Meetings at Work

A work meeting is a gathering of employees for a purpose related to the functioning of an organization or a group (e.g., to direct, to inform, to govern, to regulate). The gathering can occur in a single modality (e.g., a videoconference) or in a mixed-modality format (mostly face-to-face with one participant connected by telephone). A meeting can be described as more formal than a chat but less formal than a lecture. A meeting is usually characterized by multiparty talk that is episodic in nature. Typically, meetings are scheduled in advance (some notice is provided), informally or formally facilitated by one of the members, involve four to eight individuals (but can contain as few as two participants), last 30 to 60 minutes, and have some specific purpose or goal (which is often made known in advance). Less commonly, an annotated transcription of the meeting activity is undertaken (minutes). There are five principal types of meetings:

• Information-giving meeting: The meeting is primarily about announcing and discussing organizational, department, unit, team, or personnel news.
• Training meeting: The meeting is primarily about receiving some type of work training.
• Recognition meeting: The meeting is primarily about recognizing and celebrating relevant events or accomplishments.
• Routine monitoring and decision-making meeting: The meeting is primarily about day-to-day problems and issues; it is called to work on issues identified previously—for example, gathering reports about progress to date, assigning tasks, coordinating activities, or making decisions.
• Special problem-solving meeting: The meeting is primarily about new or unusual issues rather than day-to-day problems and issues; it is called to discuss one or more special issues—for example, aiming for a greater understanding, a preliminary decision, a final decision, or a plan.

Impromptu meetings are those in which the gathering of individuals has not been planned in advance. They are rarer than scheduled meetings. They are usually smaller in size, less structured, more informal, and often assembled to exchange information or make decisions quickly, as in a crisis situation. Alternatively, these events may occur spontaneously to consider routine matters, as when a lunch is transformed into a quick meeting.

Besides their more formal purposes, meetings have an employee socialization, relationship-building, and networking component. In addition, meetings can serve to enforce and make clear formal and informal reporting structures and power differentials.