Theorizing Beyond Informational Message Characteristics: Social Considerations, Materiality, and a Contemporary View of Communication Overload.

Past research on overload has focused predominately on information and the effects of receiving too much and the wrong kind of information. This article suggests that the current conception of overload is incomplete and by incorporating a sociomaterial perspective, a more accurate depiction of what should be called communication overload results. To justify the formation of this model, historical conceptualizations, organizational outcomes, and prior operationalizations of overload are presented to reveal the dearth of bi-directional communication understandings. The resulting constitution of load model describes how each of the three components: social, material, and individual, are in a state of flux and can become the driving force in communication overload. This theoretical perspective has the potential to guide organizational communication research and provide practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]