Investigating cyberloafing, organisational justice, work engagement and organisational trust of South African retail and manufacturing employees

Abstract

Orientation: Understanding cyberloafing, organisational justice, work engagement and organisational trust will lead organisations to develop strategies to counter the consequences of cyberloafing.Research purpose: This research explored the relationships between cyberloafing, organisational justice, work engagement and organisational trust among South African office workers in the retail and manufacturing industry.Motivation for the study: Cyberloafing, a prevalent way for office employees to engage in non-work-related activities during work time, is considered harmful to organisations. Limited research exists about the relationship between cyberloafing and organisational justice, organisational trust and work engagement within South Africa.Research design, approach and method: A quantitative research design was followed. Questionnaires were administered in the South African retail and manufacturing industry; a convenient sample of N = 224 was obtained. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, structural equation modelling and bootstrapping were used for data analysis.Main findings: Organisational justice was positively related to organisational trust while organisational trust was positively related to work engagement; work engagement related negatively to cyberloafing. Organisational trust mediated the relationship between organisational justice and work engagement while work engagement mediated the relationship between organisational trust and cyberloafing.Practical and managerial implications: Strategies can be developed to enhance and warrant perceptions of organisational justice and fairness that will increase trust levels, leading to higher work engagement and decreased cyberloafing behaviour and resulting in higher productivity.Contribution or value-add: The research revealed that when employees perceive their organisations as being fair, organisational trust will increase, leading to heightened work engagement levels and ultimately reducing cyberloafing behaviour.

The Positive Impact of Organizational Trust: a Systematic Review

“…Employees will work extra and strive for something to work above what is expected, both in time and energy (Schaufeli et al, 2006). Oosthuizen et al (2018) On a study of 2500 workers in manufacturing companies, Ning etal. (2007) showing a positive correlation between organizational trust and task performance.…”

Cyberloafing: Effects on Employee Job Performance and Behavior

“…A study also shows that workplace ostracism has a positive relationship with cyberloafing and emotional exhaustion is a mediating factor (Koay, 2018). Another study indicates that when organizations are fair towards employees, it creates organizational trust and leads to higher employee engagement which consequently reduces cyberloafing behavior among employees (Oosthuizen, Rabie, & Beer, 2018). The researcher reported that employees who like their job would tend to spend less time on irrelevant activities such as internet abuse (Rezayian, 1995).…”

Does Supervisor Communication Styles Reduce Cyber loafing? Important Roles of Work Engagement and Psychological Capital

“…Past studies explored that intrinsic motivation factors, i.e. Effective commitment (Usman et al, 2019), organizational commitment (Oosthuizen et al, 2018), Psychological capital (Agrawal, 2019), and involvement (Liberman et al, 2011) have negative associations with cyberloafing. Similarly, prior studies on supervisor behaviour show its positive effect on job outcomes, employee job satisfaction, work engagement, work performance, and followers' attitudes and behaviours, but up to the researcher's knowledge, the link between supervisor communication styles and cyberloafing is very rare.…”

“…As rightly noted by Koay, 2018and de-Lara andViera-Armas, (2017), that deterring cyberloafing through formal control mechanisms and punishments may increase cyberloafing practices because it's human psychology that individuals involved in those activities which are prohibited by laws or rules, use it as a means of counter-behaviour (Hu and Hsu, 2015). Thus, to effectively deter cyberloafing activities, organizations must focus on employees' intrinsic motivations, a possible tool for deterring cyberloafing activities (Oosthuizen et al, 2018). Regardless the apparent destructive upshots of cyberloafing for an employee as well as organizations and the importance of focusing on employee's intrinsic motivation for discouraging cyberloafing, only a few studies highlight the link between intrinsic motivation related factors and cyberloafing, (e.g.…”

“…Regardless the apparent destructive upshots of cyberloafing for an employee as well as organizations and the importance of focusing on employee's intrinsic motivation for discouraging cyberloafing, only a few studies highlight the link between intrinsic motivation related factors and cyberloafing, (e.g. Usman et al, 2019;Agarwal, 2019;Oosthuizen et al, 2018;Luo et al, 2013;Liberman et al, 2011;Lim, 2002). These studies show that meaningful work (Usman et al, 2019), psychological capital (Agarwal, 2019), organizational commitment (Oosthuizen et al, 2018), self-control (Hu and Hsu, 2019), and perceived organizational justice (Luo et al, 2013;Lim, 2002) negatively affect cyberloafing activities.…”