Extension Request: An Underexplored Response to Deadlines

Abstract

A task deadline is a useful tool to improve productivity and coordination in organizations. However, when setting deadlines, people often underestimate how much time tasks will require to complete. As a result, task deadlines can also be a source of excessive time-pressure. Prior research has identified three types of responses to deadlines that offer insufficient time to accomplish one’s task: adjust one’s performance target, engage in multitasking, or miss the deadline altogether. My research aims to shed light on an alternative strategy to minimize the excessive time-pressure associated with deadlines, while maximizing its benefits on motivation and coordination: requesting a deadline extension as needed. While not all deadlines are extendable, for some deadlines requesting an extension can be both possible and beneficial. However, given that workplace deadlines are often imposed by a supervisor to manage subordinate employee(s), I hypothesize that an employee’s decision to request a deadline extension will be impacted by not only the possibility or potential benefits of receiving an extension, but also by their self-presentational concerns of making the request: their beliefs regarding how requesting a deadline extension will impact the supervisor’s judgment of themselves. In my dissertation, I investigate how self-presentational concerns shape employee’s willingness to request a deadline extension, evaluate the accuracy of these concerns, and introduce interventions to help mitigate misguided self-presentational concerns. In Chapter 1, I survey the literature on deadlines to define the phenomenon I explore throughout my research: deadline extension requests. I discuss when and how deadline extension can be more helpful compared to alternative responses to stressful deadlines, and outline when people might perceive deadline extension as a viable option. Then, drawing from research on help-seeking, I illustrate how self-presentation related factors impact employee’s decisions to request a deadline extension. In the following chapters, I employ survey, field, and experimental data to investigate what people believe deadline extension requests signal about themselves, how these beliefs impact their wellbeing and productivity, and whether these beliefs are accurate. In Chapter 2, I find that employees working under deadlines believe that asking for more time to work on their tasks will signal their incompetence to observers they are motivated to impress, such as their supervisors. Consequently, employees avoid requesting an extension, even when they understand that the deadline is adjustable, and submit lower quality work. However, these beliefs are misguided: supervisors do not judge employees who request a deadline extension as incompetent. Employees are less likely to worry about self-presentation when they feel close to a supervisor; however, they still overestimate supervisors’ ratings of incompetence in response to extension requests. In Chapter 3, I find that women in particular hold stronger negative beliefs regarding what a deadline extension request might signal about themselves. As a result, women are even less willing to request an extension on adjustable deadlines than men, and experience greater time pressure and workplace burnout. I find no evidence that women experience greater backlash for making extension requests. Furthermore, having formal policies regarding extension requests reduces the gender difference in attitude towards extension request. Taken together, these findings illuminate how misguided self-presentational beliefs may deter people from utilizing extension requests to mitigate the harmful effects of miscalibrated deadlines.