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Source: Adapted from information in Daft, R. L., & Lenge, R. H. (1984).
Information richness: A new approach to managerial behavior and organizational
design. In B. Staw & L. Cummings (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (Vol.
6, pp. 191–233). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press; and Lengel, R. H., & Daft, D. L. (1988).
The selection of communication media as an executive skill. Academy of Management
Executive, 11, 225–232.
Like face-to-face and telephone conversation, videoconferencing has high
information richness because Receivers and Senders can see or hear beyond just the
words—they can see the Sender’s body language or hear the tone of their voice.

Handheld devices, blogs, and written letters and memos offer medium-rich channels
because they convey words and pictures/photos. Formal written documents, such as
legal documents, and spreadsheets, such as the division’s budget, convey the least
richness because the format is often rigid and standardized. As a result, nuance is lost.
In business, the decision to communicate verbally or in written form can be
powerful. In addition, a smart manager is aware of the nonverbal messages conveyed
by either type of communication—as noted earlier, only 7% of a verbal
communication comes from the words themselves.
When determining whether to communicate verbally or in writing, ask
yourself: Do I want to convey facts or feelings? Verbal communications are a better
way to convey feelings. Written communications do a better job of conveying facts.
Picture a manager making a speech to a team of 20 employees. The manager is
speaking at a normal pace. The employees appear interested. But how much
information is being transmitted? Not as much as the speaker believes! Humans listen
much faster than they speak. The average public speaker communicates at a speed of
about 125 words a minute. And that pace sounds fine to the audience. (In fact,
anything faster than that probably would sound weird. To put that figure in
perspective, someone having an excited conversation speaks at about 150 words a
minute.) On the basis of these numbers, we could assume that the employees have

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