A recent study titled “How Managers Use Multiple Media: Discrepant Events, Power, and Timing in Redundant Communication” published in Organization Science, found that the use of repeated communication using more than one media increased the effectiveness of the message.
To many managers, this may seem like a waste of time or as proof of the fact that no one was listening in the first place. However, one of the paper’s authors, Tsedal Neeley, quoted in an online article from the Harvard Business Review, states that a single message sent in a combination of two types of media (face-to-face, phone, email, text) is a “concrete strategy for managers who are struggling to communicate with workers.”
The bottom line for managers is that repeating the message and doing it using different methods of communication can enhance persuasion and buy-in.
