Organizational meetings represent one of the largest investments of human
resources in public- and private-sector organizations. In spite of the many hours
people devote weekly to meetings, few studies have examined the written and
oral communications used in planning and managing scheduled meetings. This
paper reports on a study of thirty-five organizational meetings, each from a
different organization. The development and use of five primary tools for
planning and managing meetings were examined, and the relationships of these
tools to meeting processes were analyzed. The results were consistent with prior
findings regarding the use of agendas, while offering additional information
regarding the use of support documents, announcements, meeting minutes, and
evaluations. Control of these tools varied by group leaders/facilitators, secre
taries, and other participants; and the strongest relationships were found
between the use of agendas, minutes, and support documents and the timing of
meetings (duration, delays). Finally, traditional media (for example, flip charts,
chalk boards, transparencies) and higher-level technologies (for example,
computers, VCRs) were largely absent from meetings, consistent with the find
ings of prior research.
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