SCIENCE@home

Lost in tasks: how workplace multitasking shapes employee moral awareness and service sabotage behavior

Peng Xie,Jianfeng Yang,Fen-fen Tian

Published 2025 in Journal of service theory and practice

ABSTRACT

PurposeDrawing on the attentional focus model, we posit that multitasking diminishes employees’ moral awareness, thereby increasing their propensity for service sabotage behaviors. Furthermore, we propose that employees’ trait mindfulness can mitigate this effect by modulating their attentional focus.Design/methodology/approachTo empirically test our hypotheses, we employed the experience sampling method, collecting data over 10 consecutive workdays from 82 frontline employees and their 23 direct supervisors.FindingsOur findings reveal that multitasking indirectly increases service sabotage behaviors by diminishing employees’ moral awareness. Notably, this indirect effect is more pronounced among employees with lower trait mindfulness and attenuated among those with higher trait mindfulness.Practical implicationsOrganizations should manage multitasking demands through effective task prioritization and resource allocation to mitigate potential ethical issues. Implementing ethical training programs and fostering a culture that values ethical conduct can enhance employees’ moral awareness. Additionally, promoting mindfulness practices can improve attentional control and ethical decision-making under pressure, thereby reducing the risk of service sabotage behaviors.Originality/valueFirst, we establish a novel link between multitasking and service sabotage, an unethical behavior prevalent in the service industry. Second, we extend the scope of the attentional focus model by demonstrating that impaired moral awareness is a consequence of multitasking’s impact on attentional focus, which in turn mediates unethical outcomes. Third, we investigate trait mindfulness as a moderator of the relationship between multitasking and moral awareness, thereby illuminating the influence of individual traits on attentional processes.

PUBLICATION RECORD

CITATION MAP

EXTRACTION MAP

CLAIMS

  • No claims are published for this paper.

CONCEPTS

  • No concepts are published for this paper.

REFERENCES

Showing 1-71 of 71 references · Page 1 of 1

CITED BY