Reconsidering the boundaries of the cyberloafing activity: the case of a university

Abstract

While many scholars generally conceptualise cyberloafing as just one more type of conventional deviant behaviour at work, others consider this activity to be innocuous or even productive. In either case, cyberloafing is viewed as merely misusing Internet resources, without contemplating its potential online character. The purpose of this study is to address these aspects of the cyberloafing ontology. It suggests that under certain conditions cyberloafing (a) could become a virtual activity, (b) is distinct from conventional forms of deviance and (c) that it may impair the organisation's effectiveness. Cyberloafing by instructors in degree courses was examined in a university with a specific culture of teaching and using e-resources. The argument developed here is that cyberloafing among instructors acts as a contextual activity that obstructs the technological core of this university over the Internet. This fact would lead cyberloafing to be (a) perceived by students ‘on the other side of the Net’, (b) significantly differentiated by teachers as a behaviour distinct from conventional deviance and (c) counter-productive since it would harm the teaching-learning process. Results of confirmatory factor analysis indicated that cyberloafing and conventional deviance measures are separate. Unlike conventional deviance, individual cyberloafing was found to be negatively associated with student satisfaction with the teaching service, as rated in each degree course. Since this negative impact mainly occurred in a virtual environment, the results also suggest that cyberloafing can become online behaviour that impairs the organisation's effectiveness over the Internet. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are finally discussed.