Work redesign in development perspective: An empirical study of multitasking among civil servants in Malawi

Abstract

Civil servants in many developing countries are increasingly faced with multitask situations at work to improve the efficiency of public sectors. Although multitasking might boost employee productivity, its potentially negative impact on other areas of employees’ lives has been ignored. Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory, our research aims to investigate whether, how, and when multitasking at work decreases the subjective well‐being of employees in the public sector. Using a two‐wave survey of 164 civil servants in Malawi, our findings showed that multitasking at work was positively related to employees’ negative affect and negatively related to their satisfaction with life and positive affect through emotional exhaustion. Moreover, the study found that polychronicity, which refers to one's preference to handle more than one task at the same time, moderated the relationship between multitasking and emotional exhaustion, such that the association described above was weaker when an employee's polychronicity was higher. Finally, the indirect impact of multitasking on positive affect through emotional exhaustion was also moderated by polychronicity. These findings provide some theoretical and managerial implications for public sector in developing countries on how to focus on employee well‐being while using multitasking work design.

The influence of multitasking on creative work involvement: a conservation of resources perspective

“…Furthermore, the negative indirect relationship between multitasking and creative work involvement via emotional exhaustion is significant only for employees with a low promotion focus or a high prevention focus. These findings enhanced our understanding of how individual differences moderate the relationships between multitasking and emotions or behaviors (Chen et al. , 2022; Kirchberg et al.…”

“…For example, multitasking promotes resource utilization, knowledge sharing (O'Leary et al, 2011) and cognitive flexibility (Kapadia and Melwani, 2021). However, these studies have overlooked Multitasking and creative work environment the fact that multitasking may be a high-demand task that continuously consumes individual resources (Chen et al, 2022), increases an individuals' stress and reduces their effectiveness with regard to task completion and overall job performance (Leroy et al, 2020).…”

“…However, multitasking may only cause resource depletion for some employees (Chen et al, 2022). According to COR theory, specific traits can affect the process of resource loss or acquisition.…”