I Can Start ThatJMEManuscript Next Week, Can't I? The Task Characteristics Behind Why Faculty Procrastinate
- 1 August 2007
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Journal of Marketing Education
- Vol. 29 (2), 97-110
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475307302012
Abstract
Procrastination can be a crucial factor inhibiting faculty success. Many important tasks, especially publications for promotion or tenure, are typically associated with deadlines that are far in the future. As a result, time management skills can make or break the success of new faculty. This study examines task characteristics of procrastination in faculty work. It extends work by Paden and Stell and Ackerman and Gross to the context of procrastination by faculty members. An online survey asked respondents to recall important projects they had recently completed. The results suggest that task characteristics influencing procrastination in starting and in completing tasks and projects are quite different. A wider variety of factors affected faculty member procrastination in completing tasks and projects than in starting them. These included departmental norms, competing deadline pressures, perceived difficulty of the task or project in question, and clarity about how to proceed.Keywords
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