Task Procrastination in Organizations: A Framework for Research

Procrastination in organizations may have adverse effects on both individual well-being and system effectiveness, yet studies on this topic are sparse and theoretical development appears to be nonexistent. Procrastination is viewed here as the act of putting off a task that either the focal person or other role-senders expect should be done at the present time. Hence, the emphasis here is upon aspects of the work environment that give rise to procrastination rather than on habits and personality characteristics. Three categories of situational variables are proposed as predictors of task procrastination: characteristics of the task, the relationship between the focal task and other tasks, and attributes of the organization. Furthermore, task discretion is hypothesized to moderate the relationships between these sets of predictors and procrastination. The ways in which this framework may be useful for empirical research and as a starting point for subsequent theory generation are discussed. Finally, it is suggested that future research and theory-building should not focus exclusively upon the negative aspects of procrastination.