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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

To access more topics go to the O Level Business Notes page