Can Your Audit Team Effectively Multitask? It Might Depend on How They Communicate

This article summarizes Sidgman, Brown, and Brazel (2021) which demonstrates that, when multitasking, the performance of audit teams communicating in-person is greater than the performance of teams using computer-mediated communication (discussion boards and chatrooms). In the audit setting, multitasking is unavoidable and pervasive and in-person communication is not always an option. To facilitate multitasking, engagement team communications have extended beyond in-person interactions to computer-mediated communication (CMC) technologies. However, little is known about the performance of multitasking teams under these alternative modes of communication (in-person, discussion boards, and chatrooms). Contrary to expectations, the authors find that experimental participants’ familiarity with, and preference for, chatroom features (which are like text messaging) may have offset the benefits previously attributed to discussion boards (which are similar to email). This finding is timely, given the pandemic-induced environment of remote and hybrid work, as it informs practitioners on audit teams’ multitasking effectiveness while using CMC.