Longitudinal relationships between cyberslacking and time constraints at work

Description

Purpose: The present study investigated the relationship between time constraints and personal computer use at work (“cyberslacking”). Design/Methodology: An online questionnaire was presented to 213 respondents who reported demographic, work-related and motivational characteristics across two waves of data collection (5-month lag). Results: We found that insufficient breaks and working late positively predicted cyberslacking over time, while time pressure showed a negative relationship with cyberslacking. Furthermore, organizational commitment moderated this relationship: while the positive effect of insufficient breaks and working late was present for all employees, the negative effect of time pressure held only for highly committed employees. Limitations: Conclusions are limited by the nature of self-report measures, the relatively small sample size, and the confinement to two points of data collection. Research/Practical Implications: Our results suggest that employees might create additional opportunities for recuperation through cyberslacking when recovery times at work are limited, with only highly committed employees adapting their cyberslacking strategies in response to higher workloads. Possibilities for more robust replications of this effect and less speculative explorations of possible mechanisms driving it are discussed.

Period	18 May 2017
Event title	Congress of the European Association for Work & Organizational Psychology (EAWOP)
Event type	Conference
Location	IrelandShow on map