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research-article2013
JLOXXX10.1177/1548051813488208Journal of Leadership & Organizational StudiesJia et al.

Article
Journal of Leadership &

Cyberloafing and Personality: The Impact

Organizational Studies
20(3) 358365
The Authors 2013
of the Big Five Traits and Workplace Reprints and permissions:
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Situational Factors DOI: 10.1177/1548051813488208

jlo.sagepub.com

Heather Jia1, Ronnie Jia2 and Steven Karau3

Abstract
The current study sought to expand prior research on cyberloafing by considering the impact of personality, as well as some
previously unexplored situational factors. Specifically, we examined the impact of the Big Five personality factors, as well
as the presence of an Internet usage policy and perceived work meaningfulness, on the amount of employee cyberloafing.
Hierarchical regression analyses found that, controlling for gender and age, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and the
presence of an Internet usage policy were all negatively related with cyberloafing whereas extroversion had a significant,
positive relationship with cyberloafing. Implications of these findings for research and managerial practices are discussed.

Keywords
employee behaviors, human resources, organizational behavior, personality

Introduction productivity losses, cyberloafing can pose additional threats

like bandwidth loss, computer viruses, and legal liabilities
Counterproductive work behaviors take many forms (Cullen (Lim, 2002; Nair, 2005).
& Sackett, 2003; Dalal, 2005), among which loafing is a Although there is much discussion on cyberloafing and
pervasive problem that has plagued organizations since its implications in the popular press, there has been limited
their inception (Lim, 2002). Although the Internet can be attention to this phenomenon in the research literature. The
used to improve organizational effectiveness and efficiency, few existing studies have focused primarily on situational
easy access also provides workers with the opportunity to factors at the workplace. For example, it was found that
engage in cyberloafing. Also referred to as cyberslacking when employee perceptions of fairness (i.e., organizational
(Whitty & Carr, 2006), cyberloafing has been defined as justice) are violated, employees are more likely to cyberloaf
any voluntary act of employees using their companies (Teo, Lim, & Lai, 1997), and they rationalize such behavior
Internet access during office hours to surf nonwork-related as a means of reinstating justice into the social exchange
Web sites for nonwork purposes, and access (including relationship (Lim, 2002). Pleasure seeking, boredom, and
receiving and sending) nonwork-related email (Lim, Teo, avoidance of less rewarding tasks have also been suggested
& Loo, 2002, p. 67). as potential situational factors (Hills & Argyle, 2003;
Unlike many traditional forms of workplace loafing, Lavoie & Pychyl, 2001; Stratton, 2010). Workplace norms
cyberloafing enables workers to engage in personal pursuits (Blanchard & Henle, 2008; de Lara, 2006) and technology
via the Internet while seemingly hard at work (Lavoie & characteristics (e.g., perceived usefulness of the Internet;
Pychyl, 2001), as the average American admits to wasting Garrett & Danziger, 2008; Vitak, Crouse, & LaRouse, 2011)
away more than two working hours each day, with personal have also been explored as relevant factors related to
Internet use being the primary distraction (Fox, 2010). It is cyberloafing.
estimated that 90% of employees spend work time surfing
recreational websites and 84% of workers send non-job- 1
Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL, USA
related emails (Sharma & Gupta, 2004). Others reported 2
Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA
that anywhere from 30% to 65% of Internet surfing done 3
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, USA
during a typical work day is not work related (Barlow,
Corresponding Author:
Bean, & Hott, 2003; Conlin, 2000), translating into an esti- Heather Jia, Eastern Illinois University, 600 Lincoln Ave., Lumpkin Hall,
mated annual productivity loss of $54 to 85 billion for U.S. Charleston, IL 61920, USA.
companies (Adschiew, 2000; Lim & Teo, 2006). Other than Email: hhjia@eiu.edu

Downloaded from jlo.sagepub.com at Tumaini Uni-Ingringa University College on November 28, 2015
Jia et al. 359
Other than a few studies examining some disparate indi-
vidual difference factors, such as self-control (Restubog
et al., 2011) and locus of control (Blanchard & Henle,
2008), there has been limited attention in the literature to
the role personality plays in cyberloafing. Cumulative
research has shown that personality traits do play a power-
ful role in explaining a multitude of individual attitudes and
behaviors in the workplace (John & Srivastava, 1999) and
may be a useful tool for this area of research as well. For
example, it has been suggested that Internet misuse can be
predicted by examining individuals preexisting tendencies
(Kraut et al., 2002). Thus, this exploratory study seeks to
fill this gap by examining the relationships between the Big
Five personality traits and cyberloafing. In addition, we
also investigate two situational factors not yet examined in
prior research, that is, work meaningfulness and the pres-
ence of an Internet usage policy.
This study has both research and managerial implica-
tions as it contributes to a deeper understanding of this phe-
nomenon and helps inform organizations in personnel
selection and in devising mitigation strategies.
Big Five Personality Traits and
Cyberloafing
Personality traits are individual attributes that consistently
distinguish people from one another in terms of their basic
tendencies to think, feel, and act in certain ways (Ones,
Viswesvaran, & Dilchert, 2005, p. 390). Among the existing
personality frameworks, the Big Five model has emerged as
the most agreed upon framework in the literature (e.g.,
Costa & McCrae, 1992a, 1992b; Judge, Heller, & Mount,
2002; Zweig & Webster, 2004). The five factors theoreti-
cally capture the essence of ones personality (Digman,
1990) and play a powerful role in explaining a multitude of
individual attitudes and behaviors in the organizational set-
ting, such as performance motivation, job attitudes, leader-
ship behavior (Judge & Bono, 2000), and job performance
(Barrick & Mount, 1991). More relevant to this study, the
Big Five have been found to predict the amount of individ-
ual Internet use by college students (Landers & Lounsbury,
2006; McElroy, Hendrickson, Townsend, & DeMarie,
2007).
Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness describes an individuals socially pre-
scribed impulse control that facilitates task and goal oriented
behavior, such as following norms and rules, delaying grati-
fication, organizing, and planning (John & Srivastava, 1999).
Conscientious individuals have been found to be less likely
to engage in criminal activities (Weibe, 2004), as well as in
antisocial or counterproductive work behaviors such as
absenteeism, theft, and rule breaking (Salgado, 2002; Shiner,
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Masten, & Tellegen, 2002). Therefore, individuals high in
Conscientiousness, given their tendency to be reliable, disci-
plined, and predictable, are more likely to remain on task and
are less likely to venture off into non-work-related activities,
such as cyberloafing.
Hypothesis 1: Conscientiousness is negatively associ-
ated with cyberloafing.
Emotional Stability
Emotional stability embodies even-temperedness in con-
trast with negative emotionality that includes feelings such
as sadness, anxiousness, insecurity, anger, and nervousness
(John & Srivastava, 1999). Emotional stability is also
known by its negative pole of neuroticism, which identifies
an individuals tendency to be erratic, impulsive, and
depressive (Judge & Ilies, 2002). Individuals high in emo-
tional stability are more likely to exhibit higher job satisfac-
tion and job performance (Judge, Higgins, Thoresen, &
Barrick, 1999) and to engage less in deviant workplace
behaviors. Therefore, we reasoned that, relative to neurot-
ics, emotionally stable individuals should be less likely to
experience distracting cognitions, non-work-related
thoughts, or avoidance of unfavorable situations.
Hypothesis 2: Emotional stability is negatively associ-
ated with cyberloafing.
Agreeableness
The personality trait of agreeableness contrasts a prosocial
and communal orientation toward others with relationships
of a more antagonistic nature (John & Srivastava, 1999).
Individuals who are high in agreeableness are characterized
as courteous, generous, warm, trusting, good-natured, and
flexible (Colbert, Mount, Harter, Witt, & Barrick, 2004;
Goldberg, 1990). In the context of cyberloafing, these ten-
dencies should lead employees to perform according to job
expectations and to avoid rule breaking (Salgado, 2002).
Thus, we posited that agreeable individuals should be more
likely to perform assigned tasks and to engage in less
cyberloafing.
Hypothesis 3: Agreeableness is negatively associated
with cyberloafing.
Extroversion
The personality trait of extroversion conveys an energetic
approach to the social and material world, including traits
such as sociability, assertiveness, and enthusiasm (John &
Srivastava, 1999). The implications of extroversion for
360 Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies 20(3)
cyberloafing are less straightforward than for conscien-
tiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability. The gre-
gariousness and social orientation (Goldberg, 1990) of
extroverts could lead them to seek social interactions with
others and to be more distracted by Internet usage. Also,
those who are more socially oriented may receive increased
social benefit from the Internet and are more likely to use
the Internet to reinforce social ties (Kraut et al., 2002).
Therefore, we hypothesized that extroversion would be
positively associated with cyberloafing.
Hypothesis 4: Extroversion is positively associated with
cyberloafing.
Openness to Experience
Openness to experience describes the breadth, depth, origi-
nality, and complexity of an individuals mental and experi-
ential life (John & Srivastava, 1999). Prior research
examining the relationship between openness and job per-
formance has concluded that context specificity is likely to
determine the relationship (e.g., Barrick, Parks, & Mount,
2005; Judge & Ilies, 2002; Small & Diefendorff, 2006; Tett,
Jackson, & Rothstein, 1991). For example, openness posi-
tively contributes to job performance in situations such as
during transitional job stages, training, and creative tasks
(e.g., George & Zhou, 2001; Hurtz & Donovan, 2000;
Thoresen, Bradley, Bliese, & Thoresen, 2004). However,
these situations are not typical of the everyday work envi-
ronment, which is more relevant to this study. Whereas indi-
viduals high in openness might be less likely to cyberloaf in
times of transition and training, these situations are not typi-
cally a part of their day-to-day jobs. Therefore, we conjec-
tured that those individuals high in openness are likely to
engage in cyberloafing during times of standard work days.
Hypothesis 5: Openness to experience is positively asso-
ciated with cyberloafing.
Situational Factors and Cyberloafing
Work Meaningfulness
The job characteristics model (Hackman & Lawler, 1971;
Hackman & Oldham, 1980) addresses the core job charac-
teristics that influence three key psychological states at the
workplace (i.e., work meaningfulness, responsibility for
outcomes, and knowledge of the results), which have been
identified as factors contributing to work motivation, job
performance, and job satisfaction (Hackman & Oldham,
1976).
Of these three states, work meaningfulness is particu-
larly relevant to the study of cyberloafing. To the extent that
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an employee identifies with the task, views the task as sig-
nificant and impactful, and has the opportunity to use ones
skill set on the job, the employee is less likely to spend sig-
nificant amount of time loafing on the Internet.
Hypothesis 6: Work meaningfulness is negatively associ-
ated with cyberloafing.
Internet Usage Policy
The presence of an Internet usage policy should mitigate
cyberloafing. According to General Deterrence Theory,
individuals make rational decisions regarding the antici-
pated gratification derived from taking advantage of oppor-
tunities versus the perceived likelihood and severity of
consequences (Smith & Garton, 1989). Although this the-
ory has been historically used to determine the impact of
laws on crime, it has more recently been applied to work-
place contexts, including cyberloafing (Lee, Lim, & Wong,
2005). General Deterrence Theory suggests that the aware-
ness of consequences for misbehavior may sufficiently
deter a punishable behavior. Additionally, evidence sug-
gests that observed reprimands of others serve to mitigate
user intentions to cyberloaf (Woon & Pee, 2004).
Hypothesis 7: The presence of an Internet usage policy is
negatively associated with cyberloafing.
Method
Participants and Procedures
The hypothesized relationships were examined using an
online survey of working adults. The survey used
StudyResponse, an online research facilitator at Syracuse
University, from which a number of prior studies have also
collected data (e.g., Piccolo & Colquitt, 2006). Invitations
to participate were emailed to 1,000 working adults ran-
domly selected from the participant pool. Though an online
survey may be subject to self-selection bias, it afforded us
access to a diverse set of working adults and was also less
likely to be subject to social desirability bias than an
employer-sanctioned survey, given that it concerns counter-
productive work behavior.
Usable responses were received from 147 working
adults, including 66 males (45%) and 81 females (55%)
who completed the survey anonymously. All respondents
used the Internet as part of their job. The average respon-
dent was 37 years old (range 18-68), with 11 years of job
experience and 5 years with the present employer, working
full time. The average respondent possessed 11 years of
computer usage experience and 8 years of Internet usage
experience.
Jia et al. 361

Table 1. Descriptive Statistics, Scale Reliability, and Correlation Matrix.

Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1.Cyberloafing 2.84 1.13 .93 1.00
2.Extroversion 4.13 1.12 .87 .09 1.00
3.Agreeableness 5.34 0.96 .85 .20** .39** 1.00
4.Conscientiousness 4.99 0.90 .79 .25** .28** .44** 1.00
5. Emotional Stability 4.43 1.09 .88 .16* .37** .27** .38** 1.00
6.Openness 5.08 0.90 .84 .00 .47** .52** .47** .30** 1.00
7. Work Meaningfulness 5.11 1.48 .94 .24** .29** .41** .33** .31** .36** 1.00

**Correlation is significant at the .01 level (1-tailed). *Correlation is significant at the .05 level (1-tailed).

Nonresponse bias was tested with demographic data
from StudyResponse. The respondent group was not signifi-
cantly different from the nonrespondent group in terms of
gender, age, employment type (full time vs. part time), and
so on. However, more respondents (52.9%) received a bac-
calaureate or higher degree than nonrespondents (42.2%).
Measures
Cyberloafing.To measure cyberloafing, we used a previ-
ously validated scale from Lim and Teo (2005), who
reported an alpha of .85. Three items were added to take
into account emerging technologies (i.e., visiting online
discussion boards, visiting social networking sites, and vis-
iting video sharing sites). The coefficient alpha for the
revised scale was .93 in the current study. Respondents
were asked to indicate on a scale of 1 (Never) to 7 (Con-
stantly), During office hours, how often do you do the fol-
lowing [non-work-related Internet activities] for personal
reasons?
Big Five. The Big Five personality traits were assessed with
the 50-item version of the International Personality Item
Pool (Goldberg et al., 2006), which uses 7-point Likert-type
items ranging from 1 (Very inaccurate) to 7 (Very accurate).
The International Personality Item Pool is a public domain
personality inventory that has been widely used in prior
research with good evidence for internal consistency (e.g.,
alphas ranging between .72 and .82 in Lim & Ployhart,
2004, and between .84 and .91 in Shaffer, Harrison, Gre-
gersen, Black, & Ferzandi, 2006). Ten items assessed each
dimension: conscientiousness (e.g., pay attention to
details), emotional stability (e.g., change my mood a
lot), agreeableness (e.g., make people feel at ease),
openness (e.g., have a vivid imagination), and extrover-
sion (e.g., am the life of the party).
Situational Factors.Work meaningfulness was measured
with four items using 7-point Likert-type scales that asked
respondents to report the extent to which they agreed that
their work was interesting, meaningful, enjoyable, and
important. These items were then averaged to produce a
score for work meaningfulness. The respondents were also
asked whether their organization had a policy regarding
appropriate Internet usage.
Table 1 provides sample descriptive statistics, coeffi-
cient alphas, and intercorrelations. As shown in the table,
scale internal consistencies ranged from good to excellent
for the current sample.
Results
Hierarchical regression was used to analyze the data. The
major advantage of this technique is that the incremental
explanatory power of the predictor variables can be tested
as they are entered sequentially into the regression model
(Hair, Black, Babin, Anderson, & Tatham, 2006).
To rule out the potential threat of multicollinearity,
variance inflation factor (VIF) values were examined in
all subsequent hierarchical regression models. With the
largest VIF value for independent variables in all regres-
sion equations at 1.86, which is well within the threshold
of 10 (Hair et al., 2006), multicollinearity is not likely an
issue.
As shown in Table 2 (Step 1), employee age and gender
were significantly related to cyberloafing. Specifically,
younger, male workers were more likely to loaf on the
Internet than older, female employees.
The inclusion of the Big Five traits into the model (Step
2) explained significant incremental variance in cyberloaf-
ing. After controlling for gender and age, the Big Five traits
of extroversion (t = 2.08, p = .04), conscientiousness (t =
2.14, p = .03), and emotional stability (t = 1.95, p = .05)
were all significantly related to cyberloafing in the pre-
dicted directions (Table 2, Step 2), thus providing support
for Hypotheses 1, 2, and 4. The relationship between open-
ness and cyberloafing approached significance (t = 1.69,
p = .09), providing tentative support for Hypothesis 5.
Agreeableness was not significant (t = .69, p = .49); thus,
Hypothesis 3 was not supported.

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362 Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies 20(3)

Table 2. Cyberloafing Hierarchical Regression Results.

Variables added t Sig. R2 Total R2 F change Sig. F change

Step 1
Gender .38 5.22 .00
Age .27 3.68 .00 .23 .23 21.93 .00
Step 2
Step 1 +
Extroversion .18 2.08 .04
Agreeableness .07 .69 .49
Conscientiousness .19 2.14 .03
Emotional Stability .16 1.95 .05
Openness .16 1.69 .09 .08 .31 3.26 .01
Step 3
Step 2 +
Work Meaningfulness .15 1.90 .06
Internet Usage Policy .17 2.35 .02 .05 .36 5.18 .01

Note. All variance inflation factor (VIF) values < 1.86.

In Step 3 of the hierarchical regression analysis, situa-
tional factors (i.e., work meaningfulness and Internet usage
policy) were entered and were also found to explain signifi-
cant incremental variance in cyberloafing. Specifically,
after controlling for gender, age, and the Big Five, the pres-
ence of an Internet policy (t = 2.35, p = .02) was signifi-
cantly related to cyberloafing, while work meaningfulness
(t = 1.90, p = .06) approached significance. Therefore,
Hypothesis 6 was supported, and Hypothesis 7 received
tentative support.
Discussion and Conclusions
This study sought to expand prior cyberloafing research by
examining the impact of Big Five personality traits as well
as two previously unexplored workplace situational factors,
including the presence of an Internet usage policy and per-
ceived work meaningfulness. Our demographic results
showed that young, male workers were more likely to loaf
on the Internet at work, which is in keeping with prior stud-
ies (e.g., Garrett & Danziger, 2008; Vitak et al., 2011). After
controlling for gender and age, extroversion was found to
be positively related to cyberloafing, whereas conscien-
tiousness, emotional stability, and openness were all nega-
tively related. However, agreeableness was found to be
nonsignificant. Regarding the two situational factors, both
the presence of an Internet usage policy and perceived work
meaningfulness were shown to be associated with decreased
cyberloafing.
After testing the above-mentioned hypothesized rela-
tionships, we also performed post hoc analyses to examine
the possibility of interaction effects between personality
and situational variables, such as whether agreeable or
conscientious individuals would engage in less cyberloaf-
ing in the presence of an Internet usage policy. No signifi-
cant interaction effects were found.
Contributions
This study has taken an important step toward a deeper
understanding of the phenomenon of cyberloafing, defined
as employees non-work-related Internet use during work
time. Complementing the emphasis on situational factors in
the existing literature, this study introduces the investiga-
tion of individual differences, particularly the Big Five per-
sonality factors, to our understanding of cyberloafing. After
controlling for gender and age, the Big Five traits in aggre-
gate explained significant variance in cyberloafing, thus
demonstrating the efficacy of the trait approach in this area
of research. Among the five traits, extroversion was posi-
tively associated with cyberloafing, whereas conscientious-
ness, emotional stability, and openness were all negatively
related. The finding that Internet usage policy and work
meaningfulness were both associated with decreased cyber-
loafing also adds to the existing literature on situational
factors.
This study also has implications for managerial practice
as it provides managers with strategies to proactively man-
age cyberloafing. Many organizations already conduct per-
sonality assessments for potential new hires to optimize
selection and enhance job satisfaction, productivity, hon-
esty, and other characteristics. This study serves to provide
another dimension whereby personality assessments may
prove useful. Understanding the relationships between per-
sonality and cyberloafing can provide managers with addi-
tional information on which to base their hiring decisions,

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Jia et al. 363
especially when the positions involve unsupervised work
(e.g., working from home).
The provision of meaningful work and the presence of a
formal Internet usage policy can serve as deterrents to
cyberloafing. Although enhancing work meaningfulness
may require job enrichment programs tailored to each
employee or position, the adoption of a corporate Internet
usage policy is perhaps less onerous and easy to deploy.
Organizations without such policies should consider adopt-
ing them, and those with policies in place should ensure that
all employees understand them. Organizations must deter-
mine what levels and types of cyberloafing, if any, can be
tolerated and educate employees accordingly. Such policies
can be used in combination with blocking access to certain
websites (e.g., Yahoo mail) and applications (e.g., Instant
Messenger) to remove such distractions.
Limitations
It is important to note that the above-mentioned findings
should be interpreted with some caution. Though the sam-
ple size is statistically sufficient for the analyses employed,
it is admittedly moderate. Future studies should consider
using a larger sample size to improve generalizability.
Although many advantages exist with using an online sur-
vey, such as a large and diverse participant pool, it is pos-
sible that participants may differ somewhat from the broader
population of all Internet users. Also, the use of an online
survey may contribute to selection bias, as computer and
Internet literate individuals are more likely to respond.
Furthermore, those who are more prone to cyberloaf may
exhibit an increased likelihood to self-select themselves
into participating. However, as discussed earlier, one advan-
tage of an online survey was the lower likelihood of social
desirability bias, as opposed to an employer-sanctioned sur-
vey, given that the topic concerns counterproductive work
behavior. As with many other survey studies, additional
limitations of our results may be self-report and common
method biases. Future research might seek to assess Internet
usage at work directly to overcome these limitations.
Directions for Future Research
Given the relative newness of the cyberloafing phenome-
non, future research opportunities are numerous. In addition
to replicating this research in different settings, future work
could employ more comprehensive measures of the Big
Five to determine which specific facets of these broad traits
affect cyberloafing. Also, though no significant interaction
was found between the trait and situational factors in our
post hoc analyses, future investigations should further
examine these relationships.
In this present study, we measured the presence or
absence of an Internet usage policy. Future studies could
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use a more comprehensive measure to also capture the
degree of employee awareness of the policy and the severity
of sanctions imposed.
Future research could also broaden the scope and explore
other forms of computer-related loafing that do not involve
the Internet (e.g., playing solitaire). Another interesting
approach would be to investigate the relationships between
cyberloafing and other forms of loafing at work and see
whether a reduction in cyberloafing would lead to a com-
pensatory increase in other forms of loafing.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect
to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, author-
ship, and/or publication of this article.
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Author Biographies
Heather Jia is an Assistant Professor of Management in the
Lumpkin School of Business and Applied Sciences at Eastern
Illinois University. Her research centers on technology usage in
organizations, leadership and entrepreneurship.
Ronnie Jia is an Assistant Professor of Information Systems at
Illinois State University. His research interests include IT ser-
vice management, business-IT relationships, psychological
dependency on technology, and nonwork related technology
use.
Steven J. Karau is the Gregory A. Lee Professor of Management
at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. His research
focuses on organizational behavior issues such as motivation
within groups, team performance, leadership, personality, and
ethics.