The Meeting Genre Across Cultures

Abstract

The current study examines cross-cultural differences in norms for meetings. Following Eisenhardt, we used a broad set of conceptual dimensions for analyzing meetings as a genre of organizational communication (Yates & Orlikowski) to guide a within-and cross-case analysis of meetings in two cultures. Our goal was to discover the possible existence of patterns and interpretations within cultures, and contrasts and explanations across cultures. Data from three different data sets were analyzed encompassing a total of 10 teams each with German and U.S. American subgroups. Findings show that Germans and U.S. Americans have different expectations and practices concerning the purpose, content, structure, and timing of meetings, and the roles of participants. The underlying meaning of these differences is explored. Theoretical and practical contributions of the work are discussed.Meetings fulfill multiple purposes in organizations. For example, meetings are used to provide team members with an opportunity to communicate about and to coordinate their respective tasks (Sonnentag, 2001;Volkema & Niederman, 1995). Communication and coordination behaviors are embodied in specific meeting activities such as information sharing, decision making, assignments of responsibility, negotiation about the task, and progress reporting. Recent research has found, however, expectations for appropriate communication and coordination behaviors differ across cultures; these culture-driven communication and coordination norms affect team processes in multicultural teams (e.g., Friday, 1989;Köhler, 2009).Although previous studies highlight the effect of cultural differences in communication and coordination norms on specific aspects of meetings (such as meeting styles or participation), a systematic evaluation of cultural differences in meeting norms is still missing. We examine the extent to which the behavioral norms that constitute a workplace meeting-and even the implicitly understood purpose of a meeting-differ between Germans and U.S. Americans (referred to as Americans throughout the article).Köhler and Berry (2008) found, for example, that culture-driven norms concerning preferred amounts and forms of autonomy strongly affected the amount of collaboration and the timing and frequency of communication in Finnish-American teams. Köhler (2009) found that differences in culturedriven communication expectations, such as norms for the exchange of personal versus task information or the meaning of quietude in conversations, affected communication frequency, information sharing, and team building in German-American and Finnish-American teams. Similarly, Millhous (1999) concluded that cultural preferences for relationship versus task-related communication created tensions in Russian-American teams. Millhous also found that context cultural norms of businesses influence the format of meetings as well as the timing and format of information sharing. Going one step further, Szabo (2007) showed how cultural differences in the meaning of and ne...

Development and validation of the Zurich Meeting Questionnaire (ZMQ)

“…Finally, the questionnaire was developed and written in German because all participants were from Germany. Although the meeting procedures suggested and evaluated in this study refer to ideals such as promoting openness with opinions, fairness, and democracy, which are often considered society's most valued ideals (Tracy & Dimock, 2004), employees from different cultures might have different expectations of the structure of meetings and the roles of attendees (Köhler, Cramton, & Hinds, 2012). To increase generalizability, further research validating the ZMQ in other cultures would be beneficial.…”

A comparison of business meeting practices in Germany and Spain

“…Extrapolating from research on U.S.-American and German meetings, Germans have been described as "eschewing small talk" (Köhler et al 2012, p. 175). Regarding within-meeting processes, findings further showed that Germans engage in little relational talk during meetings (Köhler et al 2012;Lehmann-Willenbrock et al 2014). Anecdotal evidence for the Germans' apparent aversion of small talk is also ubiquitous in online articles (e.g., Houghton 2017), and popular management books frequently describe Germans as efficient and direct talkers whereas Spaniards are said to be more chatty (Lewis 2006).…”

“…Although German workplace meetings are described as structured and organized, they are typically less hierarchical than assumed (Hedderich 1999). The need to defend formal authority is low in Germany (Köhler and Gölz 2015) and previous research showed that Germans are expected to voice their opinions during meetings and to take on an active role in decision making (Köhler et al 2012; see also Yin 2002). Seen through this lens, we assume that German meeting participants are more likely to speak up with their own opinions and concerns than Spanish meeting participants who are more inclined to promote group cohesion and in-group collectivism.…”

“…In this sense, meeting follow-up actions seamlessly merge with preparing for the next meeting (Tropman 2003). Köhler et al (2012) could show that German meeting are often conducted with the intention to come up with longterm solutions that have a high level of detail. This tendency likely carries over into concrete post meeting action plans.…”

“…Gelfand et al 2017). Previous empirical work in this regard is scarce, but points to potential differences in the way meetings are conducted in different national cultures as well as the need to consider culture when studying business meetings (Angouri 2010;Aritz and Walker 2010;Du-Babcock and Tanaka 2013;van Eerde and Azar 2020;van Eerde and Buengeler 2015;Joardar et al 2019;Köhler et al 2012;Lü 2018;Murata 2014;Paletz et al 2018). While the practice of meetings is widespread across different types of organizations and cultures, the specific aspects of how meetings are designed, how people behave as they enter the meeting space, and what happens during and after meetings may differ depending on the respective cultural setting.…”