Does Cyberloafing Really Harm Employees’ Work Performance?: An Overview

Abstract

Cyberloafing is commonly perceived to have a negative impact on work performance. However, some research suggest that cyberloafing can improve work performance through sparkling creativity and mental replenishment. Given this unclear impact, the objective of this paper is, therefore, to address the gap in the current literature by conducting a systematic literature review. To obtain all the relevant papers, several keywords were searched through the Scopus database. After downloading and scanning through 138 papers, 12 papers were retained for further analysis. Overall, the impact of cyberloafing on work performance is inconclusive with mixed findings. That is, various studies found that cyberloafing can have a positive, negative or no significant impact on work performance. The findings revealed that the dimensionality of cyberloafing plays a role in determining its impact on work performance. In addition, the inconsistency in conceptual constructs used in various studies to represent work performance increases the complexity in accurately diagnosing the actual impact of cyberloafing on work performance. This paper contributes to the literature in several ways. Firstly, an overview of academic literature studying the impact of cyberloafing on work performance is presented. Secondly, this paper provides several managerial implications for managers to manage the prevalence of cyberloafing.