Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1384453

Why and When Does Multitasking Impair Flow and Subjective Performance? A Daily Diary Study on the Role of Task Appraisals and Work Engagement

Provisionally accepted
Helen Pluut Helen Pluut 1*Maral Darouei Maral Darouei 2Marijn E. Zeijen Marijn E. Zeijen 3
  • 1 Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands
  • 2 VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Netherlands
  • 3 Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands, Netherlands

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In this diary study, we contribute to research on day-level multitasking in organizations by investigating why and when multitasking impairs employees' work-related flow and subjective job performance on a daily basis. Drawing on Lazarus and Folkman's transactional model of stress and coping, we propose that employees' appraisal of their daily tasks (i.e., less challenging and more hindering) may explain why multitasking has negative implications for flow and job performance. Moreover, we expect that daily work engagement can buffer the detrimental effects of multitasking on flow and job performance. A total of 33 professional workers in the food industry participated in our study and were asked to respond to ten daily surveys at work across four weeks. In line with our expectations, results showed that on days when employees' working time was highly fragmented across a high number of tasks, they experienced less flow and, in turn, their job performance was lower on that particular day. Moreover, appraisal of daily tasks as less challengingthough not more hinderingexplained why multitasking impairs flow. Finally, daily work engagement buffered the detrimental impact of multitasking on flow. The results presented in this paper offer novel and ecologically valid insights into why and when multitasking may backfire for employees.

    Keywords: multitasking, Flow, engagement, Stress appraisal, Experience-sampling methodology

    Received: 09 Feb 2024; Accepted: 15 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Pluut, Darouei and Zeijen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Helen Pluut, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.