ABSTRACT
The practice of organisational communication has evolved over time in the developing countries of the Global South, just as it has in other parts of the world. From dyadic modes of interpersonal exchange to the pre-digital world of typewriters and electric word processors, and today’s potpourri of information and communication technologies, the trajectory of development has broadly resembled the trend in the developed world. This evolution would seem to support the general principles underlying the diffusion of innovations theory and the technology acceptance model. However, this chapter reveals that in the Global South, and especially in Nigeria, the rate of adoption of technology, the purposes for which such technologies are used and the level of dexterity and efficiency in the use of technology are not always coterminous with what is obtained in the developed world. This conclusion seems in consonance with the knowledge gap hypothesis and with the presumption of the existence of a global digital divide. This situation, furthermore, has implications for organisational communication – implications that are only partly explained by the constructs of media evolution or mediamorphosis. Therefore, it is recommended that scholars of organisational communication in the Global South should take into cognisance the peculiar circumstances of the region and the interactions of technology with the local setting when analysing the use of organisational communication tools in such societies.
