IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v112y2020icp56-64.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The bright and dark sides of social cyberloafing: Effects on employee mental health in China

Author

Listed:
  • Wu, Jinnan
  • Mei, Wenjuan
  • Liu, Lin
  • Ugrin, Joseph C.

Abstract

Cyberloafing, the use of the Internet for non-work related activities, is widespread in the workplace. Although most research on cyberloafing concentrates on negative consequences for employees and organizations, studies have begun exploring its potential positive effects. This study contributes to that discussion by examining the impact of employee social cyberloafing on their mental health. We draw from ego-depletion theory and the effort-recovery model to develop a framework that explains social cyberloafing’s effects on two facets of employee mental health: fatigue and psychological detachment. Data from 375 Chinese employees were analyzed using a structural equation model and bootstrapping procedure. Results show that while social cyberloafing has a positive relationship with psychological detachment, it leads to employee fatigue. Moreover, psychological detachment positively and fatigue negatively mediate the relationship between social cyberloafing and mental health.

Suggested Citation

  • Wu, Jinnan & Mei, Wenjuan & Liu, Lin & Ugrin, Joseph C., 2020. "The bright and dark sides of social cyberloafing: Effects on employee mental health in China," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 56-64.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:112:y:2020:i:c:p:56-64
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.02.043
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296320301491
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.02.043?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tsui, Anne S. & Jia, Liangding, 2013. "Calling for Humanistic Scholarship in China," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, pages 1-16.
    2. repec:cup:maorev:v:9:y:2013:i:01:p:1-15_00 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Anne S. Tsui & Liangding Jia, 2013. "Calling for Humanistic Scholarship in China," Management and Organization Review, The International Association for Chinese Management Research, vol. 9(1), pages 1-15, March.
    4. Anne S. Tsui, 2013. "The Spirit of Science and Socially Responsible Scholarship," Management and Organization Review, The International Association for Chinese Management Research, vol. 9(3), pages 375-394, November.
    5. Tsui, Anne S., 2013. "The Spirit of Science and Socially Responsible Scholarship," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(03), pages 375-394, November.
    6. Cheng, Ken & Wei, Feng & Lin, Yinghui, 2019. "The trickle-down effect of responsible leadership on unethical pro-organizational behavior: The moderating role of leader-follower value congruence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 34-43.
    7. Fujimoto, Yuka & Ferdous, Ahmed Shahriar & Sekiguchi, Tomoki & Sugianto, Ly-Fie, 2016. "The effect of mobile technology usage on work engagement and emotional exhaustion in Japan," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 3315-3323.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Deepika Mishra & Natasha Tageja, 2022. "Cyberslacking for Coping Stress? Exploring the Role of Mindfulness as Personal Resource," International Journal of Global Business and Competitiveness, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 56-67, December.
    2. Tandon, Anushree & Dhir, Amandeep & Islam, Nazrul & Talwar, Shalini & Mäntymäki, Matti, 2021. "Psychological and behavioral outcomes of social media-induced fear of missing out at the workplace," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 186-197.
    3. Mengmeng Song & Joseph Ugrin & Man Li & Jinnan Wu & Shanshan Guo & Wenpei Zhang, 2021. "Do Deterrence Mechanisms Reduce Cyberloafing When It Is an Observed Workplace Norm? A Moderated Mediation Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-16, June.
    4. Zhuolin She & Quan Li, 2023. "When Too Little or Too Much Hurts: Evidence for a Curvilinear Relationship Between Cyberloafing and Task Performance in Public Organizations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 183(4), pages 1141-1158, April.
    5. Herter, Márcia Maurer & Borges, Adilson & Pinto, Diego Costa, 2021. "Which emotions make you healthier? The effects of sadness, embarrassment, and construal level on healthy behaviors," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 147-158.
    6. D.C.P. Jayasuriya & G.D.N. Perera (PhD) & A. Padukkage (PhD), 2023. "Developing a Practical Nomological Framework on Cyber loafing and Job performance for the Global Apparel Manufacturing Sector by Identifying Research Gaps," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(10), pages 1422-1442, October.
    7. Marc Ohana & Ghulam Murtaza & Inam ul Haq & Esraa Al-Shatti & Zhang Chi, 2024. "Why and When can CSR toward Employees Lead to Cyberloafing? The Role of Workplace Boredom and Moral Disengagement," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 189(1), pages 133-148, January.
    8. Wenpei Zhang & Shankuo Xiong & Yelianghui Zheng & Jinnan Wu, 2022. "Response Efficacy and Self-Efficacy Mediated the Relationship between Perceived Threat and Psychic Anxiety among College Students in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-11, February.
    9. Reizer, Abira & Galperin, Bella L. & Chavan, Meena & Behl, Abhishek & Pereira, Vijay, 2022. "Examining the relationship between fear of COVID-19, intolerance for uncertainty, and cyberloafing: A mediational model," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 660-670.
    10. Lin Liu & Qiang Mei & Lixin Jiang & Jinnan Wu & Suxia Liu & Meng Wang, 2021. "Safety-Specific Passive-Avoidant Leadership and Safety Compliance among Chinese Steel Workers: The Moderating Role of Safety Moral Belief and Organizational Size," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-18, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Babita Bhatt & Israr Qureshi & Suhaib Riaz, 2019. "Social Entrepreneurship in Non-munificent Institutional Environments and Implications for Institutional Work: Insights from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 154(3), pages 605-630, February.
    2. Ming-Jer Chen, 2018. "Scholarship-practice “oneness” of an academic career: The entrepreneurial pursuit of an expansive view of management scholarship," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 859-886, December.
    3. Nuno Guimaraes Costa & Gerard Farias & David Wasieleski & Anthony Annett, 2021. "Seven Principles for Seven Generations: Moral Boundaries for Transformational Change," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 313-328, December.
    4. Karin Sanders & Julie A. Cogin & Cai-Hui Veronica Lin, 2017. "Methodological choices of HR research conducted in Asia," Frontiers of Business Research in China, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, December.
    5. Alejandro Agafonow & Marybel Perez, 2024. "When an A Is NOT an A in Academic Research, or How A-Journal List Metrics Inhibit Exploratory Behaviour in Academia," Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, , vol. 36(1), pages 105-121, January.
    6. Ming-Jer Chen, 2018. "The research-teaching “oneness” of competitive dynamics: Toward an ambicultural integration," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 285-311, June.
    7. Tran, Chi Phuong & Pernia, Ronald A. & Nguyen-Thanh, Nhan, 2023. "Mess or match? How do academic perspectives meet the practitioner perspectives in terms of digital transformation?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    8. Tae Wan Kim & Thomas Donaldson, 2018. "Rethinking Right: Moral Epistemology in Management Research," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(1), pages 5-20, March.
    9. Brian K. Boyd, 2018. "Paradigm development in Chinese management research: The role of research methodology," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 805-827, September.
    10. Mike W. Peng & Yuan Li & Longwei Tian, 2016. "Tian-ren-he-yi strategy: An Eastern perspective," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 695-722, September.
    11. Shanshan Zhang & Fengchun Huang & Yuting Zhang & Qiwen Li, 2023. "A Person-Environment Fit Model to Explain Information and Communication Technologies-Enabled After-Hours Work-Related Interruptions in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-16, February.
    12. Hui Lu & Weiting Xu & Shaohan Cai & Fang Yang & Qingqing Chen, 2022. "Does top management team responsible leadership help employees go green? The role of green human resource management and environmental felt‐responsibility," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(4), pages 843-859, July.
    13. Carolin Dietz & Pauline Bauermann & Hannes Zacher, 2022. "Relationships between ICT Use for Task and Social Functions, Work Characteristics, and Employee Task Proficiency and Job Satisfaction: Does Age Matter?," Merits, MDPI, vol. 2(3), pages 1-17, August.
    14. Hong Tian & Danni Suo, 2021. "The Trickle-Down Effect of Responsible Leadership on Employees’ Pro-Environmental Behaviors: Evidence from the Hotel Industry in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-17, November.
    15. Romain Franck & Maud Dampérat, 2023. "Influence of sales support technologies on salesperson performance: A study of interpersonal and intrapersonal mediators [Influence des technologies d’aide à la vente sur les performances du commer," Post-Print halshs-04159504, HAL.
    16. Norhadijah Md Mokhtar & Norhayati Hussin, 2017. "Social Media Communication and their Contingency Impacts on the Sustainability of Organization Performance and Practices," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 7(11), pages 898-907, November.
    17. Chris Haun, 2023. "Closing the First Nations Education Gap in Canada: Assessing Progress and Estimating Economic Benefits - An Update," CSLS Research Reports 2023-01, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    18. Ken Cheng & Qianlin Zhu & Yinghui Lin, 2022. "Family-Supportive Supervisor Behavior, Felt Obligation, and Unethical Pro-family Behavior: The Moderating Role of Positive Reciprocity Beliefs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(2), pages 261-273, May.
    19. Jiefei Yang & Ruohan Wang & Yi Xue, 2021. "Analyst coverage and corporate misconduct," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(2), pages 261-288, June.
    20. Jyoti Choudrie & Sutee Pheeraphuttranghkoon & Soheil Davari, 2020. "The Digital Divide and Older Adult Population Adoption, Use and Diffusion of Mobile Phones: a Quantitative Study," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 673-695, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:112:y:2020:i:c:p:56-64. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.