Improving Business Processes Electronically: An Action Research Study in New Zealand and the US

Behavior toward electronic communication media continues to present contradictory characteristics that often puzzle researchers. A review of past research on electronic communication suggests two possible reasons for this: a dearth of studies addressing complex problems faced by organizations through the use of electronic communication, and a lack of theoretical frameworks that incorporate apparent contradictions in electronic communication behavior. This study addresses these two limitations. The first limitation is addressed through the choice of an applied field research approach, namely action research. The second limitation is addressed through the use of a theoretical model to guide our study, the compensatory adaptation model, which addresses contradictory characteristics associated with behavior toward electronic communication media found in past research. We investigate the impact of the use of an asynchronous and distributed electronic communication tool on 8 business process improvement groups, 4 in New Zealand and 4 in the USA. The study suggests that even though the use of electronic communication media seems to increase the cognitive effort required from group members, it has a positive impact on knowledge sharing among group members and group outcome quality. These results are consistent across countries, and generally support predictions based on the compensatory adaptation model.