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Multicommunicating is the practice of engaging in more than one conversation at a time. The term multicommunicating was coined by Turner, Reinsch and Tinsley,〔Turner, J. W., Reinsch, L. & Tinsley, C. (2008). Multicommunicating: A practice whose time has come? Academy of Management Review, 33(2), 391-403.〕 who posit that simultaneous conversations can be conducted using an ever increasing array of media, including face-to-face, phone and email tools for communication. While multicommunicating is not uncommon as a social practice, the majority of academic research focuses on its professional implications and outlines a number of key factors shaping the act of multicommunicating. For instance, the flexibility of communication tempo, the compartmentalization of conversations, and the topics and intensity of interactions are all contributing factors toward a person’s choice of engaging in multicommunicating as well as his or her ultimate success with the practice. Notably, many people – also referred to as ‘presence allocators’〔Turner, J. W., & Reinsch, L. (2007). The Business Communicator as Presence Allocator: Multicommunicating, Equivocality, and Status at Work (2007). Journal of Business Communication, 44(1), 36-58.〕 within the context of multicommunicating – engage in multiple conversations as a direct response to the requests of others. Employees frequently believe that multicommunicating increases their productivity and work efficiency, however in-depth interviews about the practice of multicommunicating have often revealed some mixed results. Research has also shown that the most commonly used combinations for multicommunicating are the telephone and email, followed by the telephone and text-based messaging (text message, instant message, etc.).〔Turner, J. W., & Reinsch, L. (no year). Multicommunicating and Interpersonal Presence: Developing New Constructs for Studying New Phenomena.〕 ==History== As a concept, multicommunicating primarily builds off Hall’s work on polychronicity, Goffman’s theory of the presentation of self, and Daft and Lengel’s notion of media richness; multicommunicating is also similar in nature to the notion of multitasking. However, where multicommunicating departs from all of these previous concepts is that it refers specifically to managing multiple conversations, people and media – not just tasks – at the same time. Stephen, Cho and Ballard elucidate this distinction in a 2011 paper which compares dovetailing (sequential communication) with mutlicommunication (simultaneous interactions).〔Stephens, K., Cho, J., & Ballard, D. (2012). Simultaneity, Sequentiality, and Speed: Organizational Messages About Multiple-Task Completion. Human Communication Research, 38(1), 23-47.〕 In addition, multicommunicating often occurs unbeknown to one's communication partners. multicommunicating is closely related to Hall’s 1959 work on polychronicity; in fact, multicommunicating was initially called ‘polychronic communication’ in one of Turner and Reinsch’ first scholarly presentations of the concept to the wider academic community.〔Turner, J. W., & Reinsch, L. (2005). Polychronic Communication in the Workplace: The Temporal Structure of “Connected Time”. Paper Presented at the National Communication Association Conference, Boston, MA, November, 2005.〕 In his 1959 book ''The Silent Language'' Hall coined the term polychronicity and in subsequent works developed the argument that polychronicity is a measure of a culture’s preference toward engaging in several activities at a time. An important conceptual transition then occurred in the late 90’s, when Bluedron〔Bluedorn, A. C., et al. (1999). Polychronicity and the inventory of polychronic values (IVP): The development of an instrument to measure a fundamental dimension of organizational culture. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 14(3/4), 205-230.〕 became one of the first scholars to adapt the term polychronicity from the cultural context and to apply it to the workplace. Goffman’s theory of the presentation of self, which suggests that people engage in a world of multistage dramas, also plays an informing role in the construction of multicommunicating. The notion that we tailor our behavior to suit our environmental contexts and situations is indeed, true in conversations, too. Nonetheless, where multicommunicating differentiates itself from Goffman’s theory of the presentation of self is that a ‘presence allocator’ picks up their appropriate behavior cues from the interaction and the medium itself as opposed to the ‘actor’, who picks up his or her cues for appropriate behavior from their physical environment. Daft and Lengel’s research on media richness theory or, how employees choose which technologies to use in the workplace, is another important concept for multicommunicating. Similar to McLuhan’s notion of ‘the medium is the message’, Daft and Lengel argue that different media have varying qualities that make them more or less suited for certain interactions. For example, a relatively complex interaction, such as an important conversation with a new business partner, will likely be carried out with as rich a medium as possible. This rich medium would be a communication technology, like Skype or even a face-to-face conversation, which would allow for maximum information and submersion in the interaction. Conversely, a more casual and routine conversation, such as the making of lunch plans with a co-worker, could easily be carried out over a less contextually rich medium like an office chat or a text message. multicommunicating takes the medium selection concept from media richness theory and suggests that some of the same characteristics that contribute to making medium choices may also contribute to the reasons a person might multicommunicate. For example, if a conversation is not very complicated or equivocal, a person might be more likely to engage in multiple conversations. A conversation that is more complicated might make it hard for multicommunicating to take place.〔Turner, J. W., & Reinsch, L. (2007). The Business Communicator as Presence Allocator: Multicommunicating, Equivocality, and Status at Work (2007). Journal of Business Communication, 44(1), 36-58.〕 Closely connected to media richness theory is also the notion of Channel Expansion Theory,〔Carlson, J., & Zmud, R. (1995). Channel Expansion Theory and the Experiential. The Academy of Management Journal, 42(2), 153-170.〕 which suggests that as an individual becomes more familiar with a specific technology, his or her perception of its capabilities and richness expands. Thus, somebody who is very comfortable with a certain chat site may perceive it to be richer in contextual nature than somebody who is only familiar with its most basic functionalities. This contributes to our understanding of multicommunicating in the sense that a persons’ experience with various media may make them more adept at picking up contextually rich conversation signals as well as more prepared for handling certain communication technologies. However, even though Channel Expansion Theory implies there are positive effects associated with the familiarity of a technology, this does not necessarily suggest that as a person’s perception of media richness increases, the process of multicommunicating becomes simplified. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「multicommunicating」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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