Virtual status and tenure as moderators of the relationship between communication media usage and organizational identification.

摘要

The purpose of the present dissertation is to explore how organizational identification is created and maintained in the context of a virtual organization. Virtual organizations are those organizations in which at least some employees work remotely and which utilize communication technologies to enable employees, regardless of location, to communicate and work with other employees. Organizational identification, the extent to which one's values and decision-making premises converge with that of the organization, is critical in the virtual organization context since it provides the glue that holds a dispersed workforce together as an organization.;The focus of the present dissertation is communication since it is the vehicle through which the process of organizational identification occurs. I examine the communication medium given that communication technologies enable the very existence of virtual organizations. The primary relationship under investigation is that between frequency of communication media usage and level of organizational identification. Virtual status, the percentage of time spent working outside of the central office, and tenure are examined as moderating variables. Examining these moderating variables allows the present researcher to determine whether or not certain communication media are more effective than others in creating and maintaining organizational identification in a virtual context and whether or not we can distinguish those communication media associated with creating organizational identification from those associated with maintaining the same phenomenon.;Using multiple regression analysis, the present researcher examines the variance in organizational identification that can be attributed to the main effects of communication media usage, tenure and virtual status and the interaction effects between communication media usage and tenure and between communication media usage and virtual status.;The present study reveals that there is a positive relationship between frequency of communication and organizational identification. The present study also reveals that neither virtual status nor tenure significantly moderate the relationship between communication media usage and organizational identification. The final chapter of the present dissertation discusses its limitations, its implications for theory and areas for future research.