There are at least four reasons as to why many organizations seem to prefer using video conferencing for internal communications only. When we talk of internal communications in this context, we are simply referring to things like inter-departmental and intra-departmental meetings (conferences). We are coming from a background where an organization also has the option of using video conferencing for meetings with external stakeholders: clients, suppliers and so on. Yet in spite of the second option being open, most organizations seem to prefer keeping the usage of video conferencing in-house, with most of the meetings involving external stakeholders being carried out on a face-to-face basis.
The four reasons as to why many organizations seem to prefer using video conferencing for internal communications only include the facts that:
1. There are still concerns about eye contact in video conferencing: to understand the effect of this statement, you need to appreciate the fact that the stakes tend to be very high in the meetings which involve external stakeholders. Businesses have been known to lose very important (potential) clients due to appearances. One of the ‘appearances’ which can definitely deny a business an important deal is the appearance of phoniness. Yet there are many people who feel that video conference communication can make one come across as phony (if no mitigating steps are take). That is on account of the fact that during video conferencing technologies, the speakers tend to focus their gaze on the cameras. This can have the effect of making the people on the other hand get a feeling that the other group is avoiding eye contact – which, in most people’s books, is a sign of phoniness.
But as more and more people get used to the workings of free video chat video conferencing technologies, this is becoming less of an issue. Furthermore, technologies are being developed to mitigate this problem, and it is just a matter of time before the problem is done away with for good.
2. Face to face meetings seem to yield stronger bonds: people schooled in the traditional way of doing business may have problems transacting with people they have never met in person (that is, people they have only been meeting through video conferencing technologies). Of course, in this age of remote friendships facilitated by social networking platforms, a generation is coming up which seems to be totally at ease with this way of doing things. But the older generation definitely has issue with the approach. In the meantime organizations which know that most of their external stakeholders are of that school of thought prefer to play it safe. They only use video conferencing for internal communications, while meeting the external stakeholders on a face to face basis.
3. Sometimes, the external actors don’t have the video conferencing infrastructure: yet if proper video conferences are to take place, people on both ends need to be well equipped. Seeing that it is awkward to go around asking external actors if they have video conferencing infrastructure (which may make you look like a snob), it becomes better to play it safe. In playing it safe, you’d retain your video conferencing infrastructure for internal communications, whilst doing external communications through the traditional channels. Of course, as more and more organizations take up video conferencing, this is becoming less of an issue.
4. Sometimes, organizations simply want to allow their staff to travel: This is where they fear keeping their executives ‘indoors’ all through, and possibly boring them (which could precipitate their premature departure). Simply put, executives schooled in the traditional way love the trappings of power: frequent business travel, expense accounts and so on. If an organization reckons that they are useful, it can opt to have interactions (meetings) with external actors held the traditional way, so as to give the executives the opportunity to travel. But then again, a crop of business executives is coming up which prefers doing things the high-tech way, and this is a group most at ease with the use of video conferencing even for high level executive meetings.