The Impact of Ambivalent Perception of Bureaucratic Structure on Cyberloafing

Cyberloafing, defined as the use of the Internet for personal use at the workplace, is emerging as a serious concern for organizations as it disrupts the attainment of organizational objectives. A systematic literature review, conducted as a part of this research, of antecedents of cyberloafing behaviour show that research exploring the relationship between the perception of organizational structure and cyberloafing is at a nascent stage. Acknowledging the underexplored state of research in this area, we investigated this relationship through a quantitative study using a sample of 201 employees, and the containment theory as the base. Our study results indicate that an ambivalent perception of the bureaucratic structure has a differential impact on the cyberloafing activities through serial mediation of two important attitudes, namely organizational identification and work engagement. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.