An Investigation of the Cyberloafing Mechanism in the Relationship between Workplace Incivility and Employee Expediency: The Moderating Role of Work Family Conflict

Abstract

The COVID-19 has massively increased digitalization in the past two years and replaced human interactions with internet based services. The dire need for internet to perform work duties has opened up opportunities for cyberloafing. The aim of the empirical study is to examine; 1) incivility i.e. a behavioral aspect of knowledge workers leading to cyberloafing, 2) how cyberloafing can have a negative effect on the overall productivity of the organization through employee expediency, 3) analyze the mediating role of cyberloafing between incivility and employee expediency, 4) determine the direct effect of incivility on employee expediency 5) determine the extent to which WFC effects the: a) relationship between cyberloafing and employee expediency b) relationship between the overall mediated model of incivility resulting in employee expediency through cyberloafing. The time lagged study comprised of 300 employees from various schools. The results supported all the hypothesized relationship. The study widens the nomological network of cyberloafing by relating it to employee expediency. The study of expedient behavior itself is the first one in Asian context.