ZIMSEC O Level Business Studies Notes: Communication: Open meeting
- Is a formal or informal gathering of individuals that deliberately come together to deliberate on certain issues of importance to the organisation and its members
- Formal meetings are planned, officially recognised by the organisation and have a agenda that is agreed upon
- Agenda-a list of topics/items to be discussed in a formal meeting
- Formal meetings can be classified as organisational or operational
- Organisational meetings involve shareholders for example the Annual General Meeting (AGM)
- Operational meetings involve management and other employees for example project team meetings
- Informal meetings tend to be ad-hoc in nature
- Meetings are typically headed by a chairperson
- Deliberations and discussions are recorded in a summary written record known as minutes
- Minutes- a detailed written record that formally records the proceeding of a meeting, including the names of the attendees and their capacity, adopted/rejected resolutions and decisions made.
Advantages
- There is face to face communication
- Feedback is instantaneous
- Participative thus allows members to contribute and share ideas
- Democratic, high quality decisions can be made
- Motivates employees as they are allowed to contribute to the decision making process
- Decisions can be reviewed and corrected
- Encourage teamwork
- Allow management to disseminate information widely and quickly
Disadvantages
- They are time consuming
- Dilute objectives and targets through compromises with stakeholders
- Dilute management’s decision making power
- Can be costly and may bring idle time during the duration of the meeting
- Can be difficult to control especially if there is conflict resulting in them drifting on without concrete resolutions being made
- Formalities such as the agenda and protocols may stifle healthy debate and information flow
- Some meetings require a quorum (sufficient number of stakeholders) for their decisions to be adopted which may not be easy to achieve
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