Organizational meetings: management and benefits Vincent Bagire Department of Business Administration, Business School, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, and Jolly Byarugaba and Janet Kyogabiirwe Department of Human Resources Management, Business School, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the management and benefits of meetings so as to draw conclusions on their effectiveness in organizations given the increasing discontent about their set up. Design/methodology/approach – The study was a cross-sectional survey, data were collected from 325 respondents in 22 service organizations in Kampala, using a questionnaire and participant observations; the instrument was tested for reliability and analysis done using descriptive and statistical techniques. Findings – The key finding was that policy regarding meetings and reasons for convening them jointly account for 57 percent variations in the benefits organizations have. The way meetings are conducted was found to have no significant effect, contrary to anecdotal evidences. The internal and external contextual factors did not affect the effectiveness of meetings. In general meetings have benefited organizations but the discontent on how they are managed is still high. Research limitations/implications – The lack of analytical and local literature on the study variables limited this study. There were also methodological challenges especially operationalization of variables, sampling and choice of respondents. Practical implications – The study underpins policy as a key factor for effectiveness of meetings; the literature supported this account. For governance boards there is need to review policy on meetings; and for managers, the paper emphasizes the need for improving how meetings are convened, conducted and the follow up action. The study has provided rich ground for scholars; the authors have extended the debate on meetings, brought into view an African context and made it possible for further studies. Social implications – Meetings involve many people in the organization and affect entire operations. There are critical personal factors that are pertinent in the outcome of meetings. The finding that personal factors do not have a significant relationship with effectiveness of meetings should not be applauded till further investigations and conceptualization is done in similar contexts. There are social implications on if meetings are not managed well as the authors have established like time wastage, employee motivation and poor management among others. Originality/value – Many papers that the authors accessed on meetings were on organizational experiences from western countries, the authors have made an original focus on Uganda and underpinned the debate on management development in Africa. The authors have also examined and provided an empirical basis for understanding effectiveness of meetings using key factors of policy, pre.

1. Organizational meetings:
management and benefits
Vincent Bagire
Department of Business Administration, Business School,
Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, and
Jolly Byarugaba and Janet Kyogabiirwe
Department of Human Resources Management, Business School,
Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the
management and benefits of meetings so as to
draw conclusions on their effectiveness in organizations given
the increasing discontent about their set up.
Design/methodology/approach – The study was a cross-sectional
survey, data were collected from
325 respondents in 22 service organizations in Kampala, using a
questionnaire and participant observations;
the instrument was tested for reliability and analysis done using
descriptive and statistical techniques.
Findings – The key finding was that policy regarding meetings
and reasons for convening them
jointly account for 57 percent variations in the benefits
organizations have. The way meetings are
conducted was found to have no significant effect, contrary to
anecdotal evidences. The internal and
external contextual factors did not affect the effectiveness of
meetings. In general meetings have
benefited organizations but the discontent on how they are

2. managed is still high.
Research limitations/implications – The lack of analytical and
local literature on the study
variables limited this study. There were also methodological
challenges especially operationalization of
variables, sampling and choice of respondents.
Practical implications – The study underpins policy as a key
factor for effectiveness of meetings; the
literature supported this account. For governance boards there is
need to review policy on meetings; and
for managers, the paper emphasizes the need for improving how
meetings are convened, conducted and
the follow up action. The study has provided rich ground for
scholars; the authors have extended the
debate on meetings, brought into view an African context and
made it possible for further studies.
Social implications – Meetings involve many people in the
organization and affect entire operations.
There are critical personal factors that are pertinent in the
outcome of meetings. The finding that
personal factors do not have a significant relationship with
effectiveness of meetings should not be
applauded till further investigations and conceptualization is
done in similar contexts. There are social
implications on if meetings are not managed well as the authors
have established like time wastage,
employee motivation and poor management among others.
Originality/value – Many papers that the authors accessed on
meetings were on organizational
experiences from western countries, the authors have made an
original focus on Uganda and
underpinned the debate on management development in Africa.
The authors have also examined and
provided an empirical basis for understanding effectiveness of
meetings using key factors of policy,
preparation, conduct and contextual factors.

3. Keywords Africa, Decision making, Uganda, Management,
Meetings, Pretended agreement
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The scholarly debate on the management and effectiveness of
organizational meetings
has not been concluded yet. The extant literature provides
majorly illustrative papers
on meetings as an organizational function based on observation
of practices in different
Journal of Management
Development
Vol. 34 No. 8, 2015
pp. 960-972
© Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0262-1711
DOI 10.1108/JMD-03-2014-0023
Received 10 March 2014
Revised 2 January 2015
Accepted 6 March 2015
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0262-1711.htm
The authors acknowledge the support provided by the Faculty of
Management at Makerere
University Business School.
960
JMD
34,8

4. organizations. Organizational meetings derive from policy as a
tenet for effective
management. They provide a platform at which key decisions
are made and the
strategic direction of organizations is determined. Meetings
bring together managers to
plan, evaluate and share feedback. Management scholars in
Africa have recently raised
concerns whether models from the west apply locally.
Management is about unison of
action and through common goals, aggregation of resources to
make them productive
in a defined system (Lituchy et al., 2013). Zoogah and Nkomo
(2013) noted that the poor
research in Africa has undermined the region’s ability to
develop management
models that are appropriate to the local contexts. This is
emphasized by Kiggundu
(2013) that management knowledge is associated with powerful
policy and practices;
for example tenets of Ubuntu in Africa like generosity,
charisma, humanism,
hospitality, self-enrichment, motivational leadership, tolerance,
consideration,
integration, persuasiveness, representation and role assumption
can be used to
explain the management of organizations. However, inadequate
research has been
advanced in Africa on management practices. With scanty
empirical studies on the
management and effectiveness of meetings from the African
context, we were
motivated to conduct this study to examine how meetings are

5. convened, conducted and
benefits accruing based on Ugandan organizations.
The increasing tendency of regarding meetings as unproductive
in Ugandan
organizations is a challenge for practitioners and scholars.
Anecdotal evidences show
that key meetings are convened last minute and in response to
urgently needed quick
fix decisions. From different organizations members across the
management divide
continued to regard meetings as time wasters, reactive and
rubber stamping for
decisions. The follow up of decisions derived at such meetings
becomes a dilemma.
With such openly heard expressions, the meetings hardly
achieve the purpose for
which they are provided in organizational policy. In this paper
we present findings on
how meetings are managed, their effectiveness and the benefits
in Ugandan
organizations. The investigation was guided by the research
question that:
RQ1. How are meetings convened, conducted and what benefits
accrue to
organizations?
Literature review
The discontent on meetings finds support in extant management
literature (Nelson
and Economy, 1995). Meetings are a key tool in effective
management and a
common organizational activity. Meetings provide a forum for
decision making,
communication, motivation, interpersonal relationships and

6. dispute settlement.
Meetings should be participatory and a reflection of teamwork
in an organization.
However, to achieve these objectives, meetings should be
effectively managed.
The process and conduct of meetings is a skill that derives into
effective
management of the entire organization. Meetings remain the
essential mechanism
through which organizations create and maintain the practical
activity of organizing.
According to Boden (1994), meetings are the occasioned
expression of management
in action.
There is a host of papers on meetings illustrating how they are
managed and the
frustrations organizational members have (Linda, 2000; Yoon
and Lazarus, 1993).
Meetings were defined by Denyer (1980) as an organized
session of members for
purposes of consulting and deriving decisions. Karen (2004)
described meetings as
the windows on the soul of business, which reveal the quality of
its management.
961
Organizational
meetings
He categorized into formal meetings and informal meetings.
Meetings are essential
but a costly function in organizations. In America, meetings

7. consume 30-80 percent
of managers’ daily time. A Fortune 50 company reported a loss
of $75 million due to
poorly managed meetings (Briggs and Vreede, 1997). In the
Caribbean, executives
have in the past spent more time in meetings of which 35
percent was surveyed
to be unproductive (Sayed et al., 1997). Meetings today
dominate the way in which
business is done.
For meetings to play their central role in management, the three
stage process of
preparation, conduct and follow up are essential. A good
preparation for a meeting may
be laid to waste if it is not conducted well. Greta (2006)
emphasized that organizational
meetings should have consistent form and be structured.
Meetings generate new ideas,
facilitate decision making, build teams, enhance socialization
and provide a platform to
share visions (Briggs and Vreede, 1997). In management,
organizational problems are
complex that no individual can go it alone and thus meetings
garner acceptance and
are a group reality check point while building synergy.
Meetings build commitment
and are an established platform for leaders to demonstrate their
role and authority and
for all managers to show the cross-functional collaboration
(Clark, 2004). Allen and
Rogelberg (2013) used Kahn’s theory to confirm that meetings
promote employee
engagement.
Meetings should be prepared for, and literature provides a long

8. check list. The first
important issue emphasized by many authors is purpose. If there
is no purpose to meet,
no meeting should be called otherwise it will be a recipe for
disaster that management
should avoid (Clark, 2004; Wiggins, 2008). When the purpose is
clear, then
communication should be sent specifying the agenda, the date,
duration and materials
needed. The technical staff should ensure that materials are
prepared and distributed
as required; the room and requisite facilities should be in place
and set by the time the
meeting starts (Riegger, 2008; Sayed et al., 1997; Kemp and
Williams, 2013). Rick (2009)
contends that meeting places can be intimidating, thus distorting
the good intention
for which the meeting was called. Gail (1995) illustrates how
effective group meetings
can be achieved using the electronic brain storming system.
Technology can improve
effectiveness and communication.
The success of any meeting depends on how it is conducted.
Research shows that
the role of the chairperson is central. It is an administrative role
to ensure that the
meeting achieves the objectives for which it was convened. The
facilitator should allow
a free flow of ideas. Brandit (2006) posits that many new
managers or those newly
promoted to positions that require them to chair high-level
organizational meetings are
often worried wondering if they will be effective. In a survey of
238 facilitators of
meetings, Niederman and Volkema (1999), concluded that their

9. characteristics such as
experience and training correlate with multiple aspects of
managing meetings. The
factor of time management in meetings is widely emphasized
(Saville, 2008; Wiggins,
2008; Janice and Hayers, 1995; Walter and Lazarus, 1991).
According to Oliver (2004)
every effective meeting is a timed process. Conversely, Kemp
and Williams (2013)
found that in the Gulf Arab states time is not taken seriously in
meetings thus affecting
their effectiveness. Lewis (1998) stipulates as good practices,
having a clear agenda,
being focussed, ensuring full participation, humor, clearly
defined action plan, good
scheduling, prompt starting and clear direction. Ken and
Ramona (1994) illustrate
what they called common myths that often make meetings
resemble a dramatic
performing art with predetermined cast of using 100 lb of
energy to produce three
ounces of results.
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34,8
The follow up of the outcome is regarded as an equally essential
stage in the
process. The meeting is only a station in management. In many
cases it is only the
beginning of a long demanding managerial engagement. Nolan
(2003) noted that each

10. meeting should have springboards at the end. Many things
should happen after the
meeting. Many organizational members develop negative
attitudes toward meetings
because nothing is done after the meeting. All the important
issues raised should
see a step ahead before any subsequent meeting. This simple
rule enhances
commitment, dynamism and hard work.
Meetings are seen as vicious circles; they take precious time,
lose focus and fail to
generate action items or get hijacked (Janice and Hayers, 1995;
Clark, 2004). A narrow
view of organizational perspectives is that meetings generate
decisions and that
participants address issues in a cognitive process (Borum and
Christiansen, 2006). This
is labelled a linear view and it neglects other models available
to portfolio managers
(Akrich et al., 2002; McCarthy et al., 2006). With the same
concerns of negative attitudes
that crop up, Lewis (1998) demonstrated some of the problems
that derail meetings
as not keeping to the agenda, lack of focus, time wasting, lack
of action plan, hidden
agenda and domineering by a few. Many meetings suffer poor
attendance or walk out
along the process. When group ideas are neglected at previous
meetings as well as
continued domination by a few ardent members of the group,
subsequently others will
lose enthusiasm and make less and lesser appearances. Walter
and Lazarus (1991)
examined the time spent, productiveness or otherwise,
functional group differences and

11. attitudes among other factors in achieving effective meetings.
They concluded that
there is need for training to inculcate skills not for subordinates
only but managers as
well. This position is emphasized by Niederman and Volkema
(1999).
Meetings are also bogged down by pretended agreement.
Swinton (2005) argues that
effective communication in business meetings is about
disagreement, expressing
opinions, voicing concerns and harnessing the energy to create a
solution that
people want and care about. It is difficult many times for the
leader of the meeting to
know if members are genuine or not in their contributions.
Some may give ideas to
delay action or to waste away the time and enjoy the fun of it,
others may intentionally
want to fail the leader. In such cases decisions are a result of
pretended agreement; this
is a situation of group thinking when members in a meeting
support a decision but
individually none of them agrees with it (Harvey, 1988). This is
often revealed shortly
after the meeting when individuals open up. This is confirmed
in Bagire’s (2009)
empirical illustration of a meeting that was flawed with
pretended agreement and the
scenic upshot that resulted into wastage of valuable
organizational resources and
interpersonal conflict.
The need for effective management of meetings in organizations
cannot be over
emphasized. Walter and Lazarus (1990) concluded that meetings

12. not only mirror value
of management but also its ability. The necessity to have
meetings conducted well is
evidently a desire of many organizational leaders. The skill to
manage a meeting,
develop thoughts, motivate and move people with ideas to
positive action is a critical
asset in management practice. Meeting effectiveness should be
seen in various benefits
to the organization as an entire system.
Methodology
This study was guided by the positivistic philosophical
paradigm. Management
practice is widely influenced by social constructions in the
organizational
environment and thus can be observable without researcher
interference. It means
963
Organizational
meetings
that a study of a management variable like meetings is better
approached from an
inductive approach and triangulation of methods. A cross-
sectional survey design
was selected with both qualitative and quantitative data. The
target population
was managers and employees in both public institutions and
private business
organizations. The study targeted 25 service organizations
including educational

13. institutions, mass media companies and government
departments. From each
organization 20 respondents were reached using simple random
sampling. Of the
500 targeted respondents, the researchers had 325 usable
questionnaires returned
from 22 organizations. We thus realized a 65 percent response
rate providing
credence to the results.
Data were collected using a structured questionnaire with a total
of 67 items in six
sections. The questionnaire was structured on a five-point
Likert type scale ranging
from “not sure” to “strongly agree.” The tool was tested for
reliability using the
Cronbach’s α for different items with outcomes all above the
recommended 0.7
(Nachamias and Nachamias, 1996). The researchers also
collected data through
participatory observation as they took part in a number of
meetings taking note
of the processes. Quantitative data were analyzed using
correlation and regression
techniques in SPSS. Qualitative data on the other hand were
analyzed through a
summary sheet identifying themes in line with the study
variables and subsequently
used in the discussion of the results.
Results and discussion
Demographic statistics
The results were obtained from data provided by 325
respondents in 22 service
organizations. The majority was from mass media firms (37
percent), followed by

14. secondary schools with 21 percent; others were from
universities and corporations.
From the individual organizations, Parliament had the highest
score with 18 percent
of the total respondents. Other demographical statistics
pertinent for our results
include gender where a high majority was male and aged above
50 years. Over half of
the respondents were of degree qualification and only 1 percent
had secondary
education. Importantly, the highest number was in the middle
level of management
who understand the organization well but not biased by top
management experiences.
The details are reported in Table I. With these demographics,
we note that the
responses were from people who are mature, educated and well
placed to interpret
the instrument.
Descriptive statistics
Policy on meetings. The findings showed that organizations in
Uganda had clearly
stipulated policies on meetings. These were in regard to
expected members, quorum,
agenda items, time for notices, procedures of the meetings and
mode of decision
making. These were in many cases documented especially in the
public organizations.
Respondents in the private firms intimated that most behaviors
in management of
meetings are based more on practices than policy. There is also
influence by
characteristics of managers, members and departments. The key
policy issues are
summarized in Table II for easier discernment.

15. Reasons for convening meetings. Our respondents from both
management and non-
management positions indicated that they perceived meetings to
be convened mainly to
receive communication on decisions of top management. The
results also indicated a
964
JMD
34,8
high perception that meetings were convened as a routine, to
handle particularly no
pressing issues. Respondents from bottom management highly
agreed with the view
that meetings are for disciplinary action and conflict solving
contrary to top managers
to whom communication and consultation were the key reasons.
The other factors like
coordination of work tasks, share experiences and as routine
had comparable
responses. The summary is in Table II.
Contextual factors. We were also interested in contextual
factors that could affect the
effectiveness of meetings. We examined personal factors like
family obligations,
Frequency Valid %
Gender
Male 213 65.5

16. Female 112 34.5
Age
8-29 24 8.1
30-30 97 32.7
40-49 130 43.8
50+ 46 15.5
Education
Secondary 5 1.6
Diploma 83 26.3
Degree 140 44.3
Postgrad. 88 27.8
Level of magt.
Top 33 10.9
Middle 139 45.7
Bottom 132 43.4
Table I.
Demographic
statistics of
respondents
Organizational policy Convening the meeting Conducting the
meeting Contextual factors
Respondents agreed that
in their organizations,
there was policy on:
Types of meetings
Members expected
The quorum required
The notice for meetings
The agenda for
meetings

17. The procedure of
meeting
Decision procedure
Respondents agreed the
following to be reasons
why meetings are
convened:
For consultation
Means to communicate
To handle grievances
Carry out disciplinary
action
For solving conflicts
Brain storming on
issues
Share experiences
Check management
system
Confirmed reasons why
meetings are not
productive:
The agenda is not
consistently followed
The venue selected for
meetings is not suitable
The sitting arrangement
not favorable
Duration of the meetings
not adhered to
Hostilities building up
during meetings
Few members
dominating others
Inadequate reference

18. documents
Contextual factors
rated low in affecting
meetings:
Family factors
Community events
National events
Internal facilities
Weather patterns
Infrastructure
Competition
Legal issues
Economic situation
Table II.
The selected factors
in the management
of organizational
meetings
965
Organizational
meetings
national events in the country, community activities and others
like public infrastructure.
All these factors were perceived to have a less cause on the
effectiveness of meetings in
the organizations.
Why meetings are not productive. The examination of this issue

19. was the motivation
of this study after overwhelming anecdotal evidences. Meetings
as a management tool
have come under serious public scrutiny from both managers
and staff in various
organizations. From the analysis of the findings, respondents
generally agreed that
meetings in Ugandan organizations are productive although
there are serious concerns
on how they are managed. We tested for perceptions on a
number of items all of which
were rated high by respondents; top on the list was lack of
quorum followed by hidden
agenda and short notice given for meetings. The other highly
rated was
unimplemented resolutions. We used as a surrogate the factor of
lack of follow up
action. The response to this item was closely the same with 92
percent confirming that
not following up resolutions is a key factor affecting
productivity of meetings in
Uganda. Other factors were meetings lasting a long time, lack
of suitable facilities, no
materials and the timing of meetings. The responses on these
items are summarized by
descriptive statistics in Table III.
The results reaffirmed the views and agreed with previous
scholars. We build a
strong case for the need to reexamine how meetings are
conducted and the follow up
actions both at governance and management levels.
Benefits of meetings to organizations. To complete our model
we sought perceptions of
respondents on the benefits of meetings to their organizations.

20. The findings revealed that
meetings in Ugandan organizations have led to improved
communication and thus better
human relations at work among employees. Meetings have been
a forum for settlement of
conflicts and disputes. Sharing of experience among members
and departments is
enhanced when meetings are convened and conducted well.
Many respondents felt that
meetings are necessary in running their organizations as they
generate new ideas for
management to ensure systematic organizational work
procedures.
Inferential statistics. To make empirical inferences, statistical
analyses were carried out
to test the relationships prevalent among the factors enumerated
in our model. We first run
a correlation analysis to explore the associations among the
variables (Table IV).
Score items n Mean SD
Lack of quorum at the meeting 321 4.6262 0.78490
Hidden agenda by the leaders 322 4.6211 0.69214
No follow up action after meetings 311 4.5916 0.86721
Unimplemented resolutions for the past meetings 322 4.5559
0.76017
Lack of reference documents like minutes 321 4.5452 0.94802
Short notice given for the meetings 321 4.5296 0.73733
Timing of the meeting (morning, evening, start of week,
end of week, end of month, etc.)
294 4.4694 1.04052
Unfamiliar agenda items at the meetings 321 4.4361 0.97298

21. Luck of openness during discussions 322 4.4317 0.96512
Duration of meeting always too long 320 4.4125 0.85930
Poor facilities at the meeting 322 4.3882 0.95127
None specification of who to attend 322 4.3199 1.00784
Personality of the chairperson 321 4.3146 1.10570
No seating allowance expected 320 4.2437 1.16504
Table III.
Descriptive statistics
– why meetings are
unproductive
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JMD
34,8
The coefficients obtained ranged from low, moderate to high
among the variables.
The associations were all positive and significant. The highest
correlation was
between factors for convening meetings and how they are
conducted; with a
subsequent high association with the benefits. The contextual
factors that we chose
for the study had the lowest correlation coefficients with
benefits of meetings. We
could not explain this outcome based on extant literature that
we accessed. Having
established the correlations it was in our interest and model of
this study to
examine the predictions of certain factors to the benefits
organizations have from
meetings. This would enable us to draw conclusions on their

22. effectiveness. We used
hierarchical regression to achieve this and the change statistics
is presented
in Table V.
In the first model we tested for two control variables that we
thought affect
effectiveness of meetings namely, the type of organization and
the level of management
of the respondents. However, these two factors were not
statistically significant. In
model 2 we entered policy as the key factor that determines
meetings in organizations.
The result was significant with an R2 of 0.348 and p-value ¼
0.000. In model 3 we added
reasons why meetings are convened and in the next model how
they are conducted.
Factors of convening meetings led to a statistically significant
result (R2 ¼ 0.567;
p-value ¼ 0.000) while it was not significant how they are
conducted. The F-change was
a very low 0.310 compared to the 80.347 for convening of
meetings. The policy and
reasons together accounted for 56.7 percent variations in the
benefits of meetings to
organizations. In the final model we introduced contextual
factors, which was an
aggregated variable capturing both internal and external factors.
This item had a low
F-change and the model was not significant (p-value ¼ 0.258).
The prediction power of
the model remained 57 percent.
The results therefore showed that the key factors leading to
effective meetings that
have strong benefits to organizations are the policies and

23. reasons for convening them.
1 2 3 4
1. Policy guiding meetings
2. Reasons for convening meetings 0.603**
3. Practices in conducting meetings 0.613** 0.749**
4. Contextual factors affecting meetings 0.360** 0.350**
0.443**
5. Benefits from meetings to organization 0.546** 0.741**
0.603** 0.272**
Note: **Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level
Table IV.
Correlation analysis
results
Change statistics
Model R R2 Adjusted R2 SE of the estimate R2-change F-
change Sig. F-change
1 0.135 0.018 0.006 2.70469 0.018 1.501 0.226
2 0.590 0.348 0.336 2.21081 0.330 80.967 0.000
3 0.753 0.567 0.556 1.80758 0.219 80.347 0.000
4 0.754 0.568 0.554 1.81152 0.001 0.310 0.579
5 0.756 0.571 0.555 1.80987 0.004 1.287 0.258
Table V.
Regression analysis
results
967
Organizational

24. meetings
While as the policies in some sections provided for how
meetings should be conducted,
our findings and analysis showed that the process of running the
meeting was not a
significant factor determining the benefits accruing to
organizations. Therefore our
aggregated variable of management of meetings (preparation,
convening, conducting)
partially accounts for variations in their benefits to
organizations.
In our participant observations during various meetings it was
confirmed that the
policies on meetings were specified. For example in one of the
universities where the
study took place, there were meetings for management, faculty
boards, examiners
boards, staff associations and departments. The membership and
items to handle in
these meetings were specified in the invitation. Although in
some meetings the quorum
was mentioned, the chairperson would call for registration of
members and apologies
received. The agenda for meetings was a contentious issue at
times taking turns of
discussion before confirming the items. The duration of
meetings was also
unstructured. In some cases the chairperson sought the view of
members how long
they wished to get through with business; in other cases it
depended on completion of
business while there were instances where members just raised

25. contention that the
meeting had dragged on too long. This finding leaves gap in the
ideas expressed by
Saville (2008) and Wiggins (2008) who emphasize that duration
is a key factor to
effectiveness of meetings. Our results were in concert with the
findings by Kemp and
Williams (2013) in the Gulf Arab states where lateness,
haphazard sitting, open door
and other disruptions were noted.
Karen (2004) posited that meetings are the windows on the soul
of business
meaning that they essentially reveal what is going on within the
management
system. Our findings confirmed this position. Many authors
argue that if there is no
sound reason to convene a meeting, management should not do
so, lest it will be a
recipe for disaster (Clark, 2004; Wiggins, 2008). Our finding
therefore confirms that
managers should not call meetings without a clear purpose; we
observed long
discussions on items proposed for the agenda where some were
deleted and others
combined implying that the facilitators had not adequately
thought through the
reasons for convening the meeting.
The point of departure for this study was that meetings are
becoming increasingly
unproductive. The results have confirmed that the process of
conducting meetings does
not account for the expected benefits to the organization. The
common problems
affecting meetings are listed by Lewis (1998) as well Walter

26. and Lazarus (1991). Our
findings found the same factors but the analysis did not support
the position that they
are significant. One item that had stood out in the way meetings
are conducted was the
decision-making process. It was observed that lack of openness
bred pretended
agreement in decision making. This was observed at one of the
universities and
confirmed by cases from other organizations. We confirmed the
case as highlighted by
Bagire (2009) in an earlier study of management in Ugandan
organizations. This was a
case where university lecturers in a meeting of their academic
staff association passed
a resolution to sue the Ministry of Education for preventing a
high court order that had
pronounced that the affiliated college in which they taught was
free to declare itself
a separate university. They even agreed to the monetary
deductions from their
emoluments to finance the court process. Shortly after the
meeting, many members
opened up revealing how they individually never supported the
decision but had been
drawn by group thinking. The suit never took off and was
overtaken by cabinet
decisions on the matter.
968
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27. For Greta (2006), the issues of consistent form and structure in
handling meetings
are very critical, both of which have not been confirmed by this
study. Walter and
Lazarus (1991) posited that poorly managed meetings cost
American businesses a
fortune in dollar value. We did not analyze monetary values of
poorly conducted
meetings but speculate it to be high and recommend further
research with such
analysis. Our measures of outcome of meetings reflected the
quality aspect emphasized
by Karen (2004). This study confirms that meetings have
enabled organizations to
improve in communication, human relations, management of
conflict and policy
formulation. One contested benefit of meetings was on staff
motivation. Our study did
not check cross-functional collaboration where we would have
ascertained the
contribution of meetings toward staff motivation as proposed by
Clark (2004). This
item had the lowest mean value and highest standard deviation
in the descriptive
statistics. It is a rich area and it for further study.
Conclusions and practical implications
This study has initiated a critical analysis of meetings as a
process of improving
management in Ugandan organizations. Meetings are a key
practice in running
organizations although many studies confirm that there are key
gaps in their
management. There are evidences of poor preparation,
conducting and failed outcomes.
Among many Ugandan organizations, these have been viewed

28. from anecdotal
evidences but we have now reaffirmed them empirically. This
study has determined the
key factors pertinent in management and benefits of meetings in
Uganda as
advancement of management scholarship in Africa. While our
key findings have
agreed with previous studies, we emphasize that Africa’s unique
context is important
in understanding the behavior of some factors. From results of
our model, we draw the
conclusion that meetings are generally embedded in policies and
have benefitted
organizations; however, the manner in which they are convened
and conducted is still
wanting. There was reaffirmation of negative opinion against
meetings. Being an
integrated process, the management of meetings is still a
problem and affecting overall
management of organizations.
The study has various practical implications for policy, practice
and research. With
increased organizational dynamics and changes in management
practice, have come
new models like management by objectives, result oriented and
total quality
management. Governance boards should therefore review the
policies and practices of
organizational meetings. They are a key tool in management and
must be given
adequate attention to contribute toward organizational
efficiency from corporate to
management levels. Managers should use meetings as a spring
board to improve
communication, employee engagement, planning, team building

29. and management
development. There are internal occurrences that require to be
addressed by meetings;
they are thus a routine event for effective managerial work.
Managers should review
policy frameworks on meetings especially how they are
convened, conducted and
follow up of outcomes. Increasingly, ICT should be used
positively to improve
management of not only meetings but organizations as a whole.
For researchers, studies on the management of organizations in
the Ugandan
context are still in nascent stages. Our focus on meetings has
not exhausted this aspect
among others. There is need for more analytical studies using a
larger sample of
organizations, examination of the personality and competencies
of managers, costs,
resource capability and technology levels. Studies on the
relationship or mediation
969
Organizational
meetings
effects of meetings with performance of employees and the
organizations are needed.
To contribute to better management, scholars should document
best practices and
analyze differences in samples drawn from various sectors and
organizational
demographics.

30. The results in this study are limited by the lack of analytical
literature on the factors
that we studied from the local context. Some aspects of our
methodology especially
sampling the individual respondents may have affected our
results. Our
operationalization of the variables was not based on a clear
theoretical framework.
We are not sure if a larger sample of organizations could have
led to different and
more significant results. There could be limitations arising from
cross-sectional
survey design. We however, contend that despite these
limitations, our results
on the management and benefits of meetings can be relied upon
for practice and
further research.
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971
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meetings
www.mftrous.com
About the authors
Dr Vincent Bagire is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of
Business Administration at the
Makerere University Business School. His current focus is
advancing management scholarship
as a theme for the Africa Academy of Management (AFAM).
His research interests are the
practices of strategic and general management. He has
published various papers on management
issues in the African context. He holds a PhD in Strategic
Management from the University of Nairobi.

36. Dr Vincent Bagire is the corresponding author and can be
contacted at: [email protected]
Jolly Byarugaba is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of
Human Resource Management
at the Makerere University Business School. Her research
interest is in human resource
management field.
Janet Kyogabiirwe is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of
Human Resource Management
at the Makerere University Business School. Her current
research area is high-performing
organizations model.
For instructions on how to order reprints of this article, please
visit our website:
www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/licensing/reprints.htm
Or contact us for further details: [email protected]
972
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mailto:[email protected]
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further
reproduction prohibited without
permission.
Communicating virtually
in a global organization

37. Céleste M. Brotheridge
ESG UQAM, Montréal, Canada
Derrick J. Neufeld
Richard Ivey School of Business,
The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada, and
Bruno Dyck
I.H. Asper School of Business, University of Manitoba,
Winnipeg, Canada
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider the extent to
which changes in communication
media are associated with changes in the nature of manager-
expatriate employee communications.
Using an affordance lens, the authors explore how hierarchical
level and communication medium
interact to influence status dynamics manifested in
communication attributes.
Design/methodology/approach – The hypothesis was tested with
a 2 (hierarchical level) × 3
(communication media) multivariate analysis of covariance
(experience level) in a sample of 1,193
messages that were transmitted between managers and field
employees in a global organization over a
ten year period.
Findings – The authors found significant interaction effects
between communication media and
hierarchical level on communication attributes such that
changes in communication media intensified
status differences between managers and their employees.
Research limitations/implications – Communications media may
be appropriated differently
depending on one’s hierarchical level.

38. Practical implications – Managers should adopt new
communication media more consciously given
their potential influence of how people communicate.
Originality/value – Unlike many computer-mediated
communications (CMC) effects studies that
compare face-to-face communications with CMC or employ
self-report questionnaires or laboratory
designs with student samples, this study examines a complete
set of manager-employee
communications over an extended period of time.
Keywords Expatriates, Communication technologies, Managers,
Virtual work, Electronic mail
Paper type Research paper
Organizations are increasingly adopting distributed structures
such as virtual
teams and remote work arrangements (Beranek and Martz,
2005). Fostering effective
communication between managers and their employees in such
settings is particularly
challenging (Fiol and O’Conner, 2005). Unlike traditional
workplaces where managers
and employees communicate face-to-face, geographically
dispersed work settings often
involve multiple time zones, languages and cultures and the use
of computer-mediated
communications (CMC). CMC are at the heart of
communications and, indeed, managing
in virtual organizations since they enable managers and
employees to bridge “space, time
and cultural distances” (Riemer et al., 2008). But, their use is
not necessarily neutral, given
their potential to influence message transmittal (DeRosa et al.,
2007). Consequently, there
is ongoing interest in understanding how CMC, especially e-
mail, affects how people

39. communicate and how this influences an important aspect of
organizational life: the
manager-employee relationship.
Journal of Managerial Psychology
Vol. 30 No. 8, 2015
pp. 909-924
© Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0268-3946
DOI 10.1108/JMP-06-2013-0191
Received 25 June 2013
Revised 31 January 2014
16 April 2014
Accepted 10 July 2014
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0268-3946.htm
909
Communicating
virtually
This study employs an affordance lens (Leonardi, 2011; Treem
and Leonardi, 2012)
to understand how communication media shape status dynamics
in a manager-
employee dyad in a global organization. It examines manager-
employee interactions in

40. a virtual organization as the dominant communication medium
shifts from written
letters to faxes and, finally, to e-mail over a ten year period.
This study addresses
several gaps in the media effects literature. First, few studies
have compared the effects
of two or more non-face-to-face media on communications
(Walther, 2012). Media
effects studies typically assume that face-to-face
communications and CMC are
available to organizational members. Although usually
employed to supplement
face-to-face communications, CMC may be the central
communication medium
employed in global organizations since it allows geographically
dispersed workers to
readily communicate with each other (Monge and Fulk, 1999).
By “controlling” for
face-to-face communications, this study provides a more
accurate view of
communications in global organizations.
Also, existing research tends to consider status effects in
relation to team-based
communications such as group decision support systems (Tan et
al., 1998).
Such research is typically undertaken in an experimental setting
with students as
participants. When undertaken in field settings, it focusses on
the perceptions of
organizational members and/or team decision making. Very
little research has
examined CMC within a manager-employee dyad in a natural
setting (Zack and
McKenney, 1995).

41. Finally, we know very little about how the manager-employee
relationship plays out
on a micro level (Fairhurst et al., 1987). Most studies solicit the
perceptions of leaders
or their followers. As argued by Fairhurst et al., this emphasis
on perceptions and
interpretations is subject to numerous weaknesses (e.g. social
desirability, rating errors),
provides little understanding of how leadership is exercised at
the microstructure level,
and loses the dynamism that is possible when organizations are
studied in situ.
We begin this paper by presenting the theoretical grounding for
our paper. We then
consider the affordances of various communication media in
relation to six attributes and
how differences in these attributes reflect status dynamics.
Next, we discuss the context
and design of our study and the nature of the data set. We then
present our findings and
discuss their implications for understanding CMC’s introduction
in organizations.
Theoretical perspectives
There are two primary perspectives regarding the potential for
the introduction of
communication media to alter existing social arrangements:
constructivism and
determinism. First, the constructivist perspective suggests that
managers and
employees appropriate CMC in a manner that reinforces or
echoes existing social
structures and, thus, preserves the existing system of relations
(Ducheneaut, 2002;
Yates et al., 1999). In other words, introducing new

42. communication technology
essentially has no effect on status because existing assumptions
about how work gets
done and how hierarchical interaction should proceed are
retained (Poole, 1999).
Although support for this constructivist perspective is limited,
two noteworthy
studies are Gutek et al.’s (1984) self-report survey of the impact
of new office
information technology on employees’ task activities, and
Arrow’s (1997) finding that
introducing CMC in groups that had otherwise met on a face-to-
face basis caused only
a slight and temporary fluctuation in member influence
structures.
Second, the deterministic perspective views technology as a
catalyst of change in
organizational functioning and, thus, posits that CMC has the
potential to alter the
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nature of hierarchical communications that occurs within an
organization (Lemke,
1999; Sherblom, 1988). However, it is unclear whether changes
in CMC serve to reduce
or widen any status differences between organizational
members. Some argue that
CMC results in status leveling because employees view the
introduction of CMC as an

43. opportunity to increase their influence levels, resulting in
reduced hierarchical
differences in communications (Bryant, 1988) and balanced
participation. What little
support exists for this status leveling perspective comes
primarily from group
decision-making experiments that found that lower and higher
level participants
contributed more equally in e-mail discussions than in face-to-
face discussions
(Chidambaram, 1996). Since these laboratory studies relied
heavily on the use of ad hoc
groups of students, their results may not be generalizable to
ongoing manager-employee
relationships dealing with real issues (Spears and Lea, 1992).
Others argue that, in contrast to the foregoing no effects and
status leveling
perspectives, the introduction of new communications media are
associated with
intensified status differences. According to this perspective,
managers are expected to
appropriate CMC in a manner that increases their oversight and
control of remote
operations, thus enabling them to makes decisions that may
have previously been
made by employees (Malone, 1997). Because CMC permits
increased centralization of
information and control by managers over distant sites, its
introduction may erode
employees’ relative status level. Consistent with this
perspective, field research
indicates that CMC participants draw on social contexts and
norms in deciding how to
communicate (DeSanctis and Monge, 1999), and, over time,
occupational roles become

44. even more salient in determining communication patterns
(Saunders et al., 1994).
Affordances of communication media
Hutchby (2001) and Boudreau and Robey (2005) bridge the
constructivism-determinism
gap using the notion of affordances. Gibson (1979) coined the
term “affordances” as a
way of explaining “how people and other animals orient to the
objects in their world in
terms of the possibilities that objects afford for action”
(Zammuto et al., 2007, p. 752).
Thus, each communications medium has features or
characteristics associated with it
(Walther, 2012), and individuals appropriate a medium based on
what it affords or
permits them to do. Organizational researchers have employed
this concept as a means
of understanding the effects of information and communication
technologies (Conole
and Dyke, 2004), social media (Treem and Leonardi, 2012) and
flexible technologies
(Leonardi, 2011) on social arrangements. Consistent with this
perspective, our study
explicitly examines the affordances associated with the various
media, which is in
contrast to constructivist and deterministic approaches that look
at changes in
communications media without giving much consideration to
the qualities of the media
themselves. Thus, unlike constructivism and determinism:
[…] technology is enacted from an evolving human agency, but
it may also constrain that
agency. […] Although IT [information technology] and
organization features may exist

45. independently of each other, their value for explaining
organizational form and function
comes from how they are enacted together (Zammuto et al.,
2007, p. 753).
We propose that the status dynamics evident in hierarchical
communications are
informed by what a communication medium allows. The
following discussion
considers the affordances of various communication media in
relation to six attributes:
communications frequency; feedback immediacy; message
length; information seeking;
idea generation; and socio-emotional expression.
911
Communicating
virtually
Frequency of communications
Relative to letters and faxes, e-mail allows people to
communicate more frequently
and more easily at less cost (Fulk and DeSanctis, 1999;
Louhiala-Salminen, 1995).
An increase in the frequency of employee initiated
communication (i.e. an increase
in the number of messages) has been associated with increased
decentralization
(Harrison, 1985) and trust ( Jarvenpaa and Leidner, 1999).
Frequent shared
communication amplifies the quality of the relationship and
denotes active
participation and an increased sense of control as well as a more

46. open flow of
information (Yum and Hara, 2005). However, higher status
individuals tend to
initiate more communications and participate more frequently
than lower status
members, regardless of the communication medium used
(Bonito and Hollingshead,
1997; Weisband et al., 1995). Whereas status leveling would be
evidenced by no
hierarchical differences in communications frequency,
intensified status differences
would be demonstrated by more frequent managerial
communications. The latter
may increase managers’ knowledge of distant operations and, as
such, provide them
with more opportunities for involvement and control in these
operations (Straub and
Wetherbe, 1989).
Feedback immediacy
Feedback immediacy refers to how quickly one person responds
to a communication
received from another person. Of the three media in our study,
letters are likely to
offer the lowest feedback immediacy. Although faxes may be
transmitted reasonably
quickly, because fax machines are typically not located in
individual offices, faxes often
take longer than e-mail to reach their addressee. In contrast,
empirical studies have
demonstrated the near instantaneous feedback potential of e-
mail (Lucas, 1998). In sum,
we expect feedback immediacy to be higher (faster) for e-mail
compared with letters
and faxes. However, given that e-mail permits relatively
immediate feedback, it is also

47. associated with an increased expectation of responsiveness
(Slembrouck, 1998). Delays
in responding to others’ communications may suggest that an
individual is otherwise
occupied or that the communication is not considered to be
urgent or important. It is
possible that higher status individuals may be less responsive to
communications
initiated by lower status individuals (and vice versa). When two
parties are of relatively
equal status, the responsiveness to each other’s communications
is not likely to
differ significantly.
Message length
Faxes tend to be more succinct than written letters. The
relatively high transaction cost
of transmitting facsimiles constrains their length, the frequency
with which they are
sent and the ability to include lengthy informational documents
(Louhiala-Salminen,
1995). Fax communications are likely to invoke Grice’s et al.
(1975) maxim of
communicative efficiency which favors brevity, with little
attention paid to social
niceties or explaining decisions or requests. However, the added
cost of using fax vs
letters may imply that whatever is being communicated by fax is
more urgent
(Thornton, 1993). E-mails tend to be significantly briefer than
letters (Bertacco, 2007;
Slembrouck, 1998). Since longer messages may be attempts to
influence the receiver
and engage in sense-making or sense-giving (Vuori, 2011), they
would be expected from
higher status individuals. Communications between two parties

48. who are of relatively
equal status would more likely be of equivalent length.
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30,8
Information seeking
Due to their ease of access, savings in time and money, the
opportunity to consult
multiple experts simultaneously, and benefits related to
asynchronous channels
(Savolainen, 1999), information seeking behavior is likely to be
more frequent in e-mails
than in faxes or letters. Such behavior is often at the heart of
arguments for CMC’s
potential for either status leveling or increased managerial
oversight of local
operations. CMC can provide geographically dispersed
employees with the global
information they need to make decisions and do so fairly
rapidly (Fulk and DeSanctis,
1999). However, it can also facilitate the centralization of
decision making: it can “make
distance less important in determining where decisions should
be made by bringing
information to decision makers wherever they are” (Malone,
1997, p. 28). While status
leveling would be signaled by relatively equal levels of
information seeking by
employees and managers, higher levels information seeking by
managers indicate that
they may be involving themselves more frequently in local

49. operations.
Idea generation
Information seeking and idea generation represent proactive
task management and
involvement. Although the idea generation potential of letters
has not been considered
in past research, numerous group support systems studies have
reported that
electronic brainstorming is more effective in generating ideas
than is face-to-face
brainstorming (Baruah and Paulus, 2009). Thus, we anticipate
that idea generation will
be higher for e-mails relative to faxes and letters. Whereas
mutual sharing of ideas at
relatively equivalent levels indicates status leveling, relatively
higher levels of idea
generation by managers may be attempts to shape local
operations.
Socio-emotional expression
An important attribute of relationships and the communication
media used to
establish and maintain those relationships is the capacity to
communicate emotions
(Walther et al., 2010). This study examined primarily socio-
emotional content; i.e., the
sharing of basic personal and emotional issues. Research has
linked a shift from
synchronous to asynchronous communications with reduced
socio-emotional content
(Sarbaugh-Thompson and Feldman, 1998), which may have
important consequences
for relationship building and perspective taking. In contrast to
faxes, which tend to be
concise and task-oriented, letters and e-mails permit more

50. socio-emotional content to be
communicated. Relative to letters, e-mails tend to be less
formal, more conversation-like,
and they contain more humor, topic shifts and tangential asides
(Slembrouck, 1998).
Socio-emotional expression, combined with responsiveness,
signal relationship
building (Yum and Hara, 2005). However, managers are less
likely than lower status
employees to send socio-emotional content in e-mails (Ku,
1996). Given the foregoing,
status leveling is indicated by relatively equivalent levels socio-
emotional expression.
Reductions in socio-emotional expression signal increased
psychological distance and
reduced social presence (Golden, 2000); i.e., the outcome of
intensified status differences.
Based on the foregoing discussion, we present the following
hypothesis:
H1. There are significant interaction effects between
communication media and
hierarchical level on communication attributes.
H1 posits that the introduction of CMC will be associated with
specific communication
attributes, and that their association depends on the hierarchical
level of the communicator.
913
Communicating
virtually

51. Intensified status differences are indicated by: increasing
volume and length of
communications from managers, lower managerial
responsiveness to employee messages,
increased information seeking and idea generation by managers
and less socio-emotional
expression in communications from managers.
Methods
Study context
The Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is the cooperative
relief, service and
development agency of the Mennonite and Brethren churches in
North America.
It seeks to build mutually transformative relationships, peace,
justice and the dignity of
all people by sharing critical resources with those in need. MCC
espouses a
consultative, “listen and learn” approach to dealing with clients
and seeks to carry out
its mission in a “participatory, transforming process leading to
greater dignity and
self-reliance, greater vision and possibility, greater community
and interdependence”
(Mennonite Central Committee, 1999). With field operatives in
63 countries, typically
with minimal financial, social or other support locally, senior
managers recognize the
importance of maintaining close communication ties with their
distant staff. To keep
expenses low, most communications between field employees
and their North
American managers are in written form. On average, they have a
face-to-face meeting
once per year. Until the early 1990s, MCC relied almost entirely

52. on the postal system or
couriers to deliver letters between its North American managers
and its field
employees. Letters could take weeks to arrive at their
destination. Telephone was
rarely used because of its high cost and logistical difficulties
related to time zone
differences. Reliance on postal communication declined with
the introduction of
facsimile technology and, later, the adoption of electronic mail.
Today, headquarters
(HQ) and field employees communicate almost exclusively via
e-mail.
The specific research site for the present study is MCC’s
Burkino Faso operation.
During this study, MCC employed a Country Manager,
approximately ten expatriate
volunteers and 25 local staff in Burkina Faso. Burkina Faso was
selected as the research
site given its economic and political stability relative to other
countries in which MCC
operates. During a crisis, communications become more
frequent (Danowski and
Edison-Swift, 1985). Also, high levels of uncertainty affect
managerial behaviors such as
assertiveness and information search (Hannaway, 1985). Thus,
CMC’s introduction was
“relatively uncontaminated by other forms of social
intervention” (Gutek et al., 1984, p. 235).
Data collection
Through MCC’s archives, we accessed the complete set of
written communications
(n ¼ 1,198) across several media between the HQ manager and
the field employee

53. located in Burkina Faso over a ten year period. A total of 32.4
percent of these messages
were sent by postal mail or courier, 34.4 percent by facsimile
and 33.2 percent by e-mail
(see Table I). Two shifts in media usage occurred. First, when
facsimile technology was
introduced, the growth in fax usage was accompanied by a
decline in letters sent. The
second shift began when e-mail usage became predominant. By
Year 9, letter and fax
communications had dropped off completely.
Measures
Feedback immediacy. Feedback immediacy for each document
was calculated as the
elapsed number of days since the date of the most recent
message sent from the
914
JMP
30,8
remote location. For example, consider four messages beginning
with Message no. 87,
sent from the field employee to the HQ manager on June 1st:
• Message no. 88, HQ→field, June 11 ¼ 10 days since last
message from field.
• Message no. 89, field→ HQ, June 14 ¼ 3 days since last
message from HQ.
• Message no. 90, HQ→field, June 18 ¼ 7 days since last
message from field.

54. Message length. The total number of words for each document
was calculated using
Microsoft Word’s word count feature.
Information seeking. We performed a detailed examination of
the messages to identify
requests for information. We included requests for specific
information (e.g. “We’re
beginning to feel concerned about the Hounde/Bombi
placement, and because of that
delay, we’re antsy about this year’s, I guess. Any hopeful
news?”), rather than requests
that were routine or social in nature (e.g. “How are you?”).
Idea generation. We examined the messages to determine the
extent to which
individuals generated new ideas. We included discussions that
specifically addressed
program-related issues or the strategic direction of MCC’s work
in Burkina Faso
(e.g. “It seems to me that MCC might wish to establish a longer
term food assistance
program agreement with FEME. Such an agreement would first
of all enable FEME to
not only count on MCC’s commitment, but also plan and
strategize more effectively.
Further, if MCC would do a three-or five-year commitment,
then we would on an annual
basis build this commitment into our total picture […]”). We
ignored ideas generated
about mundane things (e.g. travel arrangements or other day-to-
day matters).
Socio-emotional expression. We analyzed messages for
communication of a clearly
social nature. We did not code any salutations, greetings or

55. casual references to the
weather. Rather, we included multi-sentence discourse that was
not work-related
such as lengthy discussions of personal health, spiritual
concerns or family matters
(e.g. “I write to you from the village of Zam, where I have been
staying for the past
few days and will be staying for several weeks to come. The day
of a Burkinabe
villager revolves around the very basics of life, and I imagine
that its activity is much
the same as it was one hundred or one thousand years ago. Yet
amidst the mud huts,
the bare women, the termite hills, the roaming goats, the nasal
language, I forget that
I am in Africa. It ceases to be the mysterious, romantic far-away
land that it once was
in my mind”).
Year Letter (n ¼ 388) Fax (n ¼ 412) E-mail (n ¼ 398) Total (n
¼ 1198)
Field HQ Field HQ Field HQ Field HQ Total
1 58 43 5 4 0 0 63 47 110
2 49 43 19 30 0 0 68 73 141
3 24 12 32 44 0 0 56 56 112
4 21 19 35 55 2 0 58 74 132
5 16 10 21 48 8 0 45 58 103
6 26 16 37 30 2 2 65 48 113
7 18 14 32 19 14 25 64 58 122
8 11 3 0 0 16 44 27 47 74
9 2 1 1 0 28 123 31 124 155
10 0 1 0 0 33 101 34 102 136
Total 226 162 182 230 103 295 511 687 1198
Table I.

56. Number of
documents sent
using each
communication
medium
915
Communicating
virtually
Organizational level. Messages were coded as originating from
either the field employee
or the HQ manager.
Experience with medium. We used experience with a medium as
a control
variable given that communication attributes may change over
time as individuals
become more familiar with a medium (Carlson and Zmud,
1999). To operationalize
this variable, we first numbered each message chronologically
for each medium.
For example, the first letter sent in Year 1 was coded no. 1, the
second no. 2 and so on
until the last one in Year 10, no. 388. The first fax sent in Year
1 was no. 1, and the last
fax sent in Year 9 was no. 412. The first e-mail sent in Year 4
was no. 1, and the final
one in Year 10 was no. 398. In other words, experience for each
message was
calculated simply as the number of prior messages sent using

57. the same medium. We
then split the data set into three groups based on the median
prior experience score
(low prior experience; n ¼ 299, medium prior experience; n ¼
598, high prior
experience; n ¼ 300).
Results
Preliminary analyses
Table II presents the overall means and correlations for the
study variables. Table III
presents the mean scores for the communication attributes per
communication medium
for managers and employees. As indicated in Table III,
facsimiles appear to serve as an
approximate midpoint for half of the communication attributes
(five of ten), as the
transition from letter-to-fax-to-e-mail unfolded. With the
introduction of e-mail,
feedback immediacy lengthened for managers (from 6.1 to 15.6
days) and shortened for
field employees (from 7.8 to 4.3 days). Similarly, whereas
message length doubled for
Variable M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1. Feedback immediacy 8.52 13.35 –
2. Message length 584.98 940.11 0.08* –
3. Information seeking 1.40 2.28 −0.05* 0.05* –
4. Idea generation 0.10 0.30 −0.05* 0.10* 0.16** –
5. Socio. expression 0.19 0.54 0.02 0.14** 0.01 0.00 –
6. Medium – – 0.17** −0.02 0.07* −0.03 −0.15** –
7. Experience – – 0.20** 0.13** −0.03 −0.04 0.11** 0.10** –
8. Level – – 0.14** −0.13** −0.23** −0.10** −0.15** 0.27**
0.14**
Notes: **p ⩽ 0.01; *p ⩽ 0.05

58. Table II.
Descriptive statistics
and correlations
between study
variables
HQ managers Field employees
Letter Fax E-mail Letter Fax E-mail
Variable M SD M SD M SD M SD M SD M SD
Feedback
immed. 6.11 7.48 5.87 7.96 15.66 21.25 7.84 9.74 5.69 7.83
4.31 5.94
Length 305.54 347.38 348.26 310.10 681.67 1178.28 960.20
1460.45 563.69 461.14 492.15 545.82
Information
seeking 0.42 0.92 1.53 1.47 0.79 1.25 0.90 2.10 3.48 3.67 1.91
2.38
Idea generation 0.09 0.35 0.10 0.34 0.11 0.40 0.20 0.53 0.17
0.48 0.18 0.54
Socio-emot. exp. 0.09 0.39 0.17 0.47 0.10 0.41 0.45 0.80 0.16
0.49 0.09 0.35
Table III.
Mean scores per
communication
medium
916
JMP
30,8

59. managers (from 305 to 681 words), it dropped by approximately
50 percent for field
employees (from 960 to 492 words). Also, information seeking
doubled for both
managers (from 0.42 to 0.79 incidents) and field employees
(from 0.90 to 1.91 incidents).
Although there were no significant changes in levels of idea
generation with the
introduction of e-mail for either managers (from 0.09 to 0.11)
or field employees (from
0.20 to 0.18), the latter consistently generated more ideas that
the former. Finally,
although there were no significant differences in socio-
emotional expression with the
introduction of e-mail for managers (from 0.09 to 0.10), levels
of this attribute dropped
significantly for field employees (from 0.45 to 0.09).
We performed a χ2 test of goodness-of-fit to determine whether
managers and
employees used the three media to the same extent. Relative to
employees, managers
sent significantly fewer letters ( χ2 ¼ 84.75, p ⩽ 0.05) and
significantly more faxes
( χ2 ¼ 86.86, p ⩽ 0.05) and e-mails ( χ2 ¼ 84.18, p ⩽ 0.05).
Indeed, managers sent almost
three times more e-mails than did employees.
Hypothesis testing
The hypothesis concerned the presence of interaction effects
between communication
media and hierarchical level on communication attributes. It
was tested with a 2 × 3
multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) in a sample of
1,193 documents.

60. Independent variables were hierarchical level (managers,
employees) and
communication media (letters, faxes, e-mails). Experience level
was the covariate.
Dependent variables consisted of five communication attributes.
The overall MANCOVA revealed significant multivariate main
effects for both
independent variables as well as for the covariate and a
significant multivariate
effect for the interaction between communication medium and
hierarchical level on
communication attributes (see Table IV). With one exception,
univariate results
indicated significant main effects of both communication
medium and hierarchical
level on all communication attributes. The main effects of
communication
medium were such that: feedback immediacy was slower for e-
mails than for
letters or faxes; the length of e-mails was not significantly
different than that of
letters, but it was significantly greater than the length of faxes;
and information
seeking in e-mails was significantly more frequent than in
letters, but significantly
less frequent than in faxes. The frequency of idea generation did
not vary
significantly depending on the medium being used. Finally, the
frequency of
socio-emotional expression in e-mails was not significantly
different from faxes, but it
was significantly lower than in letters. The main effects of
hierarchical levels were
such that feedback immediacy was lower for managers than for
employees; message

61. length was greater for employees than for managers; and
instances of information
seeking, idea generation and socio-emotional expression were
more frequent for
employees than for managers.
Significant interactions were found for all DVs except idea
generation. When e-mails
are used as the communication medium, managers’ feedback
immediacy drops and
their message length increases, while employees’ message
length drops significantly,
and information seeking and socio-emotional expression drop
significantly for both
parties. Idea generation is not predicted by type of medium and
hierarchical level
when experience level is controlled. Thus, the hypothesis was
supported (except for
idea generation), and the results reveal the presence of
intensified status differences.
Relative to employees, managers sent more e-mails, were slower
in responding to
e-mails, sent longer e-mails, asked fewer questions, proposed
more ideas, and did less
917
Communicating
virtually
M
ul
ti
va

62. ri
at
e
re
su
lt
s
U
ni
va
ri
at
e
re
su
lt
s
V
ar
ia
bl
e
F
df
(b
et
w
ee
n,
w
it
hi

63. n)
p
Z2 p
D
ep
en
de
nt
va
ri
ab
le
F
df
(b
et
w
ee
n,
w
it
hi
n)
p
Z2 p
H
ie
ra
rc

64. hi
ca
l
le
ve
l
22
.7
8
(6
,1
18
4)
<
0.
00
1
0.
10
F
ee
db
ac
k
im
m
ed
ia
cy

65. (d
ay
s)
8.
82
(1
,1
18
9)
0.
00
3
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01
L
en
gt
h
(w
or
ds
/d
oc
)
23
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9
(1

66. ,1
18
9)
<
0.
00
1
0.
02
In
fo
rm
at
io
n
se
ek
in
g
92
.3
9
(1
,1
18
9)
<
0.
00

67. 1
0.
07
Id
ea
ge
ne
ra
ti
on
8.
46
1,
11
89
)
0.
00
4
0.
01
So
ci
o-
em
ot
io

68. na
l
ex
pr
es
si
on
17
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9
(1
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18
9)
0.
00
0
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02
C
om
m
un
ic
at
io
n
m
ed

69. iu
m
19
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2
(1
2,
23
68
)
<
0.
00
1
0.
09
F
ee
db
ac
k
im
m
ed
ia
cy
(d
ay

70. s)
10
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5
(2
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9)
<
0.
00
1
0.
02
L
en
gt
h
(w
or
ds
/d
oc
)
4.
38
(2
,1
18

71. 9)
0.
01
0.
01
In
fo
rm
at
io
n
se
ek
in
g
78
.5
5
(2
,1
18
9)
<
0.
00
1
0.
11

72. Id
ea
ge
ne
ra
ti
on
0.
17
(2
,1
18
9)
0.
85
0.
00
So
ci
o-
em
ot
io
na
l
ex
pr
es

73. si
on
10
.1
8
(2
,1
18
9)
<
0.
00
1
0.
02
E
xp
er
ie
nc
e
11
.0
1
(6
,1
18
4)

74. <
0.
00
1
0.
05
F
ee
db
ac
k
im
m
ed
ia
cy
(d
ay
s)
33
.8
2
(1
,1
19
5)
<

75. 0.
00
1
0.
03
L
en
gt
h
(w
or
ds
/d
oc
)
15
.3
8
(1
,1
19
5)
<
0.
00
1
0.
01
In

76. fo
rm
at
io
n
se
ek
in
g
3.
84
(1
,1
19
5)
0.
05
0.
00
Id
ea
ge
ne
ra
ti
on
1.
54

77. (1
,1
19
5)
0.
21
0.
00
So
ci
o-
em
ot
io
na
l
ex
pr
es
si
on
10
.2
8
(1
,1
19
5)

78. 0.
00
1
0.
01
H
ie
ra
rc
hi
ca
l
le
ve
l×
C
om
m
un
ic
at
io
n
m
ed
iu
m
7.
91

79. (1
2,
23
68
)
<
0.
00
1
0.
04
F
ee
db
ac
k
im
m
ed
ia
cy
(d
ay
s)
12
.4
2

80. (2
,1
19
5)
<
0.
00
1
0.
02
L
en
gt
h
(w
or
ds
/d
oc
)
9.
36
(2
,1
19
5)
<
0.
00
1

81. 0.
02
In
fo
rm
at
io
n
se
ek
in
g
13
.7
9
(2
,1
19
5)
<
0.
00
1
0.
02
Id
ea

82. ge
ne
ra
ti
on
0.
55
(2
,1
19
5)
0.
58
0.
00
So
ci
o-
em
ot
io
na
l
ex
pr
es
si
on
10

83. .1
2
(2
,1
19
5)
<
0.
00
1
0.
02
Table IV.
MANCOVA results
of the interaction
of hierarchical
level and
communication
medium controlling
for experience
on communication
richness
918
JMP
30,8
relationship building via socio-emotional expression. For their
part, relative to

84. managers, employees sent fewer e-mails, were more responsive
to e-mails, sent
shorter e-mails, asked fewer questions, proposed more ideas,
and shared less
personal information.
Discussion
This study responds to Walther’s (2012) call for research that
compares how individuals
use CMC and other forms of communication and that considers
the relationship between
various affordances and status differences within an
organization. The results suggest
that there are significant interaction effects between
communication media and
hierarchical level on communication attributes; in other words,
the introduction of CMC
was associated with intensified status differences. Thus, pre-
existing communication and
status patterns were not simply preserved, nor did they simply
evolve with gradual
changes (Poole and DeSanctis, 1992; Yates et al., 1999).
Rather, significant variations in
the nature of manager-employee communications occurred.
Although some aspects of
their communications were reproduced (idea generation levels,
e.g.), changes in medium
were associated with changes in the communications that
occurred depending on who
was doing the communicating.
Our study suggests that the use of communications media by
managers and
employees can serve as an important occasion for changing
communication processes
and, potentially, organizational outcomes (Sherblom, 1988).

85. Even in an organization
that seeks to be egalitarian such as MCC, the introduction of
new communications
media seemed to be associated with less egalitarian hierarchical
relationships. Is this
something inherent in e-mail? Does its immediacy without
“face” serve to undermine
egalitarianism?
Like many organizations, MCC was attracted to the promises of
e-mail such as the
capability to instantaneously send and receive messages,
frequently stay in touch with
remote personnel and easily share or broadcast information with
multiple parties, all at
a low cost. And yet, senior managers shared with the
researchers some concerns about
the communications media transition. For example, prior to e-
mail, field employees
would make significant decisions autonomously (e.g. purchasing
a $5,000 jeep from
their budget). The advent of e-mail, however, presented an
opportunity to defer
decisions to managers, who in turn may be enticed and, perhaps,
provoked to
micro-manage. As one manager put it, “E-mail is driving $100
decisions to the top.”
He explained that, in the days of postal communications,
managers had more time for
reflective, strategic thinking, time to focus their attention on the
oversized world maps
lining their walls and to consider how to best allocate MCC
resources to meet the needs
of suffering people.
Limitations and implications for future research

86. This study overcame a longstanding obstacle in CMC effects
research: the lack of
access to a complete set of employee/manager communications.
Also, since the data
were collected from a single organization, any potential
variations due to an
organization’s way of functioning were held constant (Barley,
1995). Finally, this
setting served as a critical test of existing theory (Yin, 1989)
given that MCC’s
egalitarian culture is such that status dynamics were particularly
unlikely to be found.
Although conducting research in a single organization offers the
noted advantage,
it also requires that the results be interpreted in light of this
context. The extent to
which the study’s results generalize to other settings is an
empirical question that can
919
Communicating
virtually
only be determined in additional research. Examining CMC’s
introduction in other
global organizations would permit researchers to determine if
the results were unique
to the research setting or whether they can be replicated in more
traditionally
structured, hierarchical organizations in other sectors of the
economy. It is possible that
this study’s findings were an artifact of a regression toward the

87. mean: MCC is relatively
egalitarian, and a new technology prompted communication
patterns that were more
hierarchical. Perhaps, in hierarchical organizations, the
introduction of CMC would be
associated with a move toward more egalitarian
communications.
It would also be interesting to examine the nature of the
communication patterns
and status differences that may be associated with the next wave
of communications
media, such as video conferencing technologies like Skype. As
these technologies
become more dependable and useful in international
communication, and as
environmentally and/or cost-conscious organizations become
more hesitant to burn
fossil fuels for international travel, it is possible that video
conferencing will become
more popular. If so, will the greater emphasis on “face” that
such technology affords be
associated with status leveling, intensification, or not have an
effect?
Practical implications
This study has several implications for the effective
management of new CMC. What
would have happened if managers in this study had used new
communication media
with a more deliberate consideration of its implications for their
organization’s culture
(Becerra and Gupta, 2003)? Perhaps the managers would have
consciously reduced
message volume and length or ensured that they were being
responsive to employees’

88. messages, and so on. Research suggests that managers tend to
use communication
media frequently and repetitively in an overlearned manner,
thus without deliberately
thinking through their implications of communication and status
patterns
(Timmerman, 2002). Just as fish may be unaware of the water in
which they swim,
communicators become oblivious to the underlying meaning of
how their
communications are structured. Thus, managers must become
conscious of what
they want to accomplish when they are communicating, set
precedents early on to
ensure that their goals are met, and be more mindful of the ways
in work context may
influence the use of technology (Swanson and Ramiller, 2004).
As found by O’Kane et al.
(2007), although the introduction of e-mail has the potential to
increase innovation
through idea generation (Damanpour, 1991), information
sharing, collaboration and
participation in decision-making (Simonin, 1997) and to
increase manager-employee
connections, unless its use is consciously managed, there is a
risk that it will serve
primarily for information transfer and its negative aspects (such
as information
overload and time wasting; Hiltz and Turoff, 1985) will emerge.
Managers should not automatically expect the introduction of
CMC to deterministically
enrich or enhance communication patterns. As suggested by
Ngwenyama and Lee (1997),
a medium’s richness or affordances are not inherent qualities,
but, rather, occur as a result

89. of the interaction between the medium and its organizational
context. It is not that e-mail
is incapable of engendering status leveling, for example, but
simply that harnessing those
capabilities can be demanding and time-consuming.
Finally, this study reinforces the practical observation that
socialization and
relationship building must be continuous in a virtual
organization. Organizations
cannot simply rely on irregular face-to-face meetings to
socialize employees about
organizational norms and expectations for performance and
collaboration (Oshri et al.,
2007). Although task-oriented communication is especially
important at the beginning
920
JMP
30,8
of a collaboration, social-oriented exchanges become even more
important as a means
of maintaining trust, satisfaction and sense of belonging over
time (Flammia et al., 2010;
Rico et al., 2009; Zornoza et al., 2009). In summary, although
Handy (1995) believed that
touch was essential for trust, virtual organizations must strive to
develop trust without
touch (Zheng et al., 2002).
Acknowledgments
Funding for this research was received from the Centre for

90. International Business
Studies and the I.H. Asper School of Business at the University
of Manitoba, and the
Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western
Ontario. The authors also
wish to thank the Mennonite Central Committee for providing
access to the data,
previous reviewers of this manuscript for their helpful feedback
(Deborah Compeau,
Abhijit Gopal, and Sandy Staples), as well as Monique Grimard,
Vern Klassen-Wiebe
and Brenda Doerksen for their outstanding research assistance.
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The Effects of Euphemism Usage in Business Contexts
Terri L. Rittenburg • George Albert Gladney •
Teresa Stephenson
Received: 19 April 2014 / Accepted: 8 December 2014 /
Published online: 6 February 2015
� Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015
Abstract Transparency is important in today’s business

102. environment. The use of euphemisms decreases trans-
parency yet is increasing in business and business educa-
tion. This study examines the effects of euphemism on
people’s attitudes toward actions and their intentions to
perform those actions. It also measures the effect of over-
sight on attitudes and behavioral intentions. Using a 2 9 2
experimental design, we measured participants’ attitudes by
employing a semantic differential scale and behavioral in-
tentions by using a simple yes/no question regarding the
action described. A questionnaire with 20 brief scenarios
provided the euphemistic (transparent) versus non-e-
uphemistic (less-transparent) condition. Oversight versus
non-oversight conditions were manipulated through in-
structions to participants. Hypotheses regarding the effects
of euphemism were supported; participants were both more
likely to rate an action as appropriate and to indicate they
would take that action when stated euphemistically. Over-
sight did not have a significant effect on attitude toward the