New study may help identify employees who enjoy multitasking

WASHINGTON - A new study may help employers identify employees who enjoy multitasking and are less inclined to quit jobs involving multitasking.

The research, led by Elizabeth Poposki of the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis with co-author Frederick L. Oswald of Rice University, presents a new tool developed to measure preference for multitasking, information which may be of interest to bosses who tire of repeatedly hiring and training new employees.

“We found that individuals who prefer to work on multiple tasks simultaneously enjoy the experience of multitasking more. This finding may sound like common sense, but if we have a tool to assess who will enjoy multitasking and who will not, we may be able to do a better job of selecting employees who will flourish in jobs requiring multitasking,” said Poposki.

Poposki noted that our current understanding of multitasking is relatively poor. Although many people believe that multitasking involves doing multiple things at once, the performance of multiple tasks actually requires the rapid shifting of attention among ongoing tasks.

“Neuroscientists tell us that the human brain is incapable of doing two things at once. What we do when we multitask is switch back and forth between tasks in a manner similar to how a computer goes back and forth between programs,” she added.

The study was published in the journal Human Performance. (ANI)