ABSTRACT
In most organizations today, there is a moral expectation of a dedicated employee taking part in various workplace meetings. Attending meetings is important, but so is how one behaves as a chair, secretary, or ordinary meeting member. In this chapter, we discuss the dramatization of such competence in terms of self-presentations of being skilled in setting up meetings and choosing the relevant participants and suitable locations. We have especially emphasized how being a chair offers opportunities for competence displays when they direct and maneuver a meeting through taking decisions, steer turn-taking, keep to timetables, ensure a “good enough” atmosphere, and keep track of formalities. They use experience and knowledge, control of emotions, manipulation skills, and organizational and control tactics to achieve these results. This, we argue, is relevant in the analyses of the self-propelling mechanisms of administrative efforts. When people feel comfortable and competent or get feedback about having presented an informative memorandum, or good reviews after being engaged in arguments during a meeting, their commitment to doing administration is strengthened, thus contributing to the administrative Eigendynamik. To dramatize one’s administrative skills is, simultaneously, to honor them and communicate to one another that administrative respect is legitimate and sound.
