Multitasking

The switching from one task to another, often involving working on several tasks during one time period. If several tasks are being attempted at the same time over a very short time period, then the likelihood of errors and a drop in standards increases significantly. The use of multitasking within workplaces is often used as a process of ‘firefighting' due to a lack of available resources. In the short term this can be fairly successful, however, as time progresses the errors and problems will mount up and become more noticeable to a greater number of people. Before this occurs, managers should have identified the problematic situation and reprioritised activities, as well as addressed the lack of resources, which may involve automating processes where possible to reducing the tasks being carried out and by just focusing on those which are the most business critical until other tasks can be appropriately accommodated.