Among the many kinds of CMC, EM has been chosen because it is widely diffused in large or hi-tech organizations, but at the same time it belongs to the set of advanced information technologies. Moreover most empirical researches in this field investigate just the impact of EM communication systems, and so it allows us to directly compare our findings with those. Finally, where mailing lists have been created it is possible also to employ also new analytical tools, like webometrics. Basically EM communication is contrasted principally to FtF and other forms of communication. Good point

3. Theoretical Background

Structuration theory, social constructionism and neo-institutionalism can be grouped into the same class of social definition theories (Markus 1994), according to which

While in the very long run –in terms of decades- it is reasonable to expect, at least for interacting communities, a sort of uniformity of perceptions and uses of technology (Pinch & Bijker 1987; Yates & Orlikowski 1992), as happened in the case of telephone technology, in the short run any community or organization develop its own form of adoption, use and diffusion of the same technology, depending on its specific purpose, culture, social context, structure and even single individuals. Structuration theory, based on Giddens’ works (1979, 1984), allows for a more micro-level approach respect to neo-institutionalism, and for a more dynamic approach respect to social network analysis, even being compatible with both. The ways to perceive, appropriate and use technology depend on social context. See article on methaphors and see also article: The context of Conversations , texts and communities (Weigand, H, Hoppenbrouwers, S, de Moor, A.)

Social constructionism and actor-network theory (SCANT) derives from studies on the sociology of science and technology (Latour 1991) and studies on the epistemology of social sciences (Berger & Luckman 1966). While they are fully compatible with second order cybernetics (Biggiero 1998; Butts & Brown1989; Glasersfeld 1995; Twomwy Fosnot1996) and with some perspectives in post-positivist epistemology (Biggiero 1998; …), they developed independently. However current literature about organizational consequences of information technology neglects such consistencies and until now refers merely on sociological versions, which are just expressed by SCANT. Besides the common views concerning the relevance of social context for the many possible ways to adopt and diffuse technology, SCANT differs in some points from AST.

Basically, differences consist:

1. in breaking up the identification of the social dimension with the social context and of the technology with the content. At the opposite of AST, “we argue for definitions of content and context that recognize the technical and social composition of both, and which are sensitive to their essentially constructional nature. That is to say, the composition of content and context are not predetermined by technological design or by the prior existence of certain social groups, and not should the boundary between the two be legislated a priori by the analyst. Instead we argue that the heterogeneous composition of both content and context are variable and constructed in situ by the relevant actor-networks in the process of developing an organizational electronic communications project. A further corollary of this approach is that the boundary of contextual influences upon the communications project does not map on to the boundary of the organization in which it is situated, but may extend far wider as the actors engaged in the project mobilize the necessary resources to develop the project” (Lea, O’Shea & Fung 1995: 463);
2. in looking at structure and action as two reciprocal influencing forces, without a prevalence of the structure over the action. Social constructionism of technology “focuses on tracing the development of the forms and functions of technology through the construction of different meanings by pre-existing relevant social groups, such as different categories of end-user. Actor-network theory on the other hand argues that these social groups are themselves constructed in part by the technology; that the process of constructing technology and it users is a reflexive one in which both technology and social groups mutually elaborate each other” (Lea, O’Shea & Fung 1995: 464);
3. in giving the language and symbols a crucial role in the interplay between technology and society (organization). Particularly important are the language and behaviors of technology-use mediators Orlikowski et al. 1995), because they influence the way the technology of EM communication is adopted and diffused, and relevantly contribute to create a genre of EM communication (Yates, Orlikowski & Okamura 1999), which is specific of any organization (Yates & Orlikowski 1992), and is inserted into its genre repertoire (Orlikowski & Yates 1994).

Second order cybernetics (SOC) provides a very useful perspective to study holistic and feedback aspects of organizations, and problems of system (group) identity and recursive interactions (Foerster 1982; Ulrich & Probst 1984). Constructivism (Glasersfeld 1995) is the underlying epistemology, and it is consistent with social constructionism (Biggiero 1998). The roots of cybernetics, which are just into the mathematical theory of information and in computer science, make second order cybernetics a privileged candidate for studying virtual organizations, and facing issues concerning the creation and maintenance of system identity. “At some point in the course of their history virtual enterprises reach a crossroad, where they have to decide between maintaining their unity (autopoiesis) and accepting a transformation from a virtual organization into an enterprise organized in accordance with classic means (i.e. organized by others), or they will keep their virtual character with a concurrent loss of social entity, leading to a loosely related networked organization” (Paetau 1999: 41).

Political interactionist theory (PIT) “predicts that information systems would be resisted by potential users if they cause a re-distribution of power that either conflicts with the organizational structure (objective definition) or with the interests of individuals who are likely to lose power as a result of the implementation (subjective definition)” (Romm & Pliskin 1999: 28). Starting from Markus’s warnings about negative social uses of EM communication technology, Romm & Pliskin (1999) claim that “EM can lend itself to deliberate abuse by individuals who take advantage of its unique technical features to promote their political agenda (1999: 29). Besides the “petty tyranny” acted by a single individual, in more general terms we can suppose that different groups of coalitions (Pfeffer & Salancik 1978) can take place, creating sub-networks within the organizational intranet or externally through internet. We argue that the group diversity can enhance the structuring of coalitions.

4. Research Design

General research framework (tab. 1) is structured comparing three types of organizations between themselves and between different countries, which are those involved as research partners. The three types of organizations are European research groups, national research institutes and corporate accounting departments. The former are chosen among those financed by European research programs, like TSER, ESPRIT, etc. These organizations are supposed to be characterized by high task complexity, high degree of self-organization, the nature of group of peers, an international culture and a high geographical distance. At the opposite the latter are supposed to be characterized by low task complexity, low self-organization, a strong hierarchy, local (organizational, or even departmental) culture, and low geographical distance. National research institutes are supposed to be in the middle between the other two, that is, to show a medium degree of task complexity and of self-organization, a weak hierarchy, a national culture and a medium geographical distance.

In this section we discuss how explaining variables can affect the relationship between EM introduction/adoption/diffusion and a set of organizational consequences (tab. 2). Note that not every explaining variable affects all organizational consequences.

Task complexity. The differentiation of task complexity is useful to understand whether CMC is more (or solely) effective in communication related to low task complexity, as information richness theory predicts (Daft & Lengel 1984, 1986). According to March (1990), Nohria & Eccles (1992) and Weick (1995), even the degree of ambiguity declines with the decrease of complexity, and trust is not significantly requested (Bradach & Eccles 1989; Gambetta 1988). According to cues-filtered-out approaches (Culnan & Markus 1987; Daft & Lengel 1984, 1986; Dubrovsky et al. 1991; Lea et al. 1992; Nohria & Eccles 1992; Siegel et al. 1986; Sproull & Kiesler 1986) trust can be supported merely with FtF communication, because it is the richest of cues media and allows also for touch (Handy 1995). Therefore, if those approaches are right, we should find low trust and EM diffusion highly correlated in low task complexity. At least, developing the analysis at a very micro-level, we should find that, ceteris paribus, the content of messages exchanged through EM are much less complex than those through FtF. This analysis can be compared with that previously realized by Markus (1994), Jarvenpaa & Leidner (1998), and especially with that made by Walther (1995), where the time variable is explicitly take into account, because trust and EM effectiveness could change over time.

It is also interesting to study how task complexity affects negative or political abuse of EM communication (Cezec-Kecmanovic et al. 1999; Pliskin et al. 1993; Romm & Pliskin 1999; Romm et al. 1991) . When considered as an open-end technology (Weick 1990), EM could allow equivocality and hence distort usage more in high than in low complex tasks. Moreover, the formation and characteristics of a group’s genre repertoire can vary depending on task complexity: it can be expected that the more complex the task, the wider the genre repertoire. Finally, even the supposed effect of EM communication of increasing the degree of participation in decision making can vary strongly with tasks’ levels of complexity: high complex tasks imply per se a higher degree of participation (Shetzer 1993), so its possible increase would be much more significant in low complex tasks. In general terms, both communication media and task complexity affect the group decision support system.

Degree of self-organization. The possible equivalence between FtF and EM communication, in the short and in the long run, is expected to be influenced by the degree of self-organization, because the lower it is the lower is the need of communication, and particularly of rich communication. Another aspect is that of trust, which is also less requested in hierarchical (low self-organizing) groups. Thus, if trust cannot be supported by EM communication, this latter should be more diffused in groups where trust is less requested.

An influence of the degree of self-organization on the relationship between EM communication and petty tyranny or groups of coalitions can also be hypothesized. Due to asynchronicity, EM is an easier way of communication, respect to FtF, which requests the simultaneous presence of interacting parts. When the degree of self-organization is high can be supposed that an easy way of communication can favor the formation of groups of coalitions within the organization. Thus we could expect that in high self-organizing organizations the rate of creation of groups of coalitions is higher than in organizations with a lower degree of self-organization. By definition, the higher the degree of self-organization, the higher the degree of participation, because the less hierarchical is the system.

Cultural diversity. Cultural diversity between organizational members can limit the degree of substitution between FtF and EM, and hinder the formation of trust and identity. It is reasonably to expect also that cultural diversity enhance the formation of groups of coalition and allows for political or power use of EM communication, while hinders the degree of participation. Moreover, it is likely that, at the increasing of cultural diversity, the type of GDSS is oriented toward more formal types.

Social context. The characteristics of social context of organizational members affect the same consequences of the cultural diversity variable, even if possibly in different directions, depending just on the kind of characteristics. Moreover, they influence also the degree of diffusion of EM communication and the formation and structure of genre repertoire.

Technology-use mediators (and leaders). It is likely to expect that technology-use mediators and leaders affect all the seven organizational consequences, because “the use of a new electronic medium within a community is strongly influenced not just by users but also by those individuals who implement the technology, provide training, propose usage guidelines, and alter the technology to adapt it to changing conditions of use” (Yates, Orlikowski & Okamura 1999: 83).

Geographical distance. The geographical distance seems to have main effects on the first three kind of organizational consequences: positively on the degree of diffusion of EM communication and on the degree of substitution between FtF and EM, and negatively on the formation of trust and identity.

European research groups can be selected in order to have those which created a mailing list, and therefore used a mix of communication media, ranging from most advanced, like videoconferencing, to the most traditional, like FtF. The characteristic of using mailing lists allows for employing new quantitative and qualitative analytical tools, like webometrics (see below at §5). Compared with the other two kinds of organizations, European research groups have also the peculiarity to be projects, and therefore to be temporary and small sized. These peculiarities are very interesting, because allow us to understand the complete life cycle of the group, and hence to explore the full potential of all forms of communication. Usually the time span ranges over 2-3 years of collaboration. Moreover, people likely did not know each other until the start up of the projects, and thus the dynamics of interaction patterns emerge in a pure way, that is, not influenced by previous reciprocal knowledge. Consequently, the potentiality and the nature of the various communication channels can manifest in a full way. European research groups are kinds of organizations fully comparable with global virtual teams (Jarvenpaa & Leidner 1998), which are characterized by no common past or future, culturally diverse and geographically dispersed, and electronic communicating. These characteristics seem to hinder, if not prevent, trust formation, but empirical findings show that where trust was high teams were “more capable of managing the uncertainty, complexity and expectations of the virtual environment” (Jarvenpaa & Leidner 1998: 27). Previous researches dealt with the same issue (Capron, Massart & Nauelleau 1999), pointing at the crucial role played by information technologies in virtual teams.

5. Research Methodology

Research methodologies are centered on the longitudinal analysis of the three organizations in each country. The field research is constituted by interviews with organization members, focused on structures and differences between FtF and CMC communication. A special attention is paid to the time dimension, in order to understand how both ways of communication evolved over time, and particularly what changed from the beginning of the introduction of EM. Likely, in national research institutes and accounting departments, the problem of members’ turnover should be faced, because it affects organizational memory. Besides interviews, documents will also used, to evidence group decision support systems (GDSS) and relational patterns. To this aim, written paper documents, like meetings’ agendas and reports, will be analyzed, with a special use of the innovative tool of webometric analysis, which is allowed by mailing lists. In short, it is possible, through the archive of each mailing list, to analyze the structure and the style of the communication. This would be a nice job for me! Beyond the issue of exploring the content of communication, in terms of personal/professional, formal/confidential, etc., this analysis allows for the understanding of meaning and genre creation and change, and of the role played by technological users and group leaders in such an evolutionary process.

6. Open Problems

A number of problems are left open by this research project and should be worked out through one year of collective work, funded and supported by Accompanying Measures option within the V Framework Programme. It is supposed that four meetings along one year could drive to prepare a sound and complete project. Main problems are the following:

1. better focusing compatibility and incompatibility between four theoretical approaches implied (SCANT, AST, PIT and SOC);
2. to identify precisely a set of “experimentum crucis”, in order to falsify other theoretical approaches and to choose between SCANT and AST. In this latter case the main question is how to show that there is no superior technology in absolute sense and how technology is modified and shaped by social use;
3. to rigorously operationalize concepts and methods of the four theoretical approaches, and to formulate precise research questions and hypotheses;
4. to specify the exact research methodology, in terms of data set, interviews, documents, etc.
5. to understand if and how explaining variables reciprocally interact. For instance, task complexity can influence also the relationship between social context and consequences of EM communication, because it could be supposed that high complex tasks are associated and performed by people belonging to different social context respect to people working in low complex tasks. Even the role of technology-use mediators in EM communication may vary a lot depending on task complexity: it is reasonably to expect that the openness and versatility associated with high task complexity give more relevance to technology-use mediators;
6. to discuss whether two couples of explaining variables –task complexity/degree of self-organization and cultural diversity/social context- can be simplified to two singles;
7. to identify broader expected research fallout;
8. to suggest normative implications for organizations and social systems.

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