Testing the Theory of Electronic Propinquity: Organizational Teleconferencing

Abstract

The present article reports an experiment conducted in order to test the recently formulated “Theory of Electronic Propinquity.” In the original study, the author proposed a structural-functional approach to mediated communication in which perceived propinquity was considered to be the essential system trait for the continuation of the human communication system in organizations. Psychological propinquity was considered to affect the degree to which members of an organization experience communication satisfaction. A 3 times 2 experiment was conducted where the treatments were three business conference situations (face-to-face, video. and audio only) with two different levels of complexity of information in a problem-solving task. The results of the equation for perceived propinquity indicated that only perceived feedback was a significant contributor. The results of the equation for communication satisfaction indicated that perceived feedback, perceived level of communication rules, and psychological propinquity were significant contributors. The major finding of the study, was the importance of perceived feedback in accounting for variance in communication satisfaction. Psychological propinquity, however, was found to mediate the impact of perceived feedback on the communication satisfaction of the participants. Finally, the shortcomings of the experiment were discussed as well as the implications of the study for future research and theory-building efforts.

Emergency Remote Foreign Language Learning: First Reflections

“…First, the direction of the transition from F2F to CMC sessions, rather than in the opposite direction, and the emergency circumstances under which it occurred, may have played a crucial role in influencing students' attitudes on this issue. As evidenced by other investigations, when communicators have already had an alternative media experience (live F2F, for example), computer-mediated communication "should be the least satisfying" [23]. That was the case in this study.…”

Effectiveness of Politicians' Soft Campaign on Twitter Versus TV: Cognitive and Experiential Routes

“…Considering that (a) interactivity refers to “the extent to which source and receiver are interchangeable roles” and “the ability to influence the presentation of content” (Walther, Gay, & Hancock, , p. 640) and (b) interactivity positively predicts presence (Lombard & Ditton, ; Steuer, ), such awareness of the interaction potential may foster the illusory perception of face‐to‐face conversation with the candidate. In fact, studies have confirmed the hypothesized link between interactivity and presence, such that perceived feedback was positively associated with psychological propinquity (Korzenny & Bauer, ) and users felt stronger social presence of the computer agent when allowed to determine the order of message presentation (Skalski & Tamborini, ). In a similar vein, if more structured communication with a larger number of rules for interactants to follow lowers perceived propinquity (Korzenny, ), a TV talk show featuring a carefully orchestrated and potentially scripted interaction between the candidate and the hosts, created in compliance with various rules and regulations governing its production, might suppress social presence.…”

“…Along with the ability to convey multiple sensory cues, for example, media richness theory lists the ability to provide immediate feedback (Daft & Lengel, ) as one of the key determinants of media richness, with face‐to‐face interaction offering the richest information of all. Although it highlights the joint function of multiple factors beyond fixed properties of the medium, electronic propinquity theory also treats the bandwidth of the medium and mutual directionality as major predictors of psychological proximity (Korzenny, ; Korzenny & Bauer, ). These two factors seem to be particularly relevant to the current comparison between TV and Twitter for their relative effectiveness as a campaign venue, because depending on which factor takes precedence over the other, opposite predictions can be derived.…”

“It Feels Right. Therefore, I Feel Present and Enjoy”: The Effects of Regulatory Fit and the Mediating Roles of Social Presence and Self-Presence in Avatar-Based 3D Virtual Environments

“…Electronic propinquity refers to ''electronic proximity, or electronic nearness, or electronic presence'' (Korzenny, 1978, p. 7). Propinquity is strongly correlated with satisfaction, communication effectiveness, and task accomplishment (Korzenny & Bauer, 1981). Although the theory did not originally consider the internet, e-mail, and real-time CMC, its conceptual definitions and basic propositions offer a broad and powerful approach to understanding the effects of electronic media (Walther & Bazarova, 2008).…”