The growth in the number of businesses operating remotely has increased to a monumental level because of obvious reasons. But with the sudden shift to a remote workspace, the need for a good communication system in an organization became more pressing. A good communication system makes sure that the information is being transferred effectively using the different mediums of communication.
Establishing a good communication system starts with defining the different mediums of communication for different situations. A lot of research has been done in the field of communication to help organizations figure out the best way to use different mediums of communication.
Media Richness Theory is the result of one such research by Richard L. Daft and Robert Lengel in the year 1986. Leaders of today can leverage Marginal Richness Theory to strengthen the pillar of communication in their remote teams.
Marginal Research Theory tries to describe the ability of a communication medium to transmit information successfully and with the most clarity(unequivocal).
Messages aren't mere words but they also consist of gestures, body language, and the tone of the message. All of these when compiled together transmit complete information to the person on the receiving end. The richness of a medium refers to its ability to reproduce different components of a message like body language, gestures, etc. Mediums that can do it with the least difficulty and within the shortest amount of time are the richest whereas others that can't are called lean/poor mediums.
From face-to-face meetings to voice calls to Emails, there are tons of communication channels that a business uses. All of these channels are not equal and therefore are suited for different kinds of messages.
For a message to convey the right meaning(as desired by the sender) it needs to be unequivocal. Equivocality refers to the ambiguousness of a message. Messages that are not straightforward or routine can be misinterpreted if not conveyed using the appropriate medium.
There must have been a lot of times where your teammates took your message in the wrong way and you'd have to personally call them or get on a video conference to explain what did you actually mean. To avoid a message from being equivocal you are required to provide additional information like gestures, body language, etc. Therefore a richer medium is used for messages of this sort.
Uncertainty refers to the gap between the knowledge that you possess and the knowledge required to do the underlying job. You are to make sure that you provide as much information as possible for the other person to do the required task. The information needed to be transmitted to reduce uncertainty is pretty straightforward. A rich medium like a video call would only overwhelm the receiver with information and not reduce uncertainty. Therefore a leaner medium should be used.
If you want your design and content team to prepare a landing page then all information of what should go in the landing page, the offers, etc. are to be communicated through lean mediums(to reduce uncertainty) and everything regarding how you want the page to look and sound like and what goals you want to accomplish should be communicated using rich mediums(to reduce equivocality).