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Abstract

Cyberloafing, defined as using the internet for purposes other than work during working hours, can have a major detrimental effect on organizations. Cyberloafing causes employees to spend time on non-work activities, which lowers their performance and productivity. In addition, when employees engage in non-work-related browsing, they may browse insecure websites or download malware, which can expose organizations to cybersecurity threats. Workers who observe their coworkers engaging in cyberloafing may feel demoralized and believe they are being unfairly burdened. The atmosphere and culture of the workplace may suffer as a result. To better understand the causes of cyberloafing and how to mitigate its impact, we propose a model suggesting that job stress increases cyberloafing, and this relationship is moderated by Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) and Team-Member Exchange (TMX). Stress is defined as a psychophysical reaction to demanding situations, and higher levels of stress could result in rising blood pressure, depression, physical and mental health problems, and other disorders. Stress at work has a detrimental effect on employee’s involvement, productivity, and job performance. Therefore, we argue that high job stress leads to more cyberloafing, as employees may use it as a coping mechanism. Previous research has emphasized that social relationships at work can affect an individual’s immune, cardiovascular, and neurological system, thus reducing job stress. In particular, the quality of relationships between an employee and his or her supervisor and team members is also essential for psychological and emotional empowerment for better job performance. Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) describes how well a leader and their subordinate interact and communicate. The LMX connections are created when there is a similar understanding between supervisors and the employees. It is predicated on the notion that leaders form distinct bonds with every one of their employees, which subsequently affects a range of attitudes and actions. TMX describes how well team members relate to one another in a reciprocal manner at work and how the team-member exchange deals with connections between co-workers. Higher team-member exchange shows better skills and information transfer between co-workers. Each team member's assessment of the caliber of their professional interactions is reflected in TMX. TMX could also lead to be an empowering environment with whom team members could develop good relationships. There have been studies which have assessed the impact of LMX and TMX on turnover intention, where it was found that greater levels of social-exchange relationships with leader and team members led to positive outcomes. LMX relationships may lead to an effect on job performance, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Similarly, TMX could be associated with knowledge sharing, job involvement, organizational commitment. Furthermore, high quality LMX or TMX could reduce counterproductive behavior at the workplace. We thus propose that LMX and TMX moderate the relationship between job stress and cyberloafing.

Paper Number

tpp1365

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