Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Linking Pre-Meeting Communication To Meeting Effectiveness, Joseph A. Allen, Nale Lehmann-Willenbrock, Nicole Landowski

Psychology Faculty Publications

Purpose – This study investigates the importance of communication that occurs just before workplace meetings (i.e., pre-meeting talk). We explore how four specific types of pre-meeting talk (small talk, work talk, meeting preparatory talk, and shop talk) impact participants' experiences of meeting effectiveness. Moreover, we investigate the role of participants’ personality in the link between pre-meeting talk and perceived meeting effectiveness.

Design/methodology/approach – Data were obtained using an online survey of working adults (N = 252). Because pre-meeting talk has not been studied previously, a new survey measure of meeting talk was developed.

Findings – Pre-meeting small talk was a …

Observing Culture: Differences In U.S.-American And German Team Meeting Behaviors, Nale Lehmann-Willenbrock, Joseph A. Allen, Annika L. Meinecke

Psychology Faculty Publications

Although previous research has theorized about team interaction differences between the German and U.S. cultures, actual behavioral observations of such differences are sparse. This study explores team meetings as a context for examining intercultural differences. We analyzed a total of 5,188 meeting behaviors in German and U.S. student teams. All teams discussed the same task to consensus. Results from behavioral process analyses showed that German teams focused significantly more on problem analysis, whereas U.S. teams focused more on solution production. Moreover, U.S. teams showed significantly more positive socioemotional meeting behavior than German teams. Finally, German teams showed significantly more counteractive …

The Moderating Role Of Trust On The Relationship Between Ingratiatory Communication Strategies And Interactional Fairness, Erik Drafsten

Student Work

Previous research has shown that when perceptions of both procedural justice and distributive justice are low, increasing perceptions of interactional fairness can serve to reduce negative consequences that an organization may face, including subtle forms of retaliation, or what are known as organizational retaliatory behaviors (ORB). In an organizational setting personal attempts to improve perceptions of interactional fairness, under conditions of low distributive and procedural justice, can take on ingratiatory-like qualities when the source attempting to boost these perceptions of interactional fairness uses flattery, expresses excessive empathy, or excessive sympathy. Research has shown that ingratiatory actions such as these become …

Relationship Between Life Change Events And Communication Apprehension, Elaine Bylund

Student Work

This research investigates relationships between communication apprehension (CA) and life change events, using college students at a Midwestern university. Instruments used were the Personal Report o f Communication Apprehension-24 (PRCA- 24) which measured CA, both overall and in four subareas, and a modified version of the Adolescent Life Change Event Questionnaire (ALCEQ), which records life change events during formative years and past year before being questioned.

No significant relationships were found between the overall scores of the two instruments in this study, although demographic information showed that the younger college students reported more public speaking apprehension than the older groups. …

Trait Anxiety, Leadership And Group-Induced Decision Change, Chester D. Gaston

Student Work

The twelve item Choice Dilemmas Questionnaire (CDQ) developed by Kogan and Wallach (1964) has been used extensively for investigating individual and group decision-making processes. Each item presents a hypothetical life situation in which the central character must choose between two courses of action, one of which is more risky than the other but also more rewarding if successful. For each situation the Sis must select the lowest probability of success they would accept before recommending that the potentially more rewarding (and risky) alternative be chosen. After Ss have made their private individual choices, a group is formed and each item …

Effects Of Relevant And Irrelevant Characteristics Of Leaders In A Communication Network, Janet Ann Scheetz

Student Work

The present study involved groups of four Ss participating in a communication network, problem-solving task. Groups were assigned to one of the two treatments involving an irrelevant leader characteristic, race, and one of two treatments involving a relevant leader characteristic, efficiency. Race was varied by informing some groups that their leader was White while the other groups were informed that their leader was Negro. Efficiency was defined by an efficiency index, which, through a script followed by a confederate leader, produced either a high or low degree of efficiency. Race of the leader had a non significant impact on all …

The Relationship Of Locus Of Reinforcement To Change In Initial Perception Of Communicator Credibility And Type Of Decision Generated, Stephen Allan Brown

Student Work

Hovland, Janis, and Kelley (1953) distinguished between expertness and trustworthiness, two variables most relevant to communicator perception. They defined expertness as the extent to which a communicator is perceived to be a source of valid assertions and trustworthiness as the degree of confidence in the communicator's intent to communicate the assertions he considers most valid. They defined communicator credibility (degree of belief) as incorporating both expertness and trustworthiness but concluded that there was experimental confounding of both variables.