Watching The Clock: Group Pacing Behavior Under Dynamic Deadlines

Abstract

Attention to time is generally regarded as the catalyst that motivates groups to pace work under deadlines. We tested this assumption in 38 groups, some working under stable deadlines and others working under changed deadlines. Our results indicate that groups steadily increase attention to time as deadlines near, rather than sharply increasing such attention at the midpoint, but they engage in task transitions at or near the midpoint of allotted time.