Multi-tasking: Juggling Jobs

Behaviour / 08 February 2012

Tackling more than one task at a time might mean organisations are able to take on more – but will any of the work be done to the required standard? Karen Higginbottom asks if multi-tasking managers are friend or foe

We’ve all been there. You’re immersed in writing a departmental report when suddenly you’re asked to create a presentation and also respond to an urgent phone call from an important client. It can begin to feel like you’re spinning plates at a circus.

While being able to multi-task might seem like a good thing, there’s a body of research that suggests that multi-tasking actually decreases productivity.

Research by Gloria Mark, professor of informatics at the University of California, found that when people are continually distracted from one task, they work faster on it but end up producing less.

Another study conducted by Stanford University in the US found that people who regularly multi-task are actually quite bad at it. In a series of tests that required switching attention from one task to another, heavy multi-taskers displayed slower response times in terms of switching between pieces of work than those who rarely multi-tasked.

However, a more recent research report paints a much less negative picture of multi-tasking. A study by Vangelis Souitaris, a professor at Cass Business School in London, suggests multi-tasking can be beneficial to an organisation’s performance.

The research measured the polychronicity – the tendency to multi-task – of management teams in nearly 200 new technology ventures listed on the London Stock Exchange, then looked at the firms’ financial returns.

The results showed that a third of the teams were highly polychronic, while a sixth were highly monochronic (they disliked and avoided multi-tasking). The rest of the sample fell somewhere in the middle.

The research revealed that the financial performance of companies with highly polychronic teams was significantly better than that of companies run by average or monochromic teams.
 
Professor Souitaris offers a reason for this: the polychronic teams proved to be superior information brokers.

“These teams absorbed and disseminated more insightful information than their average and monochromic counterparts. As a result, they were much less likely than other teams to get bogged down. They could make strategic decisions faster, which we believe then boosted their companies’ performance.” 

Managers who have a natural tendency to multi-task can work closely with colleagues to help them work in a different way. The more coaching you can get from colleagues, the better. There are also time management techniques that promote effective multi-tasking.

Gary Miles, director of open programmes, Roffey Park

However, there is a caveat attached to this research.

The top management teams that were studied all worked in the fast-paced and dynamic environment of the technology sector, where the tendency to multi-task is a distinct advantage.

“It depends on the working environment,” says Professor Souitaris. “Our data showed that multi-tasking was important for managers in a dynamic environment.”

Born or made?

But is an individual born with the ability to multi-task, or is it a skill that can be developed?

James Meachin, head of assessment for business psychologists Pearn Kandola, says the ability to multi-task is related to an individual’s personality.

“Having lots of tasks on the go at the same time can typically be related to being an extrovert,” he says. “Personality is one of the main factors that affects whether you want to do more than one thing at a time.”

The predominant personality among UK managers is one that is suited to logical and sequential work, says Gary Miles, director of open programmes at training and development company Roffey Park. He refers to traits that can be identified by the Myers-Briggs personality test:

“Many managers in the UK have a profile that is closer to sensing/thinking/judging – these preferences, in my view, would correlate more with monochronic ways of working. Multi-tasking requires you to perform tasks simultaneously. The intuition/perceiving profiles in particular would fit more with polychronic ways of operating.”

Being able to multi-task is part nature, part nurture, argues Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University Management School. “Some people intrinsically have more energy and that is associated with multi-tasking, but it’s partly to do with nurture as well. For example, working mothers are in demanding jobs but need to be with their kids. It’s about your predisposition and physiology.”

Learning to multi-task can potentially make managers more productive, but this can come at a cost, says Karen Osborn, national account manager for Thales Training & Consultancy. “In some cases, constant interruptions can add time to tasks. Managers have to think carefully about which tasks suit multi-tasking and which ones need their full attention.”

You can tell if a manager is a multi-tasker by seeing how they respond to being interrupted while concentrating on a task, says Meachin. “Wait until they are engaged in an activity and then knock on their door. If they welcome your interruption, they don’t mind multi-tasking,” he says.
 
Multi-tasking works best when you focus on an area in which you display competence, adds Meachin. “If you’re working on an area in which you have relative expertise, then there is not such a penalty between different tasks. The danger is when people multi-task in an area they are not familiar with, so their competency is negatively affected.”
 
There are other drawbacks to multi-tasking, warns Miles. “You can move through tasks so rapidly that you may miss some finer details.”

Multiply yourself

Even if you are not a multi-tasker by nature, you can learn to become one. Multi-tasking can be taught to managers through a variety of methods, says Miles.

“Managers should make a note of where they left off in one task before embarking on another. Then they can come back to the original task and that makes their multi-tasking more effective.”
 
Another way of learning is through peer coaching, he adds. “Managers who have a natural tendency to multi-task can work closely with colleagues to help them work in a different way. The more coaching you can get from colleagues, the better. There are also time management techniques that promote effective multi-tasking.”

Training can give managers “grab rails” to hold on to when navigating time management and other techniques for use on a day-to-day basis, says Osborn.  “Ultimately, individual managers will draw their energy from the deadlines they set themselves, so there is a limit to how far you can effect lasting change from a training perspective.”
 
Prioritising tasks can be an effective technique for managers, says Cooper. “The most important thing when multi-tasking is to focus on what is urgent. If you are self-confident and know your field well, then it’s much easier to multi-task than if you don’t.”

Miles argues that managers must multi-task if organisations are to remain competitive. “Given the challenges the UK is facing, employees need to be smarter in the ways that they work; they must perform tasks simultaneously.

It’s about educating people to work in that way.” Cooper agrees. “The day of the mono-tasker is over as employees have to complete even more tasks in less time with fewer resources. Most employees in the UK are now multi-taskers.”