The literature reporting research on message distortion in organizations is reviewed in this paper. Topics covered include: definitions of distortion/fidelity; measures of message display; measures of message interpretation; categories of distortion/fidelity derived from laboratory research; definitions of distortion/fidelity in naturalistic research; and methodology and measurement of distortion/fidelity in naturalistic research. Several generalizations are provided from the review of the literature: (1) no research was found that systematically controlled and varied the amount of distortion present in a particular message; (2) the questionnaire-based measures of distortion did not provide purely empirical data because they were assessing perceived rather than actual message distortion; and (3) more field research will be necessary to examine and substantiate the nature and effects of distortion in actual organizations. (MKM)