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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.