The Economics of Multitasking
The Economics of Multitasking

Author: Charlene M. Kalenkoski

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-04-29

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 1137381442

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People regularly multitask, though we have been warned about the mental costs of "task-switching" in psychology and the popular press. Meanwhile, economists have remained silent on the possible economic ramifications – both good and bad – of producers and/or consumers doing more than one thing at once. This first-of-its-kind volume explores the frequency, patterns, and economic implications of multitasking, with a particular focus on the multitasking of non-market activities such as child care, housework, eating, and studying. Using data sets from around the world and best-practice empirical and experimental techniques, the contributors to this volume explore the association of multitasking with output and welfare in a range of settings of interest to economists. Contributions in theory, empirical work, data management, and concepts are combined to yield the discipline's first holistic view of multitasking and to identify where the research frontiers lie in this area.

The Economics of Multitasking
The Economics of Multitasking

Author: Charlene M. Kalenkoski

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Published: 2015-11-30

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781137381439

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People regularly multitask, though we have been warned about the mental costs of "task-switching" in psychology and the popular press. Meanwhile, economists have remained silent on the possible economic ramifications – both good and bad – of producers and/or consumers doing more than one thing at once. This first-of-its-kind volume explores the frequency, patterns, and economic implications of multitasking, with a particular focus on the multitasking of non-market activities such as child care, housework, eating, and studying. Using data sets from around the world and best-practice empirical and experimental techniques, the contributors to this volume explore the association of multitasking with output and welfare in a range of settings of interest to economists. Contributions in theory, empirical work, data management, and concepts are combined to yield the discipline's first holistic view of multitasking and to identify where the research frontiers lie in this area.

The Myth of Multitasking
The Myth of Multitasking

Author: Dave Crenshaw

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2008-08-18

Total Pages: 89

ISBN-13: 0470372257

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"A fresh take on the problem of time wasters in our corporate and personal lives, "The Myth of Multitasking" will change your paradigm about what is productive and what is not."--Hyrum Smith, co-founder, Franklin Covey.

The Economic Nature of the Firm
The Economic Nature of the Firm

Author: Randall S. Kroszner

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2009-09-21

Total Pages: 664

ISBN-13: 1316025233

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This book brings together classic writings on the economic nature and organization of firms, including works by Ronald Coase, Oliver Williamson, and Michael Jensen and William Meckling, as well as more recent contributions by Paul Milgrom, Bengt Holmstrom, John Roberts, Oliver Hart, Luigi Zingales, and others. Part I explores the general theme of the firm's nature and place in the market economy; Part II addresses the question of which transactions are integrated under a firm's roof and what limits the growth of firms; Part III examines employer-employee relations and the motivation of labor; and Part IV studies the firm's organization from the standpoint of financing and the relationship between owners and managers. The volume also includes a consolidated bibliography of sources cited by these authors and an introductory essay by the editors that surveys the new institutional economics of the firm and issues raised in the anthology.

The Multitasking Mind
The Multitasking Mind

Author: Dario D. Salvucci

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 0199733562

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This book presents the theory of threaded cognition, a theory that aims to explain the multitasking mind. The theory states that multitasking behavior can be expressed as cognitive threads-independent streams of thought that weave through the mind's processing resources to produce multitasking behavior, and sometimes experience conflicts to produce multitasking interference. Grounded in the ACT-R cognitive architecture, threaded cognition incorporates computational representations and mechanisms used to simulate and predict multitasking behavior and performance.

Singletasking
Singletasking

Author: Devora Zack

Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Published: 2015-05-04

Total Pages: 174

ISBN-13: 1626562636

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“Can literally double your productivity and performance overnight. This may be the most important book on time and personal management you will ever read.” —Brian Tracy, international bestselling author of Eat That Frog! Your mind can’t be two places at once. Too many of us have become addicted to the popular, enticing, dangerously misleading drug of multitasking. Devora Zack was once hooked herself. But she beat it and became more efficient, and you can too. Zack marshals convincing neuroscientific evidence to prove that you really can’t do more by trying to tackle several things at once—it’s an illusion. There is a better way to deal with all the information and interruptions that bombard us today. Singletasking explains exactly how to clear and calm your mind, arrange your schedule and environment, and gently yet firmly manage the expectations of people around you so that you can accomplish a succession of tasks, one by one—and be infinitely more productive. Singletasking is the secret to success and sanity. “Devora Zack shows us how doing one thing at a time reduces stress, increases efficiency, and produces higher quality results. If you want to work smarter, not harder, read this book!” —Ken Blanchard, #1 New York Times-bestselling coauthor of The One Minute Manager® “Don’t let Zack’s lighthearted tone fool you—Singletasking is backed by hard science, and this book’s pragmatic advice can really change your work and your life.” —David Bach, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Automatic Millionaire “Zack shows readers how they can manage the expectations of others, unplug from technology (at times), and operate in the moment.” —Library Journal

Personnel Economics in Practice
Personnel Economics in Practice

Author: Edward P. Lazear

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2014-11-03

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 111820672X

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Personnel Economics in Practice, 3rd Edition by Edward Lazear and Michael Gibbs gives readers a rigorous framework for understanding organizational design and the management of employees. Economics has proven to be a powerful approach in the changing study of organizations and human resources by adding rigor and structure and clarifying many important issues. Not only will readers learn and apply ideas from microeconomics, they will also learn principles that will be valuable in their future careers.

Profiting from Multiple Intelligences in the Workplace
Profiting from Multiple Intelligences in the Workplace

Author: Joyce Martin

Publisher: Gower Publishing, Ltd.

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 9780566083129

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Turns Howard Gardner's revolutionary theory of multiple intelligences into user-friendly tools for understanding and assessing success in everyone from CEOs to cleaners. It provides a complete system for: the examination of staff needs; matching applicants and job specifications; successful interviewing and induction; effective supervision; focused training and development.

The Distracted Mind
The Distracted Mind

Author: Adam Gazzaley

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2016-09-23

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 0262034948

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Why our brains aren't built for media multitasking, and how we can learn to live with technology in a more balanced way. "Brilliant and practical, just what we need in these techno-human times."—Jack Kornfield, author of The Wise Heart Most of us will freely admit that we are obsessed with our devices. We pride ourselves on our ability to multitask—read work email, reply to a text, check Facebook, watch a video clip. Talk on the phone, send a text, drive a car. Enjoy family dinner with a glowing smartphone next to our plates. We can do it all, 24/7! Never mind the errors in the email, the near-miss on the road, and the unheard conversation at the table. In The Distracted Mind, Adam Gazzaley and Larry Rosen—a neuroscientist and a psychologist—explain why our brains aren't built for multitasking, and suggest better ways to live in a high-tech world without giving up our modern technology. The authors explain that our brains are limited in their ability to pay attention. We don't really multitask but rather switch rapidly between tasks. Distractions and interruptions, often technology-related—referred to by the authors as “interference”—collide with our goal-setting abilities. We want to finish this paper/spreadsheet/sentence, but our phone signals an incoming message and we drop everything. Even without an alert, we decide that we “must” check in on social media immediately. Gazzaley and Rosen offer practical strategies, backed by science, to fight distraction. We can change our brains with meditation, video games, and physical exercise; we can change our behavior by planning our accessibility and recognizing our anxiety about being out of touch even briefly. They don't suggest that we give up our devices, but that we use them in a more balanced way.

Multitasking in the Digital Age
Multitasking in the Digital Age

Author: Gloria Mark

Publisher: Morgan & Claypool Publishers

Published: 2015-04-01

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 1681731924

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In our digital age we can communicate, access, create, and share an abundance of information effortlessly, rapidly, and nearly ubiquitously. The consequence of having so many choices is that they compete for our attention: we continually switch our attention between different types of information while doing different types of tasks--in other words, we multitask. The activity of information workers in particular is characterized by the continual switching of attention throughout the day. In this book, empirical work is presented, based on ethnographic and sensor data collection, which reveals how multitasking affects information workers' activities, mood, and stress in real work environments. Multitasking is discussed from various perspectives: activity switching, interruptions as triggers for activity switching, email as a major source of interruptions, and the converse of distractions: focused attention. All of these factors are components of information work. This book begins by defining multitasking and describing different research approaches used in studying multitasking. It then describes how multiple factors occur to encourage multitasking in the digitally-enabled workplace: the abundance and ease of accessing information, the number of different working spheres, the workplace environment, attentional state, habit, and social norms. Empirical work is presented describing the nature of multitasking, the relationship of different types of interruptions and email with overload and stress, and patterns of attention focus. The final chapter ties these factors together and discusses challenges that information workers in our digital age face.