When Should We Meet? Exploring the Scheduling Cadences of Workplace Meetings

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Kreamer, L. (2020). When Should We Meet? Exploring the Scheduling Cadences of Workplace Meetings. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

Meetings are a significant part of employees’ workdays, with executives spending a majority of their time leading and attending the events. While literature has explored many facets of workplace meetings, current research has yet to consider their scheduling cadences (e.g., how meetings are dispersed through the day). Literature on workplace interruptions and the negative effects of task switching suggest that meeting schedules likely have an impact on employees work experience. Implementing a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design using experimental vignette methodology (EVM), we presented eight hypothetical daily work schedules to a sample of full-time employees, capturing their anticipated levels of productivity and affective reactions with the day based on each meeting schedule. We considered the individual’s level accomplishment striving as a potential between-person moderator. Results showed significant relationships between meeting cadences and anticipated end-of-day outcomes, with daily task load moderating the relationship between meeting spread and anticipated productivity such that the negative relationship between meeting spread and productivity was stronger on days with high task load and weaker on days with low task load. The accomplishment striving trait moderated the relationship between meeting quantity and anticipated positive affect. Those high in accomplishment striving reported lower positive affect when meeting quantity was high compared to their counterparts. Findings from this research extend literature on workplace interruptions and offer insight into how to best schedule workplace meetings to increase employee outcomes and experiences.

Details
Author

Kreamer, Liana

Title

When Should We Meet? Exploring the Scheduling Cadences of Workplace Meetings

Physical Description

1 online resource (103 pages) : PDF

Date

2020

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

Meetings are a significant part of employees’ workdays, with executives spending a majority of their time leading and attending the events. While literature has explored many facets of workplace meetings, current research has yet to consider their scheduling cadences (e.g., how meetings are dispersed through the day). Literature on workplace interruptions and the negative effects of task switching suggest that meeting schedules likely have an impact on employees work experience. Implementing a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design using experimental vignette methodology (EVM), we presented eight hypothetical daily work schedules to a sample of full-time employees, capturing their anticipated levels of productivity and affective reactions with the day based on each meeting schedule. We considered the individual’s level accomplishment striving as a potential between-person moderator. Results showed significant relationships between meeting cadences and anticipated end-of-day outcomes, with daily task load moderating the relationship between meeting spread and anticipated productivity such that the negative relationship between meeting spread and productivity was stronger on days with high task load and weaker on days with low task load. The accomplishment striving trait moderated the relationship between meeting quantity and anticipated positive affect. Those high in accomplishment striving reported lower positive affect when meeting quantity was high compared to their counterparts. Findings from this research extend literature on workplace interruptions and offer insight into how to best schedule workplace meetings to increase employee outcomes and experiences.

Genre

masters theses

Subjects--Topics

Organizational behavior
Psychology

Degree

M.A.

Keywords

EVM
Interruptions
Meetings
Scheduling
Vignette

Subject Area

Psychology Industrial/Organizational

Advisor(s)

Rogelberg, Steven

Committee Members

Shanock, Linda
Banks, George

Degree Note

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2020.

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This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). For additional information, see http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/.

Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

Kreamer_uncc_0694N_12607

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:2428