The Challenges of Multitasking: Working Faster, Better, Cheaper?

Slides

Speaker: Gloria Mark, UC Irvine/ISR

Abstract:

Over the last several years I have been studying the different ways that information workers experience disruptions in their work through multi-tasking and interruptions. In this talk I will present empirical results from fieldwork observations and experiments which detail how information workers' tasks are highly fragmented. Not only do information workers switch continually among multiple tasks at a high rate but they also switch continually among interactions and media in varied workplace contexts, such as the work home and organization. When interrupted, people complete tasks in less time. But working faster has a price: higher stress, frustration, time pressure, and effort. I will discuss how multi-tasking impacts various aspects of collaboration and communication in the workplace. These results challenge the traditional way that most IT is designed to organize information, i.e. in terms of distinct tasks. Instead, I will discuss how IT should support information organization in a way consistent with how most people organize and experience work in a real-world context, which is in terms of much larger thematically connected units of work.

Bio:

Gloria Mark is a Professor in the Department of Informatics, Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. Her research focuses on the effect of information technology in the workplace and in society, with a particular emphasis on collaborative technologies. Her current projects include studying multi-tasking and IT use in the workplace, technology use in disrupted environments, nomadic work, and network-centric organizations. She also runs a groupware usability lab at UCI. She has worked with a number of organizations including NASA, The Boeing Co., Intel, and local Irvine software companies.