Publication: Task Variety in Professional Service Work: When It Helps and When It Hurts
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Date
2018-03-23
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Sage Journals
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Abstract
In a wide range of professional service firms, individuals perform a variety of tasks which are highly cognitive and knowledge intensive yet repetitive in nature, providing significant opportunities for learning. In addition, individuals in such environments tend to enjoy considerable discretion in managing when and how they perform their tasks. In light of these observations, we investigate task allocation and timing strategies that may enhance or inhibit learning and productivity for professional service workers. Specifically, we focus on the role of task variety. We use a detailed dataset of 3,275 coronary artery bypass surgeries in a private European hospital over seven years to examine the effect of concurrent and non-concurrent exposure to task variety on learning and productivity on a focal task. We find that while concurrent exposure to variety has a positive impact on focal productivity, non-concurrent exposure to variety has a negative impact on it. Our results also suggest that short term exposure to variety amplifies these relationships.
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Attribution 4.0 International
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IE Business School
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Citation
Avgerinos, E., & Gokpinar, B. (2018). Task variety in professional service work: When it helps and when it hurts. Production and Operations Management, 27(7), 1368-1389. https://doi.org/10.1111/poms.12874.