Is Cyberloafing More Complex Than We Originally Thought? Cyberloafing as a Coping Response to Workplace Aggression Exposure

Details

• Personal Author:
  Andel SA ; Kessler SR ; Kleinman G ; Pindek S ; Spector PE
• Description:
  Employees spend approximately 2 h per day engaging in cyberloafing (i.e., using the internet at work for nonwork purposes) behaviors, costing organizations almost $85 billion dollars per year. As a result, cyberloafing is often considered a counterproductive type of withdrawal behavior. However, recent research suggests that cyberloafing may have some unexpected positive workplace outcomes. Therefore, we argue that the role of workplace cyberloafing is more complex than previously assumed and posit that cyberloafing may provide employees with a way to cope with workplace stress such as exposure to workplace aggression. To examine this proposition, we used a heterogeneous sample of 258 employees to test whether cyberloafing buffers the detrimental effects of workplace aggression exposure on two outcome variables: employees' turnover intentions and job satisfaction. Overall, results supported the notion that employees use cyberloafing as a workplace coping mechanism, which runs counter to the majority of research that conceptualizes cyberloafing as a counterproductive workplace behavior. These findings suggest that managers may consider allowing some degree of cyberloafing so that employees can better cope with work stress. Moreover, managers should directly target stressful workplace conditions (e.g., aggression) that serve as the impetus for cyberloafing behaviors. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Behavior Computers Men Occupational Health Safety Software Women Workplace
• Keywords:
  Aggression Author Keywords: Cyberloafing Computer Software Coping Employees Humans Job Satisfaction Sampling Stress Turnover Work Environment Workers Work Stress

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• ISSN:
  0747-5632
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Florida ; Indiana ; New Jersey ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  124-130
• Volume:
  101
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20064575
• Citation:
  Comput Hum Behav 2019 Dec; 101:124-130
• Contact Point Address:
  Stephanie A. Andel, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, 402 N. Blackford Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202
• Email:
  sandel@iu.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2020
• Performing Organization:
  Sunshine Education and Research Center, University of South Florida
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Computers in Human Behavior
• End Date:
  20290630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:9feb8c4a317353559f122ca0633b233a203ff88d31160365dfe0dc4ec6c9b85f0e453b6a81b76e66e2a985d716b0c3fb0ee32ac47aac65a902263a31373277d5
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/223013/cdc_223013_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 361.74 KB ]