Faking It in the Conference Room: How Employees Enact and Detect Pretend Participation

Employees often bemoan organizational meetings, as previous studies highlight meetings as a waste of time and resources. However, the number of meetings continues to grow, with employees expected to participate in more and more meetings every day. While managers may desire full participation in all meetings from employees, employees may choose to not fully participate for a variety of reasons. Instead, some group meeting members may try to maintain a strong impression while simultaneously conserving resources. This participation type is known as Pretend Participation. Thirty-four individuals were interviewed and the data analyzed through open and axial coding to investigate how they and their coworkers communicatively create pretending behaviors. Participants indicated a variety of verbal and nonverbal strategies to successfully pretend in meetings (e.g., pretend notetaking and kinesics), as well as behaviors that revealed when other group members were pretending (e.g., responses without specificity and repeated answers). Importantly, participants interpreted similar behaviors differently when considering their own perspective as compared to their view of others’ behaviors. Additionally, some behaviors labeled pretending by participants were described in terms of other participation types, such as On/Off Participation and Token Legitimacy . Implications are discussed in terms of multitasking, mandatory meetings, and meeting members struggling to focus.