Are Frequent Meetings in an Organization taking a toll on Productivity on a day to day basis?

Thanks for all the feedback put forward. I would like to stress that I am not against meetings. What we can achieve through a meeting cannot be achieved through other alternative. What i meant is meetings in an organisation should be given the same importance as the procurement of raw material, the manufacturing process or delivery of the product. That is when a project is being planned and before mobilisation or the project starts the agenda of the meetings has to be put forward which should be very transparent and there should be extra time alloted for any unforeseen issues for which we will have to  conduct meeting. 

I am sure if we really value time with money, we will try to see that every meeting is a step forward and meetings are bringing in more money than eroding it. The Managers or the supervisors who are chairing meeting responsible to see that the communication is properly done in a meeting and if the same points are being discussed in the following meetings often. That shows the inefficiency of the manager than his team.

Meeting is one of the tools of communication and we have many such tools available these days. One has to know to use his tools judiciously.

I can talk about construction projects where we normally conduct either a combo of 15 to 30 mins daily review of the day's work and tomorrowas programme plus a 2 to 2&half hours monthly review or a 2 hrs weelky review. The option to choose is with PM or CM. Rest communications are done by emails, file notes, informal one-to-one discussions (face to face or over phone) and notices etc.

I think optimisation in this field is also as important as in other area. 

Well, meetings are important to set direction in any dynamic organization. Some companies have set goals and duties are defined too. This case they won't have many meetings as the activities are not changing that frequently.

On the other hand, we have sometime projects running and that specific project requires about 2 hours meeting our 8 hours FTE on a daily basis because the three pullers of project have shaken already and they need constant planning, which is done via meeting. 

Also, meeting is more depending on the nature your company operates. Now we have more virtual organization and that involves many people from different demographics. Thus emails are not enough in most cases and we end up having too may meetings.

I beg to defer.Mr Suraj is talking of MNC or MNCs.i do not know but work load is very minimal.They set the target taking in to account all possible time utilization.Frequent meetings in the Indian contest is cumbersome but for MNCs,it is optimal utilization.

This is one thing which bugged me during one of my assignments with an MNC. I will tell you some of the reasons why frequent meetings are called by Managers. 

1. Unplanned execution strategy 2. No proper communication strategy in the organization 3. the organization is to hierarchical 3. Insecurity and fears of the manager who is calling for the meeting. 4. Does not have knowledge on modern communicating methods. 5. Some times to harass and show the might to the subordinates. 6. Not strategic and tactful way of handling situations. 7. May the Manager is looking for too many approvals before taking a decision. 8. May be due to the culture of the company. 9. May be due to Boss's pressure 10. May be not knowing what to do . 

There might be a small list , but I will tell you too many meetings are not good for the company and good for the individuals. Meetings are required , keep it short , crisp and planned. 

i do agree that meetings eats up lot of time. However, if these meetings are planned and focussed toward the agenda as mentioned by others, can be productive in terms of getting the desired output and plan of action for problems. 

In my opinion meetings shall be conducted as per a scheduled calender.  Whenever there is some urgency, a meeting can be called.  The meeting shall be productive one.  Meeting for a meeting sake shall be avoided. 

Yes you are true Suraj, many companies have meetings frequently but he output will be less. So meetings should be kept whenever necessary.....