Exploring the impact of instant messaging on subjective task complexity and user satisfaction

Abstract

Instant messaging (IM) technologies are being rapidly deployed in the workplace. Current studies largely focus on the adoption of IM and how IM is used. Little research has been conducted to understand the potential impact of using IM in the workplace. This paper theorizes and empirically tests how the frequency of IM interruptions and the position power of message sender could interact with an individual’s polychronic orientation, that is, multitasking preference, and jointly influence employee satisfaction and subjective task complexity. The present study illustrates that polychronic knowledge workers are more satisfied with the multitasking work process deploying IM technology than monochronic ones. In addition, the effect of interruptions is dependent upon an individual’s polychronic orientation. The increase in interruption frequency only reduces the process satisfaction of monochronic individuals but not polychronic individuals. Further, the polychronic orientation of message receivers also influences how they process information. When IM messages are sent from their supervisors, monochronic individuals tend to prioritize tasks and perceive a lower level of overall task complexity. The information processing of polychronic individuals seem to be less influenced by the position power of message sender.

Keywords:

• instant messaging
• interruption frequency
• polychronicity
• monochronicity
• user satisfaction
• perceived task complexity

Notes

1 1 f² = [R² (interaction model) − R² (main effects model)]/[1−R² (main effects model)].

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Han Li

Han Li is Assistant Professor in School of Business at Minnesota State University Moorhead. She received her master's in Telecommunication Management, and doctorate in Management Science and Information Systems from Oklahoma State University. She has published in Operations Research, Decision Support Systems, Journal of Computer Information Systems, Information Management and Computer Security, and Journal of Information Privacy and Security.

Ashish Gupta

Ashish Gupta is Associate Professor in School of Business at Minnesota State University Moorhead. His research interests are in the areas of information overload, email management, instant messaging, interruptions, healthcare, and simulation modeling. His recent articles appeared in journals such as Communications of AIS, Information Systems Frontiers, Annals of Information Systems, etc. He is on the editorial board of a few journals and guest co-editing special issue of Decision Support Systems on ‘Modeling for Better Healthcare’ and special issue of Information Systems Frontiers on Communication flow. He served as the program committee of AMCIS 2009, as Conference Co-chair of Midwest AIS 2010 conference and workshop on Healthcare Services Management and Modeling.

Xin Luo

Xin Luo is Assistant Professor of MIS at the University of New Mexico, U.S.A. He has published research papers in journals including European Journal of Information Systems, Decision Support Systems, Communications of the ACM, Journal of the AIS, Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, Journal of Organizational and End User Computing, and Communications of the AIS.

Merrill Warkentin

Merrill Warkentin is Professor of MIS at Mississippi State University. He has published over 200 research manuscripts – primarily about IS security, eCommerce, and virtual teams – in books, Proceedings, and journals such as MIS Quarterly, Decision Sciences, European Journal of Information Systems, Decision Support Systems, Communications of the ACM, Communications of the AIS, Information Systems Journal, Information Resources Management Journal, Journal of Organizational and End User Computing, Journal of Global Information Management, and others. Professor Warkentin is the co-author or editor of four books, and is currently an Associate Editor for European Journal of Information Systems, Information Resources Management Journal, Journal of Information Systems Security, and for the Special Issue of MIS Quarterly on IS security. Dr. Warkentin has served as a consultant to numerous organizations and has served as National Distinguished Lecturer for the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).