ABSTRACT

This research examines the perceptions of ‘Millennials’ on cyberloafing, as a form of workplace deviance, and uncovers their rationale for cyberloafing to better understand, how organisations can mitigate this issue. Employing a qualitative research methodology, a total of 90 semi-structured interviews were conducted with postgraduate students, where 65% of the participants were international and 34% were local from Australia and all had work experience. The gender was evenly distributed, and their average age was 23 years. Results suggested that Millennials viewed cyberloafing to be a relatively inconsequential form of workplace deviance and a social and cultural norm among their cohort. Cyberloafing was seen as a tool to work faster and to enhance their productivity in the long-term. Other themes that emerged included, cyberloafing as an escape from boredom/idletime, and a stress reliever. Many respondents justified their behaviour and explained that cyberloafing has developed as an ingrained habit and is a brilliant necessity in today’s competitive world and is good for business. Our findings suggest that organisations will need to develop policies in collaboration with Millennials to reach a middle ground between deterrence and laissez-faire policies to curb this menace that is costing organisations millions of dollars in productivity.

摘要

这项研究调查了“千禧一代”对网络游荡的看法，将其视为工作场所的一种偏差，并揭示了他们进行网络游荡的基本原理，以更好地理解组织如何缓解这一问题。采用定性研究方法，对研究生进行了总共 90 次半结构式访谈，其中 65% 的参与者是国际参与者，34% 是澳大利亚本地参与者，并且都有工作经验。性别分布均匀，平均年龄为23岁。结果表明，千禧一代认为网络游荡是一种相对无关紧要的工作场所偏差形式，也是他们同龄人中的一种社会和文化规范。网络游荡被视为一种提高工作效率和提高长期生产力的工具。出现的其他主题包括，网络游荡是一种逃离无聊/空闲时间的方式，也是一种缓解压力的方式。许多受访者为他们的行为辩护，并解释说网络游荡已成为一种根深蒂固的习惯，在当今竞争激烈的世界中是必不可少的，对企业有利。我们的研究结果表明，组织需要与千禧一代合作制定政策，以在威慑政策和自由放任政策之间取得中间立场，以遏制这种正在使组织损失数百万美元生产力的威胁。