Organizational Time Waster

There is a popular adage which says, “A time wisely used pays best.” This is said in connection to making decisions under different circumstances. More often than not, various office meetings are called weekly, fortnightly or monthly to make decisions over regular work schedules under situations which are uncertain or certain and when there occurs a condition of risk.
However in most cases traditional meetings are found to be, vis-à-vis a new situation, organizational time killers or wasters more than anything else. Institutions like banks, insurance companies, etc. may be different in this respect. Few examples could be cited under this situation both from academic knowledge in the field and from long time experience, that regular meetings often a time inhibit creativity and innovation in so far as creativity is the ability and power to develop new ideas and that innovation is the use of these ideas.
In practice, in almost all Ethiopian organizations there is a cultural tendency to respect the boss excessively, created and developed over the years for fear of loosing one’s position unless one remains obedient to the boss all the time. This situation which was started naively remained as a rule for many years to follow which became part of bureaucratic culture until now. This led one to the notion that whatever the boss says is always right.
There was a joke about a certain hypothetical boss who had called a regular meeting of his staff to evaluate decision-alternatives. A minute or two before the boss joined the meeting, there had appeared in the group a stranger who was sent to attend the meeting and report back its outcome to a higher-body. The secretary of the meeting did not even realize the presence of the new face much less the boss. So, under the assumption that he was a representative of a department among the new entrants the meeting started. It was almost customary for everybody in the meeting to laugh over any peculiar remark made by the boss whether the material was laughable or not.
Obviously, in the course of the discussion, everybody was giggling except the new face. The meeting was called to an end and the boss had returned to his office. By that time, the secretary of the meeting had become aware that the new man was sent impromptu by an upper body for inspection purpose.
The secretary was called to the boss’s office to impose a fine on the guy for failing to cooperate with the rest of the staff in the laughing process. But, soon the boss was informed that the person was sent in from a superior quarter and that he had appeared in the meeting without anyone’s notice when everybody had taken him for a representative of a department. What followed was not important. The moral of this hypothetical case study is simply to show that a staff meeting is only time-waster.
The second weakness of a staff meeting is the fear of every participant of being ridiculed for an idea thrown. This is especially worse with experts who fear one another for not being overtaken or ridiculed for their interventions.
The third factor is the entanglement between old-timers and the modern elements, or sometime lower-level managers may be inhibited in expressing their views in the presence of higher-level managers.
The forth weakness of a staff meeting or its vividness as time-waster is demonstrated in its inability to radiate new ideas due to pressure to conform to existing principles and the dictate of the boss. It obviously discourages the expression of deviant opinions.
So a staff meeting cannot be a good forum for generating an alternative solution. It serves, nonetheless, as a right forum for declaring an already decided-matter. However, one should feel gratified in noting those target-oriented organizations or those which adopted strategic plans are doing the reverse of the above argument. They encourage their staff to be original and creative all along the discussion path and attempt to advise them never ever to repeat the boss’ parole. Notwithstanding, a staff meting should be viewed carefully with a mixture of emotions.