PREDICTING PERFORMANCE EFFICIENCY WITH A TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION: AN EXAMINATION OF THREE COMMUNICATION VARIABLES (LISTENING, INTERACTION

In today's information age, technological change has become the key to organizational survival. Organizations are continually reassessing how to improve operating efficiency through the implementation of new technology. Researchers have recognized the importance of studying the process of innovation, and studies have been conducted which indicate that communication is critical to the diffusion of new ideas. However, exactly how employee communication behavior influences productivity with technological innovations has not been specifically investigated. Since most new technology is introduced to organizations with the intent of improving productivity, a key area of inquiry has been neglected. Thus, an experiment was conducted to examine the relationship between employee communication behavior and performance with new technology.;Drawing upon the communication and innovation literature, three communication variables were identified as being vital to the use of new technology: (1) communicator competence, (2) listening, and (3) interaction frequency. These three variables were selected because each can influence the quality and quantity of information employees receive regarding how to use an innovation.;Three hypotheses and a research question were identified. The three hypotheses proposed that each of the communication variables would explain a significant amount of the variance in employee performance with a technological innovation. In addition, a research question was raised about whether there existed a relationship between each of these three communication variables and the speed at which one learns to use new technology.;Measures of communication were administered to 128 employees and their performance with a new computer was assessed. Step-wise regression analysis was used to test the three hypotheses and address the research question.;Analysis of the data indicated that communicator competence, listening, and interaction frequency each explained a significant amount of the variance in employee productivity with new technology. In addition, communicator competence and interaction frequency were significant predictors of the speed at which one learns to use a technological innovation.;These findings provide strong support for the argument that communication behavior accounts for differences in employee performance with technological innovations. The implications of this study for organizational research and for communication training are discussed.