Is Electronic Multitasking Always Viewed as a Counterproductive Meeting Behavior? Understanding the Nature of the...

Area of Science:

• Organizational Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Electronic multitasking during work meetings is prevalent.
• Its social evaluation as counterproductive meeting behavior is not fully understood.
• Factors influencing perceptions of electronic multitasking need investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore social evaluations of electronic multitasking during work meetings.
• To determine if the relevance or ambiguity of the secondary task affects these evaluations.
• To identify factors (norm violating, agency, communalism) influencing perceptions.

Main Methods:

• Experimental vignette design used across two studies (N=274 and N=188).
• Participants evaluated hypothetical coworker's electronic multitasking.
• Variations included task relevance (meeting-related vs. irrelevant) and ambiguity.

Main Results:

• Task-irrelevant multitasking was perceived as a greater norm violation and less communal than task-relevant multitasking.
• Work-related secondary tasks were seen as more agentic than nonwork-related tasks.
• Ambiguous tasks were also rated as more agentic than task-irrelevant multitasking.

Conclusions:

• The nature of the secondary task can mitigate negative perceptions of electronic multitasking.
• However, electronic multitasking, regardless of relevance, is generally judged negatively.
• Findings align with electronic multitasking being a counterproductive meeting behavior.