Singapore study supports workplace ‘cyberloafing’
Guidelines
Read the attached article, entitled “Singapore study supports workplace ‘cyberloafing’” that describes the phenomenon of cyberloafing and the result of a study on the topic.
Produce a report that addresses the Questions for Report. Print your report on size A4 paper and include a cover page with the title of your report, the names of each of your group members, and your student ID numbers.
Prepare a 15-minute presentation that focuses on the following Instructions for Presentation.
Due date: Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Questions for Report
- Describe how an understanding of social loafing explains the concept of cyberloafing.
- Explain cyberloafing as a form of deviant workplace behaviour.
- Using the concept of conformity in group behaviour, explain how cyberloafing can become a growing problem if ignored by management.
- Can cyberloafing be a good thing? How can management use cyberloafing as a motivator?
- Does cyberloafing happen at Huang Huai University? How does the university administration manage cyberloafing on campus? Is this strategy effective?
Instructions for Presentation
- Provide a brief (1 minute) description of the article for the class.
- Design a short lecture that describes your views on cyberloafing. Discuss the responses your group prepared to the Questions for Report.
- Ensure that each member of your group contributes to the presentation in class.
Article
Singapore study supports workplace ‘cyberloafing’
Source: MIS Asia, September 15, 2008 (Zafar Anjum)
Employees feel that ‘cyberloafing’ - the non-work related use of their workplace computer - is acceptable and helps them work better.
This is according to a study by Associate Professor Vivien K.G. Lim (picture, left) and Don J.Q. Chen (picture, below) of the NUS Business School at the National University of Singapore. A total of 191 completed surveys were collected, yielding a response rate of 32 per cent. Men made up 34 per cent of the respondents.
The study ‘Cyberloafing at the workplace: Gain or drain on work?’ found that, on the average, employees in Singapore spend about 51 minutes per workday on cyberloafing. This compares to the 10 hours per employee a week, found by earlier studies, for example the US WebSense.com study.
Personal emailing, instant messaging and visiting news websites were the commonly cited cyberloafing activities, noted the NUS researchers.
In general, respondents to the survey felt that some form of cyberloafing at work was acceptable. They also perceived cyberloafing to have a positive impact on work.
“Interestingly, findings suggested that browsing activities have a positive impact on employees’ work engagement while emailing activities have a negative impact,” the authors noted.
Attitudes to cyberloafing – the gender divide
The survey findings showed that men were more likely to cyberloaf than women.
“Men and women also differed significantly in the amount of time they spent on cyberloafing at the workplace,” the authors said. “Men reported spending slightly more than an hour (61 minutes) a day on cyberloafing at work, while women reported that they spent about 46 minutes.”
But there was more agreement between the members of the two genders in terms of the acceptability of cyberloafing. When asked to indicate whether they felt that it was appropriate for them to use their workplace Internet access for personal purposes during working hours, about 97 per cent of men and 85 per cent of women reported that it was acceptable for employees to cyberloaf at the workplace.
How much cyberloafing is acceptable?
One of the questions in the survey was how much cyberloafing at the workplace was acceptable. Respondents felt that cyberloafing at work was permissible insofar as it did not exceed 1 hour and 15 minutes per day.
According to the survey results, about 75 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement that ‘cyberloafing helps make work more interesting’, and 57 per cent reported that engaging in cyberloafing help them deal with practical issues and personal issues. In addition, 52 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement that ‘cyberloafing makes them a better and more interesting worker’ and 49 per cent indicated that cyberloafing helps them deal with problems they encounter at work.