Writing a Literature Review from an Annotated Bibliography-Example

Below are examples from an article co-authored by the Instruction Librarian. This includes one of the research questions for the study, an excerpt from the unpublished annotated bibliography used as part of the research and writing process, and an excerpt from the literature review of the published article.

NOTE: This handout is intended for educational purposes only and may not be edited or distributed without the permission of the author.

Leuzinger, J. & Brannon, S. (2021). Making Meetings More Meaningful: An exploration of meeting science in libraries. Journal of Library Administration, 61(5).

Research Question (included here for context because, for these purposes, the annotated bibliography should focus on answering the research question):

• What are employee perceptions of effective meeting leadership?

Annotated bibliography (excerpt, annotations were originally written in alphabetical order by author last name, then rearranged in the order that provided the best flow in response to the research question with consideration to how the literature review will be organized):

Mroz, J., & Allen, J. (2015). It’s all in how you use it: Managers’ use of meetings to reduce employee intentions to quit. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 67(4): 348–61.

This study discusses how employee perceptions of effective meeting leadership are impacted by their relationship with the manager or meeting leader outside of the meeting setting. The authors also discuss how meeting leadership impacts an employee’s ITQ (intention to quit). Employees will want to stay at a place of employment longer if they believe meetings are run effectively.

Hoogeboom, M., & C. Wilderom. (2015). Effective leader behaviors in regularly held staff meetings: Surveyed vs. videotaped and video-coded observations. In Allen, J., Lehmann-Willenbrock, N., & Rogelberg, S. (2015). The Cambridge Handbook of Meeting Science (page 381-412). Cambridge University Press.

This study points out some of the flaws in most meeting leadership related studies because participant survey data is used before or after a meeting. These are similar to flaws in a lot of survey data where it can be affected by how a person is feeling that day, if they like the person leading the meeting, etc. The researchers looked at video-taped meetings (observational study) to look at employee behavior during meetings to see if they are engaged or distracted and compared these with survey data to find that the results varied widely.

Allen, J., Lehmann-Willenbrock, N., and Sands, S. (2016). Meetings as a positive boost? How and when meeting satisfaction impacts employee empowerment. Journal of Business Research, 69: 4340–47.

Most meeting studies focus on the negative aspects of meetings, this study focuses on the positive aspect of meetings. When lead effectively, participants receive information that fills knowledge gaps that allow them to perform better at work which can give employees a sense of empowerment rather than feeling depleted after meetings.

Allen, J., & Rogelberg, S. (2013). Manager-led group meetings: A context for promoting employee engagement. Group & Organization Management, 38(5): 543–69.

This study finds that employees feel more engaged when they have meeting leadership who try to make meetings relevant to an employee’s work. In addition, employees feel “psychologically safe” when managers schedule meetings that start and end on time and are at times that aren’t an interruption to their workday, such as the first hour of the day.

Odermatt, I., König, C., Kleinmann, M., Nussbaumer, R., Rosenbaum, A., Olien, J., & Rogelberg, S. (2017). On leading meetings: Linking meeting outcomes to leadership styles. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 24(2): 189–200.

This study looks at leadership styles as they relate to employee perceptions of effective meetings. The authors found that employees had a more positive impression of meetings when meeting leaders were considerate, specifically they were able to balance task that needed to be accomplished and interpersonal skills. Some of their findings were similar to the above 2013 study by Allen.

Rogelberg, S., Leach, D., Warr, P., & Burnfield, J. (2006). “Not another meeting!”: Are meeting time demands related to employee well-being? Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(1): 83– 96.

This study finds that employees can view meetings positively if leadership run them properly, they are productive, and they are not seen as simply interrupting other more important tasks. There is a strong correlation to overall job satisfaction.

Putting it all together...Literature Review (excerpt):

Several studies focus on the meeting itself; however, it is not surprising that the meeting facilitator has the greatest impact on employee perceptions of meetings overall. The employee relationship with the supervisor outside of this setting markedly affects how they regard the
effectiveness of the meeting (Mroz & Allen, 2015). Unfortunately, most leadership studies do focus solely on participant survey data, which can be flawed due to the biases mentioned, thus more studies are needed that compare this data with observational studies, given reality can be
vary widely from perception (Hoogeboom & Wilderom, 2015).

Meetings can be viewed as positive and empowering after the fact when employees feel they have been given information to do their jobs (Allen, Lehmann-Willenbrock, & Sands, 2016). Additionally, employees are more engaged when they see meetings as relevant to their work and generally view a well moderated meeting as one that is respectful of their time and workload (Allen & Rogelberg, 2013; Odermatt et al., 2017). Meetings are also seen in a positive light if they are run properly, are productive, and are not seen as interruptions to theirwork (Rogelberg et al., 2006).