Abstract
This research examines the perceptions of ‘Millennials’ on cyberloafing, as a form of workplace deviance, and uncovers their rationale for cyberloafing to better understand, how organisations can mitigate this issue. Employing a qualitative research methodology, a total of 90 semi-structured interviews were conducted with postgraduate students, where 65% of the participants were international and 34% were local from Australia and all had work experience. The gender was evenly distributed, and their average age was 23 years. Results suggested that Millennials viewed cyberloafing to be a relatively inconsequential form of workplace deviance and a social and cultural norm among their cohort. Cyberloafing was seen as a tool to work faster and to enhance their productivity in the long-term. Other themes that emerged included, cyberloafing as an escape from boredom/idletime, and a stress reliever. Many respondents justified their behaviour and explained that cyberloafing has developed as an ingrained habit and is a brilliant necessity in today’s competitive world and is good for business. Our findings suggest that organisations will need to develop policies in collaboration with Millennials to reach a middle ground between deterrence and laissez-faire policies to curb this menace that is costing organisations millions of dollars in productivity.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 2860-2877 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | Behaviour and Information Technology |
Volume | 41 |
Issue number | 13 |
Early online date | 24 Jul 2021 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 3 Oct 2022 |
Keywords
- Workplace deviance
- cultural norm
- cyberloafing
- millennials
- organisational policy
- productivity