Effectiveness of Communication Technology

Semi structured interview questions were asked the participants which included the decision makers of Alpha+ Healthcare Solutions. The demographic profile of the interviewees included one male participant and five female participants. Of these participants, the organizational structure of the organization reflects that two of them are the most superior in whom resides the power to give final approvals to decisions made on behalf of the organization.
The four research questions in this study were answered using the interview questions responses by the key respondents; a review of the vendor contract and description documents obtained from the organization under study; a reflection on the theoretical framework theories discussed under literature review i.e. the media richness theory, the technology acceptance model, diffusion of innovation, theory of reasoned action and planned behavior.
RQ 1: How Is Effectiveness of Communication Technology Defined By The Company’s Decision Maker?
Of the six respondents, four stressed the importance of reliability, flexibility and virtualization while all six respondents emphasized the importance of timeliness and zero tolerance for delay. Therefore we may sum it up that in this organization, time constraints is considered to be the main hindrance to effectiveness in communication and information processing and as such when time constraints is overcome, the chances of being effective at information access and processing is higher and more likely.

RQ 2: What Influences The Decision To Adopt A Communication Technology Most?

From the respondents, we identify a trend that suggests the factors that influence the decision to adopt and invest in a technology differs from one stratum of administration to the other. The following factors were mentioned which are ease of use, compatibility, benefits and affordability. Following the trend of responses, it is noticed that the respondents who regard ease of use and compatibility as priority are not the main decision makers especially on matters involving financial commitments. In other words, they are to use the software to enhance their own job outputs and performances so there is the tendency that they are more concerned with the task related criteria.
On the other hand, the respondents that emphasized costs and affordability stressed this in terms of ROI (returns on investment) and we may assume that this is because they are the company leaders who not only make the decisions but also bear the costs of the investment so there is the tendency as well that they may be more concerned with the yields and returns on their investment even though they claim to be concerned as well with the task related effectiveness. And we should not as well that the diffusion of innovation theory supports the claims of ease of use and compatibility so we may state that perspectives of the respondents are in line with what we would expect.
RQ 3: How Is The Decision To Adopt A Communication Technology Made?

Notable is the fact that the CEO stressed that several demos were tried out first before a decision was made. This gives credit to the claims of the theory of diffusion of innovation in the sense that the technology was pre-tested to know its relative advantage in terms of relevance to the tasks at hand, the technology was tested and tried and this helped to discover its compatibility.
The observed results of the trial period reinforced the decision to adopt and continue re-adopting ‘continulink’ by the organization. This is a perspective from the task oriented point of view which also supports the concept of perceived usefulness (PU) under the technology acceptance model (TAM).
On a second note and from the organizational structure perspective, the response of the CEO suggested that the leadership system followed is the directive type that does not necessarily lend its ears to the opinions of the subordinates but the claims of other respondents suggest on the contrary that the leadership is non-directive. This suggests that the opinions of the subordinates are sought not as a required input for the decision but just as a courtesy protocol as the decision lies mainly on the considerations and perspectives of the top executives.
RQ 4: Do The Communication Software Adopted Work Efficiently According To Expectations? As much as the respondents seem to appreciate the adoption and integration of the software, they also identify certain loopholes. The CEO claims the software has not yet helped in managing both the human resources and the financial resources because according to them, the adoption of the software prompted the hiring of more personnel (IT specialist) to manage the project instead of reducing the staff number as they anticipated or even helping to reduce the number of people they have on the payroll services.
The CEO and the client care/intake coordinator also explain that the software has not yet incorporated the billing system effectively and has also not been as effective in time management as expected because she views time resources as closely related to human resources. This loophole as also identified by the client care and intake coordinator as well was evident in the area of manual entries of number of hours worked and billing system.
From the foregoing, based on an assessment of the findings enumerated above, we can state here that the factors of trialability, compatibility and observability are mostly dominant in the features enumerated by the respondents. The decision-making goes in line with the diffusion of innovation model at the points of trial and observations of the 16 demos as said by the CEO. The trial of the demos helped in reaching a decision to adopt continulink which is also one of the demos tired out and observed.
The technology acceptance model which advocates perceived usefulness and ease of use is also alluded to in the decision-making process drawing inference from the statements of the project manager that ‘continulink’ was adopted because it is more ‘robust’ which in other words can be interpreted as meaning that it is more flexible and adaptable to the tasks of the
organization as needed. According to the respondents, the ‘continulink’ technology had more to offer in terms of its task-fit affordances which is also in line with the perceived usefulness factor under the theory of technology acceptance model.
From the perspective of the CEO, there is an underlining tone of the theory of reasoned action and planned behavior which is inspired by previous use of other technology and also by the cost of investment for the technology. Compared to the other technology options the organization had to choose from, ‘continulink’ was the cheaper best alternative affordable by the organization and this formed the base template as determinant of the CEO’s attitude towards adopting ‘continulink’.
Overall, the assessment of the technology reflects that the users are at a comfortable

threshold with the use of “continulink” but as it is with technology, there will always be one or two flaws in its workings and as a result changes, updates and uprades are always expected and anticipated and that is the reason most of the respondents signaled.