Unintended consequences of computer-mediated communications

Abstract

This paper explores the unintended consequences of computer-mediated communications by adopting a typology suggested by the sociologist Robert Merton. The typology is used to present a thematic analysis drawn from the literature on computer-mediated communications and two new studies. The first study considered the impact of computer-mediated technology on communicative behaviour in general, and involved 22 managers working in locations in the UK and USA. The second study focused on electronic mail and drew upon the responses of 70 managers. The paper suggests that Merton's analysis of unintended consequences provides a framework which expands our ability to explain issues associated with the implementation of computer-mediated communications and discusses intervention and laissez-faire as two implicit responses evident in the recent literature.

Keywords:

• Computer mediated communications
• Unintended consequences
• Structuration theory
• Video conferencing
• Electronic mail
• Internet

Notes

Merton uses the phrase ‘unanticipated consequences’, while more recent work by Giddens suggests the phrase ‘unintended consequences’. The term ‘unintended’ is used within the paper because this more closely makes the point about agency which is so central to structuration theory, which has been influential within information systems research.

Both case studies are described under fictitious names in order to respect confidentiality.

Later use of quotations drawn from the interviews differentiate country of origin. US 1 therefore refers to an interview conducted in the USA, while UK 1 is an interview conducted in the UK.

The range and choice of tasks was refined during the pre-testing of the instrument which was carried out within the company.

The conventional theoretical interpretation is to justify the increased use of electronic mail over time through the argument that media richness is not an objective phenomenon. Although benchmarking experienced managers against novices is not without obvious limitations, recognising Merton's analysis provides a critical edge to the interpretation of technological practice because it admits the possibility that normal social practice may be dysfunctional. Habermas famously provides a discussion of this point in drawing the distinction between positivism, hermeneutics and critical social theory, arguing that hermeneutics may reveal no more nor less than conventional knowledge or the status quo.