Millennial’s perception on cyberloafing: workplace deviance or cultural norm?

Meena Chavan, Bella L. Galperin, Alexander Ostle and Abhishek Behl

Behaviour and Information Technology, 2022, vol. 41, issue 13, 2860-2877

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.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2021.1956588

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