Proposal to Raise Awareness about the Downside of Multi-Tasking
Overview
Multi-tasking is doing two or more "tasks" at the same time. This practice is also referred to as juggling different jobs or projects. Most people are proud of their multi-tasking skills, but there is a downside to asking workers to work simultaneously on differing projects in a short span of time.
Issues
Here are the problems that arise: confusion, setting priorities, lower quality work, lack of expertise, and burn-out. Some training, education, and workshops would help improve in this area. By having a company-wide effort to support focused work on projects, the quality of our products and services could increase greatly. Also, employees would be able to go deeper into solving problems and creating new products and services. Just raising awareness alone will not change the corporate culture.
Research
Multi-tasking relates to time management, setting priorities, building expertise, stress management, and quality measures. The research needed to support this proposal will be primarily web-based research and some types of experiential research: observation, interviews, surveys, etc. There are several pages in the textbook, Business Communications: Building Critical Skills, that discuss this topic.
Audience
This effort would be geared toward those who are juggling multiple, terminal projects and new initiatives. This does not have any bearing on workers who are doing multiple, repetitive tasks.
Call to Action
I'm happy to provide more details if that will help you in making a decision. I await your decision on whether I can move forward with this research.