Organizational meetings: management and benefits

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the management and benefits of meetings so as to draw conclusions on their effectiveness in organizations given the increasing discontent about their set up. Design/methodology/approach – The study was a cross-sectional survey, data were collected from 325 respondents in 22 service organizations in Kampala, using a questionnaire and participant observations; the instrument was tested for reliability and analysis done using descriptive and statistical techniques. Findings – The key finding was that policy regarding meetings and reasons for convening them jointly account for 57 percent variations in the benefits organizations have. The way meetings are conducted was found to have no significant effect, contrary to anecdotal evidences. The internal and external contextual factors did not affect the effectiveness of meetings. In general meetings have benefited organizations but the discontent on how they are managed is still high. Research limitations/implications – The lack of analytical and local literature on the study variables limited this study. There were also methodological challenges especially operationalization of variables, sampling and choice of respondents. Practical implications – The study underpins policy as a key factor for effectiveness of meetings; the literature supported this account. For governance boards there is need to review policy on meetings; and for managers, the paper emphasizes the need for improving how meetings are convened, conducted and the follow up action. The study has provided rich ground for scholars; the authors have extended the debate on meetings, brought into view an African context and made it possible for further studies. Social implications – Meetings involve many people in the organization and affect entire operations. There are critical personal factors that are pertinent in the outcome of meetings. The finding that personal factors do not have a significant relationship with effectiveness of meetings should not be applauded till further investigations and conceptualization is done in similar contexts. There are social implications on if meetings are not managed well as the authors have established like time wastage, employee motivation and poor management among others. Originality/value – Many papers that the authors accessed on meetings were on organizational experiences from western countries, the authors have made an original focus on Uganda and underpinned the debate on management development in Africa. The authors have also examined and provided an empirical basis for understanding effectiveness of meetings using key factors of policy, preparation, conduct and contextual factors.

Top management team (TMT) age diversity and firm performance: the moderating role of the effectiveness of TMT meetings

“…Harymawan et al (2020) indicated that TMT meetings were positively related to company performance, while further suggesting that more TMT conferences represented higher effective efforts. The study of Bagire et al (2015) also explained that meetings provided a forum for decision-making, communication, motivation, interpersonal relationships and dispute resolution.…”

Regulating emotions in response to power distance in meetings

“…Effective meetings can lead to desirable outcomes such as increased engagement and job satisfaction (Rogelberg et al, 2010;Yoerger et al, 2015). However, ineffective meetings are associated with negative outcomes such as decreased job satisfaction (Rogelberg et al, 2010), wasted time, and decreased employee motivation (Bagire et al, 2015). In addition, meetings that include high amounts of counterproductive meeting behaviors (e.g., complaining, off-topic discussion) are related to decreased perception of voice and co-worker trust .…”

Meeting effectiveness and task performance: meeting size matters

“…Organizations are increasingly relying on employees to use workplace meetings as a collaboration tool to aid in the achievement of individual- and group-level objectives (Allen et al , 2015; Bagire et al , 2015). Nearly all organizations rely on some form of teamwork in meetings (Kozlowski and Ilgen, 2006) to aid in various assignments including: problem-solving, decision-making, exchanging ideas and information, consensus building, and conflict resolution (Allen et al , 2014, 2015).…”