A tool for reducing the time loss and dissatisfaction associated with meetings: Validation of the staff meeting effectiveness questionnaire

Abstract

Workplace meetings have a bad reputation and are often perceived as ineffective. However, few scientific tools are available to evaluate meeting effectiveness and to enable facilitators to improve. The aim of this paper is to describe the content and construct validation of the Staff Meeting Effectiveness Questionnaire. A review of the scientific and professional literature revealed five themes and 21 sub-themes as a basis for evaluating meeting effectiveness, or lack thereof. From these themes, we built a pilot questionnaire containing 60 items that was submitted to a sample of 575 healthcare managers. The responses were analysed using principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, which reduced the questionnaire to 42 items organised under 10 factors that possess satisfactory psychometric properties.