Employee Self-Development or Cyberloafing? The Effects of Occupational Future Time Perspective on Employee’s Behaviors

Yaying Li

doi:10.4236/jhrss.2021.91003

Abstract

Based on the socioemotional selectivity theory, this research discusses the relationship between occupational future time perspective and employee self-development, occupational future time perspective and cyberloafing, and their mechanisms. The results show that there is a dual effect of occupational future time perspective on employee’s behaviors. High occupational future time perspective can positively predict employee self-development, which can be partly mediated by the eudaimonic motive. Low OFTP negatively predicted cyberloafing, which can also be partly mediated by the hedonic motive. This study not only enriches the research of OFTP, but also provides some management enlightenments for the organization.

Highlights

Today’s society is changing with each passing day
We used confirmatory factor analysis to examine the discriminant validity of occupational future time perspective (OFTP), eudaimonic motive, hedonic motive, employee self-development and cyberloafing
The results show that after controlling for age, gender, education, and tenure, OFTP can effectively predict employees’ disparate goal behavior choices: employees with high OFTP are more inclined to choose self-development behaviors that are conducive to their future career development, while employees with low OFTP are more likely to choose cyberloafing which can provide a pleasurable experience in the present

Summary

Introduction

Take the mobile Internet for example, its rapid updating and iteration promotes the rapid integration of various industries and generates the demand for knowledge crossover Under this background, the continuous learning and development of employees will become the general trend, and many employees adopt employee self-development in order to improve their employability and career adaptability. Some of them may participate in cyberloafing, the act of employees using their companies’ internet access for personal purposes during work hours (Lim & Teo, 2005) These two very different work behaviors affect the personal development of employees, and have a far-reaching impact on the operation and management of enterprises (Spector et al, 2006; Hameed & Waheed, 2011). What factors affect different employees’ choices of work attitude and behavior? Based on socioemotional selectivity theory (SST), we assumed that employees’ perceptions of their future in the employment context, which is called occupational future time perspective (OFTP, Zacher & Frese, 2009), are an important antecedent of employee’s behavior differentiation

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