Prior research on technology and team performance concludes that the fit of the technology to tasks influences team performance. It also suggests that the way teams appropriate technology influences performance. This research examines how fit and appropriation (from the Fit Appropriation Model) influence performance over time. Initially, the results show that fit better predicted performance; teams using poor-fitting technology performed worse than teams with better fitting technology. However, over a short time period (two days in this study), this initial fit no longer predicted performance; performance of teams using better fitting technology remained constant while teams using poor-fitting technology innovated and adapted, improving performance. There are two key findings from this study. First, fit can predict team performance soon after technology adoption, but initial assessments of fit are temporary as teams innovate and adapt; thus, our current theoretical models of fitting technology to a task likely will not be useful beyond the first use. Second, teams should understand how to better adapt existing technology and work structures. Because our current theories of tasktechnology fit failed to predict performance beyond the first use of technology, we believe that this calls for a reconsideration of what fit means for teams using technology.
his paper expands, refines, and explicates media synchronicity theory, originally proposed in a conference proceeding in 1999 (Dennis and Valacich 1999). Media synchronicity theory (MST) focuses on the ability of media to support synchronicity, a shared pattern of coordinated behavior among individuals as they work together. We expand on the original propositions of MST to argue that communication is composed of two primary processes: conveyance and convergence. The familiarity of individuals with the tasks they are performing and with their coworkers will also affect the relative amounts of these two processes. Media synchronicity theory proposes that for conveyance processes, use of media supporting lower synchronicity should result in better communication performance. For convergence processes, use of media supporting higher synchronicity should result in better communication performance. We identify five capabilities of media (symbol sets, parallelism, transmission velocity, rehearsability, and reprocessability) that influence the development of synchronicity and thus the successful performance of conveyance and convergence communication processes. The successful completion of most tasks involving more than one individual requires both conveyance and convergence processes, thus communication performance will be improved when individuals use a variety of media to perform a task, rather than just one medium.