“I am What I ought to Be”: Women Cyberslacking in Ethiopian Public University

Abstract

Today, the Gen ‘Y’ (born during 1981-1995) is the world’s largest workforce; and they are employed at digitized workplaces. Cyberslacking (personal use of the internet at the workplace) is the new normal for the recently emerged Ethiopian digital workplace and workforce. Globally, enough cyberslacking studies have been conducted on the losses and the gains; however, no study has been done in the Ethiopian context. This investigation explores how far cyberslacking is beneficial for both the organization (university) and its employees (secretaries) in the Ethiopian setting. The research questions were: what attitudes do the female secretaries have towards cyberslacking? What opportunities do the female secretaries gain through cyberslacking? How far does cyberslacking change the lives of female secretaries? Furthermore, do the female secretaries have an addiction to cyberslacking? To this end, mixed-method design (n=45): questionnaire (n=29) and retrospective interview (n=16) were employed. The triangulation analysis concludes four positive dimensions of women cyberslacking in an Ethiopian university setting: the rationales of cyberslacking (advanced communication, free time, energizer, and legitimization); the opportunities of cyberslacking (gathering information, receiving entertainment, contacting family and friends, and getting day today news updates); the changes attributed to cyberslacking (improvement in English communication skill, knowledge base enhancement, job innovation, and creativity, and modernity); and the low addiction level to cyberslacking (‘prone to be addicted’). Finally, the implications for future practice, policy, and research are explored.