أحمد برهوم

The purpose of this study was to identify the nature of management of meetings at the academic departments in the Palestinian universities from the academic staff ’ perspectives and ways to improveit. The researcher used the analytical descriptive approach, and to achieve the goals, he designed a questionnaire as a tool that comprised 52 items distributed over four dimensions. The dimensions were planning skills, organizing skills, evaluation skills, and human relationship skills. The study tool was piloted on 30 people to prove reliability and validity. The questionnaire was administered to 145 academic staff representing 40% of the original society, which was 360 academians in faculties of education, science and literature in Islamic University, Al Azhar University and Al Aqsa University The results revealed that Human relationship dimensions was ranked on top among the four, and this showed the concern on human relations with academians when managing meetings There were no significant statistical differences at (f) value (0.05) between the academic staff, perspectives about the extent to which head of department manage the meetings due to the variables of: (gender, the faculty, education, years of experience and the university). The most significant problems was: "not utilizing the feedback in modifying the plans and staff’ behaviors, in addition to not giving the scientific research the priority on the agenda of meetings with faculty teachers". The results highlighted the importance of planning prior to meetings, holding regular meetings, and inviting all faculty staff. Moreover, going through all agenda and following up the recommendations and suggestions by the head of departments. Recommendations of the study · The head of department must be selected on a criterion which includes leadership skills, experience through a clear and faire selection procedure. · Placing more emphasis on cooperation among faculty staff and improving human relations among them. · It is important to identify the objectives and clear agenda of the meetings and informing all the staff long time before the meeting. · Conduct regular meetings and avoid routine meetings lacking the objectives and the planning.