Journal

The Journal of Business Ethics

The Journal of Business Ethics publishes only original articles from a wide variety of methodological and disciplinary perspectives concerning ethical issues related to business that bring something new or unique to the discourse in their field.  From its inception the Journal has aimed to improve the human condition by providing a public forum for discussion and debate about ethical issues related to business. In order to promote a dialogue between the various interested groups as much as possible, papers are presented in a style relatively free of specialist jargon.

Article

She, Z., Li, Q. When Too Little or Too Much Hurts: Evidence for a Curvilinear Relationship Between Cyberloafing and Task Performance in Public Organizations. J Bus Ethics 183, 1141–1158 (2023). 

Author

Zhuolin She, Assistant Professor, School of Public Administration and Policy, RUC

Abstract

Cyberloafing, a new type of deviant workplace behavior, has become widespread across organizations. Although there has been an increasing amount of research on cyberloafing, it is unclear whether its influence on employee task performance is linearly positive or negative. To reconcile such an inconsistency, we developed and tested a model, grounded in the effort-recovery model, considering a potential curvilinear relationship between cyberloafing and task performance while also examining the mediating role of relaxation. We further reasoned that this indirect curvilinear effect is contingent on employees’ time management skill. To test our theoretical model, we conducted two studies. In Study 1, multi-time data collected from 243 Master of Public Administration (MPA) students showed that cyberloafing had an inverted U-shaped (curvilinear) relationship with task performance, and relaxation mediated this relationship. In Study 2, using a sample of 392 public sector employees, we replicated the results of Study 1 and found that time management skill moderated the curvilinear effect of relaxation on task performance, as well as the indirect curvilinear effect of cyberloafing on task performance via relaxation. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are further discussed.

Key Words

Cyberloafing、Relaxation、Task performance、Time management skill

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