Determinants of Procrastination at work place, Mediating the role of motivation

[pic 1]

Determinants of Procrastination at work place,

Mediating the role of motivation

APPLIED RESEARCH METHOD

Section:  “F”

Mariam Saleem (1835243)

Riya Talreja       (1835256)

Lataa Tejani       (1835241)

Irfan Zaidi          (1835264)

Instructor Name: Sir Waqar Akbar

Date of Submission: 08th October 2018

1.1 Introduction:
          When talking about plans, motives, intentions, goals and the gap between the intentions and actions it doesn’t took long for the word procrastination to come in. Delaying of relevant and timely activity is procrastination (Sirios, 2014). Procrastination nowadays is all-present in every aspect of life. In the last decades it has been studied by the researchers in many domains of the psychology leading to variety of approaches trying to explain and measure it. Procrastination is a form of self-regulatory failure, where we ‘intentionally delay an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay’ (Steel, 2007, p. 66). Failing to motivate oneself to perform the required activity in an expected time frame even though knowing that the task was supposed to be completed yet failing to do it so. Gupta el al; (2012) stated that the word Procrastination is derived from Latin, in which pro means forward and cras suggests tomorrow. Gupta et al; (2012) said that individuals who perceive themselves as procrastinators try to reduce it by managing and setting up realistic goals so that they achieve their task in a reasonable time frame.
         In the workplace, the ideal employees in order to maximize corporate resources should try to balance their personal energy in such a way to reduce inefficiency and maximize productivity. Whereas procrastinator often target short term task at cost of long term goals. Procrastinators often fail to deliver the best output or less than the highest standard or quality output because they left themselves with little time for careful consideration. It is observed that those employees who perform poorly overall is because of the unpleasant feeling which made them put of an action to a later time; postpone. Organizational and individual productivity can certainly be affected by procrastination. The phenomena of Procrastination in an individual depend on personal and situational circumstances. Personality trait such as consciousness and impulsiveness are related to procrastination (Steel, 2010).  Procrastination at the work place is now emerging as one of the major issues among organizations. Procrastination has been the subject of research mainly in educational and clinical/counseling fields, whereas very few studies have been conducted in industrial organizations. Delineating the adverse effects of procrastination on workers' performance and the paucity of research in this area, Coote (1988) rightly says that "despite the potentially serious impact of such behavior on organizational productivity and effectiveness, workers' procrastination has received very little attention in organizational behaviour research".

1.2 Problem Statement:
           In the modern world, for the organization to be more productive it is necessary that the organizations workforce should be efficient and productive. Overcoming procrastination among employees can be a key factor to increase the productivity of the organization.

         (Fletcher 2013) said that income is also associated with procrastination, by mentioning that lower income level may lead towards lower motivation in employee. Hence increasing the procrastinating behavior. Other factor like improper time management leads towards procrastination (Sultan and Hussain, 2010). Looking at the requirement of time workload stress is a growing problem that results in procrastination in individual employees and work organizations around the globe (Hart & Cooper, 2001). Research revealed that fear of failure is also one of the major causes of procrastination (Chang et al; 2014). In the last Task Ambiguity is also one of the major sources of creating procrastination (Hart & Cooper, 2001). Keeping these all determinants in view which make their ways towards procrastinating behavior ultimately hurts the performance of an Organization.

This issue at the workplace can be resolved by identifying and rectifying the negative factors that leads to procrastination because Procrastination appears a tendency, attitude or behavioral trait which Shah (2000) described as indecisive state lacking in will power and vitality to do a work which makes employees lazy & passive developing delaying tendency in them; either they feel hesitation in taking initiatives or fear to start a work.

1.3 Significance of the study:
           The importance of this study is to identify and rectify the procrastination at the workplace. For an organization to be more productive and efficient and to compete in the modern world, it is necessary for the organization to drag out the procrastination from the workplace. McCown et al; (2012) identified that the negative self-evaluation that is made by an individual lead to procrastination and difficulty in completing the upcoming task. Similarly, Flett et al; (2012) found that the negative self-thought related to procrastination leads to elevation in stress among the employee. So a proactive employee will decrease the employers cost as he/she will be efficient enough to complete the task and to be more productive within the given timeframe. Countries like Pakistan is having procrastination as one of the highlighted issues among the workforce. This study will also help employers to understand the root cause of procrastination among employees and to bridge the gap between intentions-actions. In addition to this, a productive organization will eventually increase the country Gross Domestic Product.

1.4 Conceptual Framework:

...