When Do Employees Cyberloaf? An Interactionist Perspective Examining Personality,Justice, and Empowerment

Cyberloafing—using the Internet for non‐work‐related activities—is a prevalent counterproductive work behavior in the workplace, but researchers have not yet paid sufficient attention to this issue, especially related to the role of personality in cyberloafing. Recognizing such a research gap, and using a trait activation theory framework, this study examines whether conscientiousness and emotional stability negatively relate to cyberloafing. We further investigate how organizational justice perceptions and psychological empowerment moderate the negative relationship between these personality traits and cyberloafing. Based on a sample of 247 employees, we find that those high in conscientiousness cyberloaf less when they perceive greater levels of organizational justice. In addition, highly conscientious individuals cyberloaf less when they have low, rather than high, levels of psychological empowerment. Implications for research and practice as well as future research directions are discussed. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

An Examination of the Relationship between Culture and Cyberloafing Using the Hofstede Model

This article explores the relationship between culture and cyberloafing. A survey measuring individuals’ propensity to engage in cyberloafing in the workplace was conducted with people from 17 countries representing a wide range of cultures. Tests were performed to explore relationships between participants’ propensity to cyberloaf and the cultural dimension ratings for their individual countries of origin. The results show that some types of cyberloafing activity relate significantly with culture. This has potential implications for multinational organizations. Employees from different cultures may have different workplace tendencies.