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More Tasks, More Ideas: The Positive Spillover Effects of Multitasking on Subsequent Creativity

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Abstract

We propose that multitasking behavior influences creativity on subsequent tasks and that it does so through a serially mediated process in which multitasking increases activation, which increases cognitive flexibility, resulting in a positive effect on downstream creativity. We build support for our hypotheses through 4 studies designed to establish both internal and external validity: an archival study using coded data from the TV show, Chopped, and a laboratory experiment test the direct link between multitasking and subsequent creativity; while a quasi-experimental field study with restaurant servers and a second laboratory experiment examine the full serial mediation model. Results from the archival study and the first lab experiment support the proposed theory of a positive relationship between multitasking and subsequent creativity. Results from the quasi-experimental field study and second lab experiment suggest that multitasking increases creativity through activation and cognitive flexibility acting in tandem. Together, this work yields important theoretical and practical implications about managing creativity in a fast-paced contemporary workplace. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
More Tasks, More Ideas: The Positive Spillover Effects of Multitasking on
Subsequent Creativity
Chaitali Kapadia
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Shimul Melwani
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
We propose that multitasking behavior influences creativity on subsequent tasks and that it does so
through a serially mediated process in which multitasking increases activation, which increases cognitive
flexibility, resulting in a positive effect on downstream creativity. We build support for our hypotheses
through 4 studies designed to establish both internal and external validity: an archival study using coded
data from the TV show, Chopped, and a laboratory experiment test the direct link between multitasking
and subsequent creativity; while a quasi-experimental field study with restaurant servers and a second
laboratory experiment examine the full serial mediation model. Results from the archival study and the
first lab experiment support the proposed theory of a positive relationship between multitasking and
subsequent creativity. Results from the quasi-experimental field study and second lab experiment suggest
that multitasking increases creativity through activation and cognitive flexibility acting in tandem.
Together, this work yields important theoretical and practical implications about managing creativity in
a fast-paced contemporary workplace.
Keywords: creativity, multitasking, energy spillover, cognitive flexibility, activation
To one who lives with “time famine” (Perlow, 1999)—a chronic
shortage of sufficient hours in the day—multitasking seems to hold
out a brilliant solution. By performing two or more tasks concur-
rently, an individual can maximize the finite hours that make up a
life. In many workplaces, multitasking is considered an essential
job demand (Fleishman, Costanza, & Marshall-Mies, 1999), with
41% of employees stating that they engage in multitasking “all the
time” at work (Barba, 2014). Yet, researchers across varied liter-
atures have drawn a singular conclusion: Multitasking has a neg-
ative effect on performance. Indeed, supporting this finding, re-
search on employee performance finds that people perform worse
when they are faced with interruptions (Leroy, 2009) and distrac-
tions (Czerwinski, Horvitz, & Wilhite, 2004) and that they do so
because thinking about incomplete prior tasks continues to draw
on their cognitive resources (Zeigarnik, 1927). These findings
underlie multitasking’s many deleterious effects: reduced accu-
racy, efficiency, and quality of work performance (e.g., Laxmisan
et al., 2007;Rubinstein, Meyer, & Evans, 2001), increased stress
and work-family conflict (e.g., Glavin & Schieman, 2012;Voy-
danoff, 2005), as well as burnout and exhaustion (e.g., Howard,
2013;Steege, Drake, Olivas, & Mazza, 2015).
Despite significant evidence of multitasking’s harms, extant
research may not be able to capture the full effect of multitasking
behavior because it has focused mainly on the effect of multitask-
ing on the very tasks being multitasked—with a specific focus on
how multitasking hurts analytical task performance. In contrast,
we posit that the cognitive and affective changes elicited by
multitasking behavior may lead to potential positive downstream
effects for another crucial indicator of organizational performance:
creativity. At first glance, multitasking behavior appears to be at
odds with the factors that enable people to harness their creativity,
an outcome improved by low time pressure (Amabile, 1996),
enhanced time for incubation (Dodds, Ward, & Smith, 2003), short
breaks (Segal, 2004), a flow state (Csikszentmihályi, 1991), and a
relaxed focus (Isaksen, 1983). Yet, drawing from disparate re-
search on creative performance, the process of accessing and
recombining distinct and disparate knowledge (Guilford, 1956;
Mednick, 1962), we propose that this positive multitasking-
creativity link unfolds through a serially mediated process in
which multitasking increases creativity first through an immediate,
affective mechanism, activation, which then positively influences
a secondary cognitive mechanism, cognitive flexibility, to result in
creative outcomes on a subsequent task. We argue that from an
affective standpoint, because multitasking is a resource-heavy
effortful experience (Wetherell & Carter, 2014;Yeykelis, Cum-
mings, & Reeves, 2014), it elicits energy (Mehler, Reimer, Cough-
lin, & Dusek, 2009), providing activating resources that then
stimulate cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility, the ability
with which individuals can attend to divergent perspectives (Roth-
man & Melwani, 2017), is the cognitive precursor that enables
Chaitali Kapadia, School of Business and Management, Hong Kong
University of Science and Technology; Shimul Melwani, Kenan-Flagler
Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
We owe thanks to Casher Belinda, Michael Christian, Matthew Pearsall,
and Keith Payne for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this
article.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Chaitali
Kapadia, who is now at College of Business, Florida International Univer-
sity, 11200 Southwest 8th Street, Miami, FL 33199-0001. E-mail:
kapadiac@fiu.edu
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
Journal of Applied Psychology
© 2020 American Psychological Association
ISSN: 0021-9010 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/apl0000506
542
2021, Vol. 106, No. 4, 542–559
This article was published Online First June 11, 2020.
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