Dual Capacity Model Within Small Organizations
The Dual Capacity Model describes the balance between data-carrying and symbol-carrying in each form of media used in an organization. Each media conveys a different level of data - the message intended to be sent - and symbol, the “personal touch” intended in the message. My organization of choice for this project is the campus library, where I am currently employed.
Since the whole purpose of a library is written or electronic media, one would expect a lot of communication via emails or other asynchronous media. However, when I began looking into conversations between co-workers, it became apparent that the vast majority of communication within the library is either face-to-face or via text message. The only instances of email communication that I found within the past month was transferring files, such as scanned documents or the work schedule.
One possible reason for the large amounts of face-to-face communication is that the library is a fairly small organization, in a relatively compact building. It is faster for my supervisor to simply walk down a flight of stairs and tell me which computers need updating than for him to send me an email. In addition, it is a fairly laid-back environment with not a very strict hierarchy, so less formal interactions are acceptable.
It is also quite likely that, since the computer department of the library spends so much time fixing and preventing miscommunication or malfunction of technology, the employees are hyper-aware of the potential problems with digital communication. Therefore, to avoid said problems, most communication takes place in a face-to-face setting (which, granted, comes with its own set of problems - there is not a lot of permanence to most of the in-library communication, which could be inconvenient in the event that it was needed for whatever
Since the whole purpose of a library is written or electronic media, one would expect a lot of communication via emails or other asynchronous media. However, when I began looking into conversations between co-workers, it became apparent that the vast majority of communication within the library is either face-to-face or via text message. The only instances of email communication that I found within the past month was transferring files, such as scanned documents or the work schedule.
One possible reason for the large amounts of face-to-face communication is that the library is a fairly small organization, in a relatively compact building. It is faster for my supervisor to simply walk down a flight of stairs and tell me which computers need updating than for him to send me an email. In addition, it is a fairly laid-back environment with not a very strict hierarchy, so less formal interactions are acceptable.
It is also quite likely that, since the computer department of the library spends so much time fixing and preventing miscommunication or malfunction of technology, the employees are hyper-aware of the potential problems with digital communication. Therefore, to avoid said problems, most communication takes place in a face-to-face setting (which, granted, comes with its own set of problems - there is not a lot of permanence to most of the in-library communication, which could be inconvenient in the event that it was needed for whatever