TY - JOUR
T1 - A Sequential Analysis of Procedural Meeting Communication
T2 - How Teams Facilitate Their Meetings
AU - Lehmann-Willenbrock, Nale
AU - Allen, Joseph A.
AU - Kauffeld, Simone
N1 - Funding Information:
The research reported in this article was supported by grants from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the European Social Fund. We are grateful to the deceased Renee A. Meyers for her valuable insights and would also like to thank our two anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback.
PY - 2013/11
Y1 - 2013/11
N2 - How do teams facilitate their own meetings? Unmanaged (or free) social interaction often leads to poor decision-making, unnecessary conformity, social loafing, and ineffective communication processes, practices, and products. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential benefits of procedural communication in team meetings. The role of procedural communication, defined as verbal behaviors that structure group discussion to facilitate goal accomplishment, was examined in 59 team meetings from 19 organizations. Meeting behaviors were videotaped and coded. Lag sequential analysis revealed that procedural meeting behaviors are sustained by supporting statements within the team interaction process. They promote proactive communication (e.g., who will do what and when) and significantly inhibit dysfunctional meeting behaviors (e.g., losing the train of thought, criticizing others, and complaining). These patterns were found both at lag1 and lag2. Furthermore, the more evenly distributed procedural meeting behaviors were across team members, the more team members were satisfied with their discussion processes and outcomes. For practice, these findings suggest that managers should encourage procedural communication to enhance meeting effectiveness, and team members should share the responsibility of procedurally facilitating their meetings.
AB - How do teams facilitate their own meetings? Unmanaged (or free) social interaction often leads to poor decision-making, unnecessary conformity, social loafing, and ineffective communication processes, practices, and products. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential benefits of procedural communication in team meetings. The role of procedural communication, defined as verbal behaviors that structure group discussion to facilitate goal accomplishment, was examined in 59 team meetings from 19 organizations. Meeting behaviors were videotaped and coded. Lag sequential analysis revealed that procedural meeting behaviors are sustained by supporting statements within the team interaction process. They promote proactive communication (e.g., who will do what and when) and significantly inhibit dysfunctional meeting behaviors (e.g., losing the train of thought, criticizing others, and complaining). These patterns were found both at lag1 and lag2. Furthermore, the more evenly distributed procedural meeting behaviors were across team members, the more team members were satisfied with their discussion processes and outcomes. For practice, these findings suggest that managers should encourage procedural communication to enhance meeting effectiveness, and team members should share the responsibility of procedurally facilitating their meetings.
KW - Facilitation
KW - Interaction Analysis
KW - Lag Sequential Analysis
KW - Meeting Effectiveness
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U2 - 10.1080/00909882.2013.844847
DO - 10.1080/00909882.2013.844847
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84886433409
VL - 41
SP - 365
EP - 388
JO - Journal of Applied Communication Research
JF - Journal of Applied Communication Research
SN - 0090-9882
IS - 4
ER -