more reliant on electronic media alternatives including voice-mail, e-mail and videoconferencing [26]. Because of this trend, it is important to develop a greater understanding of the implications of widespread organizational use of communication technologies on the workplace and individual performance. In particular, a better understanding of the managerial use of videoconferencing is required since videoconferencing usage is rapidly increasing as organizations become more globally focused [14, 16].
While previous research has focused on the acceptance and use of videoconferencing systems, little is known about how user acceptance is related to changes in communication processes within the workplace. Therefore, we investigate how perceptions of communication and workplace experience shape user acceptance of videoconferencing technology. Measures of system utility and ease-of-use are used to provide the categorical basis for examining differences in communication patterns.
The overall research question guiding this study is are user perceptions of task characteristics and media traits associated with user acceptance of videoconferencing
?
2. User Acceptance and Participation in
Videoconferencing
User acceptance is an important indicator of system success [19, 34]. Past research has focused on identifying factors that represent or determine user acceptance including measures of system usage and user satisfaction. For example, system utility and ease-of-use are commonly accepted measures that are viewed as appropriate indicators of user acceptance of new technology applications [1, 9].
Videoconferencing technology can have a profound effect on the structure and pattern of communication within meetings. Videoconferenced meetings tend to be more formal and structured than traditional meetings with less opportunity for social interaction. However, videoconferenced meetings appear to be conducted more efficiently than face-to-face meetings with videoconferencing usage strongly associated with personal standing and visibility within the organization [11, 25, 30, 32].
Videoconferenced meetings differ from face-to-face meetings in important ways including the amount of conflict, meeting structure, task focus, problem complexity, sociability, and communication richness [3]. These factors span the media and task trait theories of media choice theory [5]. The task trait theories posit that media selection involves a trade-off between accessibility with information quality and the need to negotiate meaning or establish social presence. Meeting structure, problem complexity, task focus and group conflict reflect different task characteristics while sociability and communication richness reflect different media traits. These factors are identified and described in the following sub-sections.
2.1 Media traits
Communication richness is concerned with the ability to overcome misunderstandings and individual differences in understanding within videoconferenced meetings and to converge towards a shared understanding. Communication richness refers to the communication enactment processes between meeting participants that allows the development of the coherent and shared meaning necessary to complete the task at hand [17, 18]. In comparison to face-to-face, communication systems capable of supporting only lean information will inhibit the free flow of communication. This may reduce meeting effectiveness, and discourage participation [7, 8]. In videoconferenced meetings, the flow of information exchanges between participants is often slower and less spontaneous than in traditional meetings [12, 30].
Sociability is concerned with the informal interaction between participants and is the central focus in social presence theory [6, 29]. Social presence is defined as the extent to which an individual perceives that others are physically present during communication. Social presence is an important factor in communication with different communication media providing different levels of social presence. The social presence afforded by a communication medium is determined by user perceptions about the socio-emotional similarity of that medium to face-to-face conversation. There is a general consensus within the literature that as bandwidth narrows, the communications channel becomes less suitable for complex social interactions and interpersonal communication [27]. In videoconferencing, compared with face-to-face meeting environments, the feeling of contact or social presence is lessened and communication is likely to be described as less friendly, impersonal, business-like, de-personalized and task oriented [28].
2.2 Task characteristics
Meeting structure is concerned with the degree of structure enforced on meetings by the technology. It is believed that electronic meeting systems enhance participation by providing structure, allowing some processes to be performed in parallel, and preventing conflict and the domination of the group by a few individuals [2, 15, 20]. The structure imposed by videoconferencing technology also encourages better planning and preparation by participants [5, 11].
Problem complexity is concerned with the level of complexity that can be supported by videoconferencing in comparison with face-to-face meetings and includes the depth and frequency of group interaction. This construct relates to the level and depth of interaction required for the task at hand [23]. The problem complexity aspects concerning videoconferencing relate to the scope and scale of the meetings; the number and diversity of meeting participants; meeting frequency; and the size of meeting agendas. The inflexibility of videoconferencing systems causes meetings to become more difficult to manage as problem complexity increases.
Task focus is concerned with the number of interruptions and distractions experienced during videoconferenced meetings. While videoconferencing constrains interaction between participants and enforces structure, the same constraint also encourages greater task focus that can lead to higher quality outcomes and higher user satisfaction [30]. During videoconferenced meetings there is an increase in meeting formality thereby restricting the number of distractions and outside interruptions.
Group conflict is concerned with the incidence of misunderstandings, interjections and conflict between group members. There is considerable evidence in the literature that groups using electronic communication systems have more difficulty in achieving consensus than face-to-face groups [22]. Videoconferencing does not have the capacity to support meetings involving arbitration [21]. This has been confirmed in empirical studies that have examined the suitability of videoconferencing for different communication activities [4, 16].
3. Method
The objective of this study is to assess the relationship between user acceptance and the impact of videoconferencing on how meetings are conducted. The success of videoconferencing is firmly linked to user attitude, and the emphasis on user perceptions in this study recognizes the sovereignty of user attitudes in determining system usage [1, 9].
Although public videoconferencing facilities are generally accessible and comparatively inexpensive to
hire on an hourly basis, the impact of the technology on organizational communication is most evident where house facilities exist. A survey was conducted of the in-house group videoconferencing system users in the Brisbane office of an Australian government department. The survey was distributed to the 125 office staff who had experience with the in-house videoconferencing facilities. Eighty completed survey forms were returned, providing a 64 percent response rate.
Over 60 percent of respondents had one year or less experience and 45 percent had not used the videoconferencing facilities during the four weeks preceding the survey. Approximately 64 percent of respondents were male with a mean age of 38 years (over 57 percent were aged between 31 and 45 years). The average length of employment with the organization was approximately nine years. More than 66 percent of respondents reported a university level education and 55 percent were middle management or professional staff.
In summary, respondents were approaching middle age, had a considerable length of service with their present organization, and were well educated with the majority having a university degree. Organizational level, tenure, education and the age of respondents did not appear to have any influence on the level of participation in videoconferenced meetings.
3.1 Measures
There are many ways to evaluate the usefulness of videoconferencing systems. The evaluation criteria can differ significantly depending on which stakeholder view is adopted (for example: user, customer, developer or manager). However it is the user perspective which provides the strongest indicator of system effectiveness and acceptance [13, 31, 33].
Figure 1 describes how task and media traits, usefulness and ease-of-use relate to user acceptance of videoconferencing technology. In videoconferenced meetings, participants are not able to interact in the same way as in face-to-face meetings. For example, the flow of information between videoconferencing participants is often slower and less spontaneous than in traditional face-to-face meetings. The two indicators of user acceptance used in this study are adapted from the utility and ease-of-use instruments developed and extensively validated by Davis [9]. Utility and ease-of-use are seen as fundamental determinants of user acceptance of technology-based systems [1]. The utility of a technology is defined as the extent that an individual believes his or her job performance will be improved or enhanced by using a particular system. Ease-of-use is defined as the extent that a person believes that using a system is free of effort. Consequently, technology applications that are easy to use and high in perceived utility are more likely to be accepted by users. The utility instrument consisted of six
questions while the ease-of-use instrument consisted of five questions. The original wording is not altered except to refer to the "videoconferencing system" where
Media Traits • Communication richness • Sociability Task Characteristics • Meeting structure • Problem complexity • Task focus • Group conflict User Acceptance
Figure 1. User acceptance model
Utility Ease-of-Use
appropriate. Each item consisted of a seven-point scale anchored by the phrases "Strongly Agree" and "Strongly Disagree".
User perceptions of task characteristics and media traits were assessed using a thirty-item instrument representing the changes in how meetings are conducted when using videoconferencing technology [3]. These changes in organizational communication affect how users perceive the task characteristics of meetings and the capability of the medium to support rich information. Each item also consisted of a seven-point scale anchored by the phrases "Large Increase" and "Large Decrease". The item communalities are shown in Table 1.
3.2 Analysis
The survey data were assessed for violations of the assumptions of multivariate analysis. As the sample distribution measures of skewness and kurtosis were within acceptable limits for all variables used in this study, no data transformations were required. The relationships between the variables were initially explored through correlation analysis. To address the research question, MANOVA was used to assess the specific relationship between user acceptance of videoconferencing and user perceptions of task characteristics and media traits. The acceptance level for all tests was set at p ≤ .05.
4. Results
Correlations and factor reliabilities for all variables are displayed in Table 2. There is a significant positive correlation between perceived ease-of-use and utility. For both the ease-of-use and utility variables, there are significant positive correlations with communication richness, sociability, meeting structure, problem complexity, and task focus variables. Many of the task characteristic and media trait variables are also significantly correlated with each other. However, user perceptions of group conflict appear unrelated to perceptions of system utility or ease-of-use.
The median values for utility and ease-of-use were used to categorize the data into high and low perception groups. A one-way MANOVA was then used for each user acceptance instrument for the main analysis. The results of this analysis are contained in Table 3 and show that both models indicate a significant association between the categorical and trait variables. For both models, higher perceptions of utility and ease-of-use were associated with higher scores for all of the media and task attributes bar group conflict. User perceptions of ease-of-use were shown to relate significantly with differences in user
perceptions of communication richness, meeting structure and meeting complexity. User perceptions of utility were shown to relate significantly with differences in user perceptions of communication richness, sociability, meeting structure, meeting complexity and task focus. While both high ease-of-use and high utility groups perceived less conflict in videoconferenced meetings than the respective low score groups, the differences are not statistically significant.
Table 1. Communalities for user perceptions of task characteristics and media traits
Variables Communality
Communication Richness
Mutual understanding within meetings 0.86 Opportunity to express opinions 0.86 Achieving meeting objectives 0.85 Level of consensus within meetings 0.84 General acceptance of meeting outcomes 0.80 Quality of decision making 0.76 Ease of participation in meetings 0.75 Depth of analysis within meetings 0.74 Meeting confidentiality 0.52
Sociability
Non-task related communication 0.88 Social presence during meetings 0.86 Social conversations within meetings 0.83 Interaction within meetings 0.82 Informal communication during meetings 0.74
Meeting Structure
Task orientation within meetings 0.85
Meeting preparation 0.75
Meeting structure 0.72
Level of co-operation within meetings 0.68
Meeting effectiveness 0.59
Meeting formality 0.59
Problem Complexity
Number of meeting participants 0.85
Meeting frequency 0.83
The size of meeting agendas 0.74
Task Focus
Distractions during meetings 0.91 Number of meeting interruptions 0.91 The scope of meeting agendas 0.81
Group Conflict
Number of misunderstandings 0.86 Conflict within meetings 0.73 Interjections within meetings 0.65
Table 2. Correlations and reliabilities for the study variables Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1. Ease of Use (.94) 2. Utility .30 (.95) 3. Communication richness .50 .54 (.91) 4. Sociability .27 .28 .63 (.88) 5. Meeting Structure .36 .41 .50 .20 (.78) 6. Problem complexity .47 .37 .56 .42 .48 (.73) 7. Task focus .34 .28 .40 .43 .35 .51 (.85) 8. Group Conflict .01 −.04 .23 .50 .04 .23 .40 (.67)
Note: All correlation coefficients with absolute values > .22 are significant at p < .05 or lower Cronbach's alpha for each study variable is displayed in parenthesis
Table 3. Differences in media trait and task characteristic viewpoints between groups of users with high and low perceptions of videoconferencing ease-of-use and utility
Media Traits Task Characteristics
Variables Communication Richness Sociability Meeting Structure Problem Complexity Task Focus Group Conflict Ease of Use F(6, 73) = 2.28 p < .05 Mean differences as a percentage of low ease-of-use F(1, 78) = 10.37 p < .01 14.3% Not Significant 5.1% F(1, 78) = 4.07 p < .05 9.7% F(1, 78) = 5.02 p < .03 11.6% Not Significant 9.4% Not Significant −2.2% Utility F(6, 73) = 3.26 p < .01 Mean differences as a percentage of low utility F(1, 78) = 15.02 p < .01 17.0% F(1, 78) = 3.88 p < .05 9.2% F(1, 78) = 5.57 p < .02 11.2% F(1, 78) = 4.76 p < .03 11.3% F(1, 78) = 4.64 p < .03 12.1% Not Significant −2.4%
Note: Although no express relationship was hypothesized, the interaction between the ease-of-use and utility variables was also investigated. No significant interaction was found between these two variables
5. Discussion
This study has investigated videoconferencing acceptance by assessing the association between perceptions of utility and ease-of-use with perceptions of task characteristics and media traits. Past research has not examined the role of these factors in shaping the attitudes and views of videoconferencing participants. The findings reaffirm the importance of the media richness and social presence aspects of media choice theory in explaining user acceptance. Users are more accepting of videoconferencing if they perceive that the medium can support high levels of interactivity. However, the results also show that perceptions of system usefulness and ease-of-use are contingent on task characteristics. Both results reaffirm the importance of how media influences the way that information is communicated.
The findings have significant consequences for practitioners and researchers. System developers often over-emphasize the macro-level advantages of using communication technologies while underestimating the importance of creating systems that are easy to use and capable of supporting diverse communication activities. In the implementation of videoconferencing systems, perceptions of the changes to how meetings are conducted are important indicators of user acceptance.
This study used data from a single site within one organization thus significantly reducing the external validity of the findings. Despite this shortcoming, the research context did provide significant benefits. First, use of the in-house videoconferencing facility was long established in the organization and the employees had no vested interest in the success or otherwise of the technology. Second, as the study focused on one site only, the findings should not have been confounded by the existence of different social perspectives on the medium. Third, field research into the effects of videoconferencing technology is scarce. This analysis provides a valuable insight into the role of videoconferencing technology in organizational communication.
A number of instruments were used to measure the variables of interest in this study. While the reliabilities of most measures were within acceptable limits, some items would benefit from further development.
Greater consideration should be given to gaining a better understanding of the interaction between technological and human factors. Future research should also consider whether attitudes towards videoconferencing are uniformly developed across organizational boundaries and within other organizational contexts.
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