Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-1998

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Communication

Major Professor

Mark Miller

Committee Members

Michael Singlestary, Edward Caudill, David Houston

Abstract

The twentieth century has been shaped by sweeping changes in communication technology. The latest development to radically transform the communication landscape has been the widespread adoption of internet technology and its integration into the international communication infrastructure. Despite the changes it has brought about, as well as those it portends, relatively few studies have sought to identify the factors that influence the diffusion of internet technology either in society in general or in an organizational setting.

This study begins to consider two sets of factors that may influence the diffusion of internet technology. First, it examines the importance of organizational heterogeneity, a key concept of critical mass theory, to the diffusion of internet technology within organizations. It then probes the nature of the relationship between interpersonal and organizational factors in terms of how they affect the diffusion of internet technology through organizations.

Data for the study was generated by a survey which was administered to employees at six Department of Energy facilities operated by Lockheed Martin Corporation's Energy and Environment Sector. The survey was made available in three formats: on the Worldwide Web, as an e-mail message, and in a traditional paper format. Overall, 9040 survey solicitations were distributed, and 2711 usable responses were received. yielding a 30% response rate. The data gathered in this study was analyzed using descriptive analyses, as well as t-tests and multiple regression analyses of the study's hypotheses.

This study is a small step in the direction of understanding the processes and identifying the factors that influence the diffusion of internet technology in the workplace. Its findings include support for the following assertions:

1) Higher levels of organizational heterogeneity catalyze the diffusion process by positively influencing factors associated with internet technology in the following areas: level of use, attitudes. organizational support, and perceived managerial support.

2) Critical mass theory provides a set of organizational environment variables within which traditional, individual/interpersonal diffusion of innovation variables operate under greater or lesser constraints. This relationship can be described by two generalizations:

  • High-heterogeneity organizations tend to create an environment within which organizational factors enable the diffusion reaction to proceed unimpeded—possibly reaching critical mass.
  • Low-heterogeneity organizations tend to create an environment within which organizational factors moderate the diffusion reaction, either slowing or stopping its progress toward critical mass.

3) Rather than defining divergent views of the diffusion process, critical mass theory and traditional diffusion of innovation theory seem to provide complementary explanations of different aspects of the process by which interactive innovations diffuse through organizations.

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