Prioritising: what work does a new request replace?
Accepting an additional request sometimes means displacing work whose value is never discussed. The management question is specific: before committing capacity already allocated, should we name what will not be done instead?
What the literature establishes
Shane Frederick, Nathan Novemsky, Jing Wang, Ravi Dhar and Stephen Nowlis (2009, Journal of Consumer Research) show, in purchasing-choice experiments, that people do not systematically consider alternative uses of their money. Making those alternatives explicit can change their decisions. This research establishes a pattern of opportunity cost neglect, not a general inability to compare options.
What makes the forgone alternative visible
Scott A. Spiller (2011, Journal of Consumer Research) examines the conditions under which alternative uses of a resource actually enter the decision. His experiments indicate, in particular, that resource constraints can encourage opportunity cost consideration. Applied to scheduling, the mechanism suggests a hypothesis: a request may be evaluated in isolation if no alternative use of the time is made salient.
The premature conclusion
One might conclude that any request displacing an earlier commitment should be refused. That would confuse identifying a cost with demonstrating that the cost is excessive. A new request may legitimately replace planned work; the point is to compare the two uses of time rather than assess only the appeal of the new request. (our executive and employee training programmes)
The limits of the evidence and of common practice
These studies concern consumer decisions, not scheduling in industrial teams. Applying their findings to working time therefore remains a hypothesis to test, particularly because tasks involve dependencies, uncertain durations and collective consequences. Nevertheless, asking “can we do it?” is not enough to document a trade-off: a positive answer may conceal a postponement, reduced scope or overtime.
A practical check in Neuchâtel
In a Neuchâtel team working in microtechnology, watchmaking or precision microelectronics, an exercise within SHR’s “Time Management & Prioritisation” programme could involve recording, over two weeks, every accepted request that draws on capacity already scheduled. For each request, record the displaced work and its revised deadline, or specify how additional capacity is obtained if nothing is displaced. The main measure is the proportion of these requests accompanied by an explicit trade-off that can be checked against the schedule; actual postponements and overtime are recorded separately. This record does not prove a productivity gain, but it makes it possible to check whether new commitments are genuinely weighed against existing ones or simply added. To go further: explore the Time Management & Prioritisation training in Neuchâtel, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
In pictures: Time Management & Prioritisation in Neuchâtel
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