In the scope of organizational life, few events are as universal or as influential as workplace meetings. In this study, we focused our attention on better understanding the relationship between meetings processes and post-meeting outcomes. More specifically, we investigated the relationship between participation in decision-making in meetings (PDM) and employee engagement, after controlling for the impact of meeting size and other demographic variables.We examined this from a theoretical perspective, providing particular consideration to the underlying basis of social exchange theory and norms of reciprocity at work in this relationship.Using a sample of working adults in the United States who were employees of organizations and attend meetings regularly, we found that PDM in meetings is related to employee engagement, even after controlling for job level, meeting size, tenure, and age. Additionally, perceived supervisor support moderates the relationship between PDM in meetings and employee engagement, such that the positive relationship is stronger when perceived supervisor support is high. Furthermore, meeting load also moderates the relationship between PDM in meetings and employee engagement, such that the positive relationship is stronger when meeting load is high.This study is unique in its examination of how characteristics of the meeting setting may influence post-meeting outcomes such as employee engagement. Taken together, the findings suggest that PDM is associated with employee engagement, under certain conditions that are discussed.

Purpose – Meetings are ubiquitous in organizational life and are a great source of frustration and annoyance to many employees in the workplace, in part due to counterproductive meeting behaviors (CMBs). CMBs include engaging in irrelevant discussion, complaining about other attendees, arriving to the meeting late, and other similar, disruptive behaviors. Consistent with conservation of resources theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine the potential resource draining effect of CMBs on two key workplace attitudes/behaviors, employee voice, and coworker trust. Design/methodology/approach – The authors used Amazon’s MTurk service to recruit a sample of full-time working adults from a variety of industries who regularly attend meetings. Participants completed a survey with items relating to CMBs, trust, voice, and meeting load. Findings – The authors found that CMBs were indeed negatively related to both employee voice and coworker trust. Further, both of these relationships were even more negative for those who had fewer meetings (i.e. meeting load as a moderator). Research limitations/implications – The results of this study suggest that behavior in meetings may spill over and impact employees in other areas of their work life, perhaps harming other important work-related outcomes (e.g. performance). The cross-sectional nature of the sampling strategy is a limitation that provides opportunities for future research as discussed. Practical implications – The practical implications are rather straightforward and poignant. Managers and meetings leaders should seek ways to reduce CMBs and promote good meeting processes generally. Originality/value – The current study is the first to overtly investigate CMBs in workplace meetings and connect them to meaningful, non-meeting-related, outcomes. Further, the study shows the usefulness of conservation resources theory for explaining the dynamic processes that occur for meeting attendees.

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Meetings are ubiquitous across organizations, yet researchers have paid scant attention to the role of meeting leaders in affecting meeting outcomes. Because meetings are important discursive sites, the style of a meeting leader may influence subordinate views of the meeting and leader. Using a sample of working adults, we first demonstrated that meeting attendees who perceived their leader as participative viewed the leader as more warm and competent than meeting attendees who had a directive leader. We explain this finding through the framework of social exchange theory. In Study 2, we conducted an experiment to further probe the relation between meeting leader style and subordinate perceptions of the leader. Again, participants viewed participative leaders as more warm and competent than directive leaders. Interestingly, working adults preferred participative leaders over directive leaders across every type of work meeting. We further found that participant gender interacted with leader style, such that men rated directive leaders are warmer than did women, but men and women did not differ in their assessments of participative leaders.

Interactions that occur prior to a meeting constitute premeeting talk (PMT). Of the different PMT types, research suggests that small talk PMT is especially meaningful. In this study, meeting participants' interactions both prior to and during the meeting were video recorded, coded into sense units, and classified by coding schemes. This study investigated the influence of small talk PMT on both perceived and objective group performances, as well as the potential for positive socioemotional and problem-focused statements to serve as mediators. The results supported the mediating influence of both types of statements for only perceived performance. Our results suggest that a group-level babble effect can take place in meetings, such that groups who engage in more extensive discussion tend to believe that they achieved high performance, but objective ratings do not support this belief. Theoretical and practical implications, limitations of the study, and future research opportunities are discussed.