Downs and Hazen (1977) have underlined the concept of media quality as the media for employee communication, which they need to become the effective media communication and to have success in improving positive employee outcomes. They add that management can attempt to create effective employee communication media through the meetings that are well organized, conciseness of reports, and an adequate amount of communication (Clampitt & Downs, 1993; Downs & Hazen, 1977).
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Apart from the different communication media items of the media quality constructs in the organization communication literature, they have revealed a variety of communication media deployed in an internal communication campaign. From the organization communication literature, two broad categories of communication media are used by management to communicate messages to all staff members; they are identified as follows:
1.) Oral and written communication; and
2.) Information and communication technology (ICT).
The use of oral communication within an organization means face-to-face conversation in a small group, or a telephone conversation, or social media conversation, and it provides the sender with feedback, answers and the ability to ask questions and provide more information by way of clarification (McKenna, 2012). According to the study of Silverman (2010), it was found that face-to-face communication was preferred by most employees, because it allows the sender or original speaker the opportunity to observe feedback, answer questions from receiver or original listener, and provide additional information by way of clarification (McKenna, 2012). Moreover, face-to-face communication can help businesses develop a social context in a company to lead to a decreased negative tone that includes assertive and hostile language in computer-mediated communication (Siegel, Dubrovsky, Kiesler, & McGuire, 1986; Sproull & Kiesler, 1986). In terms of organization communication, Power and Rienstra (1999) and Tukiainen (2001) have provided empirical evidence that face-to-face communication has an influence on employees’ attitudes. However, a disadvantage of oral communication is the absence of a written record of the dialogue. The written communication has been observed by Howard (1998) and McKenna (2012) to be mostly used as a back-up for oral communication. For example, a formal meeting, which consists of the spoken and written word, enables the employees to respond and perform their jobs in the workplace. The written component is creating a meeting agenda, comments on the minutes of the last meeting, and papers distributed previously or on the day. McKenna (2012) found that written communication can provide more information to the receiver by this
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means than through oral communication because this method is somewhat more time- consuming than the spoken word. Additionally, written communication provides an opportunity for the sender to observe feedback and to provide clarification. According to the study of Baker et al. (2014) and McKenna (2012), the written component is the use of brand book and newsletters allowing the communicator to organise his or her thoughts carefully. The study of Baker et al. (2014) discovered that both brand book and newsletters as a way of communicating may affect the level of employees’ brand performance. Therefore, both oral and written communication were significantly related to employee commitment (Asif & Sargeant, 2000; Stein, 2006); employee identification (Henkel et al., 2007); employee loyalty (Gill, 2011) and employee performance (Baker et al., 2014).
The use of information and communication technology (ICT) reflects the application of new technology to the communication of information. The ICT includes computerized information- processing systems, new forms of telecommunications systems, and a combination of the two (McKenna, 2012). McKenna (2012) has enlisted these ICT tools; namely, faxing, e- mailing, home banking, video conferencing on PCs, along with mobile phones offering voicemail, text messaging, and PC integration. The new technology can assist organizations with the dissemination of new ideas and practices, and in the process organizations will become knowledge-based learning organizations (McKenna, 2012). According to the literature, the new technology satisfaction of employees positively influences employee identification (De Bussy, Ewing, & Pitt, 2003; Henkel et al., 2007) and employee commitment (Asif & Sargeant, 2000). Similar to the study of Omilion-Hodges & Baker (2014), it was found that both new media technologies and social media can assist in shaping employees’ identification with their organization.
According to the above literature, this current study can conclude that the constructs of media quality in internal communication need to have both oral and written communication and information and communication technology (ICT) items in order to develop internal
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stakeholders that are committed, loyal and identify with the company’s values and goals. Recently, the studies of Asif and Sargeant (2000); Baker et al. (2014); Henkel et al. (2007); and Omilion-Hodges & Baker (2014) supported that internal communication using both oral and written communication and the new technology enhances employees’ attitudes and performance. However, the media quality constructs of the CSQ, developed by Downs and Hazen (1977), did not include the information and communication technology (ICT) items in the development of internal communication constructs. Furthermore, according to the organization communication literature, these studies did not investigate the relationship between media quality and employees’ brand outcomes as part of the concept of internal branding. Based on this evidence therefore, it is salient to include information and communication technology (ICT) items in internal communication constructs, especially in the concept of internal branding context. Table 3-4 shows the list of studies that have linked media quality to organizational outcomes.
Table 3-4: Studies showing the relation between media quality and employees’ outcomes
Author and year Employees’ outcome
Daft and Lengel (1983); Daft, Lengel, and Trevino (1987); Baker et al. (2014)
Employee Performance
Stein (2006); Fornes, Rocco, and Wollard (2008); Downs and Adrian (2012); Ridder (2004); Asif and Sargeant (2000)
Employee Commitment
De Bussy et al. (2003); Henkel et al. (2007); Omilion-Hodges & Baker (2014)
Employee Identification
Smith and Rupp (2002); Gill (2011); De Bussy et al. (2003); Daft et al. (1987)
Employee Loyalty
Therefore, the following specific hypotheses under these literatures are formulated as follows:
86 H4: Internal Communication Satisfaction comprises Media quality has indirect influence on employees’ brand performance:
H4.1) Media quality has a positive relationship with employees’ brand attitudes (Employee brand identification, Employee brand commitment and Employee brand loyalty).
H4.2) Employees’ brand attitudes play a meditational role in the relationship between media quality and employees’ brand performance.