These studies and others follow multiple paradigms and theoretical approaches to explain the relationship between an information technology and various organization factors. There is no one best theory to guide the research in this area. A multifaceted approach, organization, information processing and economic theories, is required to gain an understanding of these relationships. Changes in structural forms may occur as a result of new social interactions and new means to accomplish tasks enabled by information technologies. Whether new communication paths and new ways of working are created depends upon how the components of structure, roles of people, and tasks are designed to tap the potential offered by the technology.
Users know what to communicate to whom at which level of the organization, and through which media.
Organizations contain a mix of information processing requirements, various tasks characteristics, and a variety of media channels, and the key to the puzzle is to find the right fit between the medium, the user, and the task. The underlying theme of these historical paradigms is an organization redesigns itself by focusing on management processes, structure, strategies, people, and tasks, to meet the demands of such external forces as technology and changing markets. The organizational interaction diamond model depicts the relationships among four basic organization components, as well as the interaction of these components with organizational factors and external forces, and proposes that the use of an information technology, like e-mail, is a function of the task to be accomplished, the role of the individual, and the structure of the organization. Research Hypotheses Three sets of research hypotheses were developed. The second set of hypotheses examines the relationship among the frequency of use of e-mail, job categories, organization level, and the direction of the communication, horizontal or vertical.