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This paper aims to provide a brief review of cyberloafing in a holistic and comprehensive manner. Specifically, this paper discusses the nature of cyberloafing, factors that influence cyberloafing, positive and negative impacts of cyberloafing, and suggestions for prevention and control.

This paper has four sections: what is cyberloafing, what motivates people to cyberloaf, negative and positive impacts of cyberloafing and suggestions for its prevention and control.

There are various reasons that motivate employees to cyberloaf, and cyberloafing has both positive and negative impacts. The decision to allow or disallow employees to cyberloaf at workplace very much depends on the company’s work culture and how top management thinks about cyberloafing. This paper provides several suggestions on how to control and prevent cyberloafing.

A holistic overview of cyberloafing is discussed in this paper.

The purpose of the study is to explore the relationship between leader bottom-line mentality (BLM) and employee social cyberloafing behavior. Based on social exchange theory, the authors propose that leader BLM will promote employee social cyberloafing behavior via psychological contract breach, especially when employee needs for relatedness is high.

To test the hypotheses, the authors conducted a multi-wave, multi-source field study with 185 paired employee–leader dyads at three time points. The hypotheses were tested by Mplus with a bootstrap approach to obtain confidence intervals.

The results show that leader BLM has a positive impact on employee social cyberloafing behavior, which is mediated by psychological contract breach. In addition, employee needs for relatedness moderates this process. Specifically, when employees pertain high needs for relatedness, the influence of leader BLM will be stronger.

This research paper highlights the detrimental influence of leader BLM and provide directions for preventing employee cyberloafing behavior.

Previous studies have drawn inconsistent conclusions on the effectiveness of leader BLM, such as enhancing task performance and eliciting social undermining. This study further explores the underlying mechanism linking leader BLM to employee social cyberloafing behavior and the boundary conditions. This has subsequently provided practitioners with new perspectives regarding why employees engage in counter-productive social cyberloafing.

The substantial cost of employee cyberloafing to organizations calls for research into exploring the factors that influence such behavior. Drawing upon social cognitive theory, the authors develop a theoretical model that unpacks when and why leader forgiveness induces employee cyberloafing. Specifically, the authors identify moral disengagement as a linking mechanism and employee empathic concern as a key boundary condition in the association between leader forgiveness and employee cyberloafing behaviors.

The authors conducted multilevel analyses to examine the authors' hypotheses by utilizing a sample of 71 supervisors and 306 direct reports.

Results showed that leader forgiveness encouraged employee cyberloafing via moral disengagement among employees with low empathic concern, whereas the indirect effect was not present among those with high empathic concern.

The authors contribute to the literature on cyberloafing and leader forgiveness. First, this study extends the cyberloafing research by considering leader forgiveness as an enabler, challenging the dominant notion that positive leader behaviors (e.g. leader mindfulness) constrain employee cyberloafing while negative leader behaviors (e.g. abusive supervision) elicit it. Second, although past studies have predominantly concentrated on the positive outcomes of forgiveness, the current research contributes to the balanced and comprehensive understanding of leader forgiveness by linking leader forgiveness with employee cyberloafing.

Despite previous research highlighting the consequences of facades of conformity (FOC) on attitudes, emotions and feelings, little is known about their negative effects on behaviors. This study draws on the job stress process model to examine the association between FOC and cyberloafing and explores how anxiety functions as an underlying mechanism affecting cyberloafing.

A total of 185 employees from Chinese organizations participated in a two-wave questionnaire survey.

The study found a positive relationship between FOC and cyberloafing and noted that anxiety mediates this relationship. The research also identified that performance–avoidance goal orientation moderates the relationship between FOC and anxiety, as well as the indirect effects of the FOC–cyberloafing relationship via anxiety.

The research findings demonstrate that FOC is positively associated with anxiety and cyberloafing. The disruptive nature of FOC in the workplace has been revealed. Furthermore, this study provides valuable suggestions for managers on how to reduce employee FOC and cyberloafing.

Using the job stress process model, this study investigates whether (main effect), how (a mediating mechanism) and when (boundary condition) FOC drives cyberloafing, deepening the understanding of the relationship between FOC and cyberloafing.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the attractiveness or unattractiveness of cyberloafing in the workplace using Q methodology and the Kano model.

The perception of employees towards cyberloafing was investigated based on Q methodology, and then they were prioritized using Kano model. Ten IT companies were selected for the case study. In this study, a mixed method was used. First, 30 participants were interviewed. Next, after extracting the comments, Q-matrix was presented to 30 participants and they completed the matrix cells. Finally, Kano questionnaire was designed using the items obtained from Q methodology and distributed among 30 participants.

Q methodology led to nine perceptions, and the priorities of Kano model were proponents of increasing employees' dependence on the internet, economic thinkers, the indifferent, dissatisfied, proponents of receiving information, self-control proponents, the profit-minded, mind destroyer and satisfaction-oriented. Cyberloafing is considered unattractiveness with adverse effects. The combination of Q methodology and Kano model can improve the analysis of the results.

This study is one of the few studies in which Q methodology is improved by Kano model. In the past, Q methodology alone examined people’s perception, but by combining these two methods, it is determined which perception is more satisfying and which one is more important, and then a general result can be reached.

The purpose of this study is to better understand the effect of workplace ostracism on cyberloafing by examining the mediating effect of moral disengagement. The role of organisational commitment as a moderator of the association between workplace ostracism and cyberloafing is also examined.

The proposed hypotheses are tested with survey data collected from 243 employees among public listed companies in Malaysia. Data are analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The results show that workplace ostracism has a significant positive influence on cyberloafing. Furthermore, it is observed that workplace ostracism serves as a mediating factor in the link between workplace ostracism and cyberloafing. Finally, organisational commitment is revealed to have no significant moderating effect on the relationship between workplace ostracism and cyberloafing.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to build and test a model based on social cognitive theory that examines the fundamental mechanisms through which workplace ostracism influences cyberloafing.

This study aims to examine the relationship between telecommuting and cyberloafing among Ghanaian workers. In addition, the study investigated the moderating role of emotional exhaustion on telecommuting and cyberloafing.

The study collected quantitative data from 945 employees in banks, telecommunication and insurance sectors of the Ghanaian economy. Data was entered using SPSS v.23 and analysed with Process Macro v3.5.

The results indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between telecommuting and cyberloafing. It also found out that emotional exhaustion has a significant negative relationship with cyberloafing. Furthermore, emotional exhaustion moderated the relationship between telecommuting and cyberloafing. Organisations are not necessarily required to be in a particular location to achieve their goals. Through practices such as telecommuting, organisations are able to unleash the creative and innovative abilities of employees and also improve their psychological well-being for greater gains.

The practice of telecommuting psychologically empowers the individual giving some decision-making latitudes to one and making one responsible and accountable for their actions and inactions. Also, individuals who are giving the chance to telecommute will only engage in cyberloafing behaviours when they are emotionally exhausted. Thus, it is important to create conditions that establishes equilibrium and creates harmony between the individual and the work, hence eliminating any feeling of emotional exhaustion and reaping the full benefits of telecommuting.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the role of emotional exhaustion in the relationship between telecommuting workers and their engagement in cyberloafing.

This study investigated why employees' cyberloafing behavior is affected by their coworkers' cyberloafing behavior. By integrating social learning theory and deterrence theory, the authors developed a model to explain the role of employees' perceived certainty of formal and informal sanctions in understanding the effect of coworkers' cyberloafing behavior on employees' cyberloafing behavior.

The authors conducted a survey that involved a two-stage data collection process (including 293 respondents) to test our developed model. Mplus 7.0 was used to analyze the data.

The results revealed that employees' cyberloafing was positively affected by their coworkers' cyberloafing both directly and indirectly. The indirect effect of coworkers' cyberloafing on employees' cyberloafing was mediated by the employees' perceived certainty of formal and informal sanctions on cyberloafing. Employees' perceived certainty of formal and informal sanctions were found to mediate the relationship both separately (each type of sanctions mediates the relationship individually) and in combination (the two types of sanctions form a serial mediation effect).

The study reveals an important mechanism – employees’ perceived certainty of formal and informal sanctions – that underlies the relationship between coworkers' cyberloafing and employees' cyberloafing, thus, contributing to the cyberloafing literature. It also demonstrates the importance of negative reinforcement (perceived sanctions) in the social learning process, which contributes to the literature on social learning theory because previous studies have primarily focused on the role of positive reinforcement. Lastly, the study reveals a positive relationship between employees' perceived certainty of formal sanctions and informal sanctions, which has important implications for deterrence theory.

This study aims to explore whether and how workplace loneliness leads to cyberloafing and the role of leader problem-focused interpersonal emotion management in buffering this relationship.

Drawing on ego depletion theory, the authors propose that employees' workplace loneliness leads to cyberloafing via ego depletion, while leader interpersonal emotion management (i.e. leadership behavior targeted at managing employees' negative emotions) can help to alleviate the situation. To test this study’s predictions, the authors collected multisource data at three time points from a sample of 219 employee–colleague dyads.

The results show that workplace loneliness is positively related to cyberloafing and that ego depletion mediates this relationship. Leader problem-focused interpersonal emotion management weakens the relationship between workplace loneliness and ego depletion and the indirect relationship between workplace loneliness and cyberloafing via ego depletion such that the above relationships are weak (versus strong) when leader problem-focused interpersonal emotion management is high (versus low).

The study results suggest that workplace loneliness is an important hidden danger that leads to cyberloafing because lonely employees suffer more from ego depletion. Leaders' interpersonal emotion management strategy serves as a potential buffer for such a negative effect.

When pluralistic ignorance about cyberloafing is increased, individuals engage more in cyberloafing. Cyberloafing has become a great challenge in business organisations, and it is believed that many organisations do not complete their daily activities as a result of employee cyberloafing. Using the social norms theory as the main theoretical framework, the current study aims to assess the effects of prescriptive social norms on employee cyberloafing with the moderating effects of power distance and co-worker interdependency.

The data sample included 237 employees from six large organisations in the service sector. This study used a survey to collect data at different times and analysed the data using hierarchal regression and Hayes Process Macro.

Findings revealed that there exists a positive and significant impact of supervisors' approval of cyberloafing on employees' cyberloafing. Co-workers' approval of cyberloafing does not have any impact on employee cyberloafing. Power distance was found to moderate the relationship between supervisors' approval of cyberloafing and employees' cyberloafing. However, co-workers' interdependency did not moderate the relationship between co-workers' approval of cyberloafing and employees' cyberloafing.

This research examines employees' cyberloafing behaviours and highlights the adverse consequences of prescriptive social norms in a work environment characterised by co-workers' interdependence and power distance.