Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many companies have been forced to make their employees work from home, fully distributed. One of the work aspects affected by this change is meetings. The purpose of this study is to investigate what effects the fully distributed context have on meetings, meeting participants, and meeting leaders. To achieve this purpose, a qualitative single-case study was conducted. The empirical data were gathered from 15 interviews with employees at a large information and communications technology company in Linköping, Sweden. The theoretical framework including the fully distributed context, leadership, motivation, and attitudes, behaviors, and norms is the foundation for the analytical model used to analyze the empirical data. For meetings, it was found that the number of meetings has increased, meetings without fixed end times get longer, meetings need clear agendas and structures, and that meetings are booked in a tighter sequence without room for breaks. Using cameras during meetings increases participation but not if there are many meeting participants or when someone starts sharing their screen. It was found that inter-office meetings work better in the fully distributed context. Discussions are fewer and less lively in fully distributed meetings, but virtual fika1 is a kind of informal meeting that can help employees feel more connected and maintain interpersonal relations. For meeting participants, it was found that the fully distributed context has enabled participants to not be seen during meetings, to multitask more, to go on walks during meetings, and to attend more meetings. Fully distributed meetings offer participants more flexibility in meeting attendance but are also more difficult for participants to stay focused during. The perceived social pressure from the surrounding often determines how participants behave in meetings, for example if participants turn on their cameras or not. For meeting leaders, it was found that, contrary to the literature, meeting participants’ behavior affect the motivation of the meeting leader. Meeting participants' multitasking during meetings is considered positive for productivity but makes meeting leaders feel insecure as participants seem to listen less. Cameras can offer supportive feedback as the meeting leader can see the participants reactions, but it only works in smaller meetings. Fully distributed meetings demand more of meeting leaders who need to work harder to structure the meetings, force discussions, aim questions, and keep participants active. The results implicate that meeting leaders should set agendas for and structure meetings, implement breaks between meetings, and start meetings with some informal conversations. Moreover, meeting leaders should turn on their cameras in smaller meetings without screen sharing and aim questions at specific participants instead of posing open questions. At the end of this report, a number of suggestions for future studies on the topic of fully distributed meetings are proposed. 1Fika is Swedish for taking a break and sharing a cup of coffee or tea with friends or colleagues possibly, but not necessarily, with a little something to eat.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-177939 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Lund, Annie, Älmeby, Carl |
| Publisher | Linköpings universitet, Projekt, innovationer och entreprenörskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
Page generated in 0.0022 seconds