An experimental investigation of the interpersonal ramifications of lateness to workplace meetings

Abstract

Individuals often attend meetings at work to which at least one person arrives late. Building from attributional theories of interpersonal behaviour, we conducted an experiment to determine the cognitive, affective, and behavioural components of people's reactions to meeting lateness. Participants read one of eight experimental vignettes that described someone arriving 5 or 15 min late to an important or unimportant meeting, after which the person who arrived late offered either a controllable or an uncontrollable reason for being late. Participants reported greater anger and a willingness to punish the late arrival who gave a controllable excuse, whereas sympathy and prosocial intentions followed the late arrival who gave an uncontrollable excuse. To establish generalizability, we replicated the results using a survey of workers who reported on their thoughts and experiences in their last meeting to which someone arrived late. Overall, our findings also indicated that accounting for the severity of the transgression uniquely contributed to emotional and behaviour reactions, which is an improvement on existing attributional models. Practitioner pointsArriving late to workplace meetings can have negative effects on interpersonal relationships, despite the prevalence of the behaviour. Organizations and managers should encourage all meeting attendees to arrive to meetings on timethis avoids the negative effects of lateness and also sets the stage for positive meeting interactions. Managers can take steps to mitigate the effects of lateness if it occurs. Agendas should be flexible to allow the movement of discussion points if someone arrives late.

Let's get this meeting started: Meeting lateness and actual meeting outcomes

“…The experimental studies show that meeting lateness has a meaningful negative impact on participants' attitudes about the meeting and its results, both in terms of postmeeting experiences in the field (Study 1) and in terms of anticipated meeting effectiveness (when experimentally inducing meeting lateness; Study 2). These findings are consistent with and support the attribution theory mechanisms ascribed by Mroz and Allen (). According to Mroz and Allen (), individuals draw negative attributions towards individuals that arrive late, and our findings confirm that these attributions also impact general attitudes towards the meeting experience.…”

“…These findings are consistent with and support the attribution theory mechanisms ascribed by Mroz and Allen (). According to Mroz and Allen (), individuals draw negative attributions towards individuals that arrive late, and our findings confirm that these attributions also impact general attitudes towards the meeting experience.…”

“…Furthermore, when others were late, individual employees reported feeling frustrated, concerned, distracted, or in the very least felt uncertain as to why the others did not show up on time . Similarly, Mroz and Allen (2017) found that individuals have strong reactions to others when they arrive late to a scheduled meeting. Specifically, individuals indicated that they were angrier and sought ways to punish late meeting attendees when the reason for arriving late was within the late person's control.…”

“…Koslowsky (2000) discusses the negative psychological message inherent in being late, which can signal disrespect for work and can potentially inspire others to be similarly neglectful. In a recent study by Mroz and Allen (2017), they found that individuals make strong negative attributions directed towards those who arrive late to a scheduled meeting. In line with this argument, being late to work has been linked to decreases in employee morale and work motivation (Cascio, 1991) and has even been discussed in terms of time theft (Liu & Berry, 2013).…”

Putting time in perspective: How and why construal level buffers the relationship between wait time and aggressive tendencies

“…Delays and waiting at work are aversive experiences (Freud, ), resulting in negative mood states, anger, and frustration (Maister, ; Rogelberg et al, ; Taylor, ), along with tendencies toward incivility or aggressive tendencies (Efrat‐Treister et al, ; Mroz & Allen, ). These findings are consistent with broader research highlighting the relationship between wait time and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and actions (Groth & Gilliland, ; Munichor & Rafaeli, ).…”