Decision Sciences Journal
Volume 30, Number 2
Spring 1999
The Influence of Task Interruption on Individual Decision
Making: An Information Overload Perspective
Cheri Speier
Michigan State University, The Eli Broad College of Business,
East Lansing, MI 48824, cspeier@pilot.msu.edu
Joseph S. Valacich
College of Business and Economics, Todd Hall 240D, Washington
State University, Pullman, WA 99164-4736, jsv@wsu.edu
Iris Vessey
Indiana University, Accounting and Information Systems, 1309
E. 10th Street, Bloomington, IN 47405-1701, ivessey@indiana.edu
ABSTRACT
Interruptions are a common aspect of the work environment of
most organizations. Yet little is known about how interruptions
and their characteristics, such as frequency of occurrence, influence
decision-making performance of individuals. Consequently, this
paper reports the results of two experiments investigating the
influence of interruptions on individual decision making. Interruptions
were found to improve decision-making performance on simple tasks
and to lower performance on complex tasks. For complex tasks,
the frequency of interruptions and the dissimilarity of content
between the primary and interruption tasks was found to exacerbate
this effect. The implications of these results for future research
and practice are discussed.
Subject Areas: Decision Making, Information Overload,
and Interruptions. |