Toward an organizational theory of meetings: Structuration of organizational meeting culture

Abstract

Although research on meetings generally regards them as noteworthy organizational events, studies tend to focus on an individual or group level of analysis, conceiving of meetings as a phenomenon that happens in organizations but does not shape them. Integrating research on work meetings, structuration theory, and organizational culture, this paper develops the concept of organizational meeting cultures and suggests structuration theory as a framework for explaining their emergence, reproduction, and alteration. We propose a model of organizational meeting culture that theorizes work meetings as a foundational activity that shapes and reifies organizational cultures over time, contributing to their distinctiveness, and influencing patterns of perception regarding what is valued, expected, rewarded, and supported in specific work environments. It concludes with an agenda to be pursued in future research on the structuration of meeting culture. Although research on meetings seems to assume they are an important element of organizational life, studies tend to focus on an individual or group level of analysis, which results in theories that only construe meetings as a group phenomenon that happens in organizations but does not constitute them. We propose a model of organizational meeting culture that portrays work meetings as a foundational activity that doesn't just happen to occur within “already organized organizations” but instead also shapes organizational cultures over time, influencing their distinctiveness, shared views of what is valued, expected, rewarded and supported in specific work environments. Integrating research on meetings, structuration theory, and organizational culture, this paper develops the concept of meeting culture and proposes structuration theory as a way to explain how meeting cultures emerge, are sustained, and changed. It concludes with suggestions for future research.