The role of prescriptive social norms on employees' cyberloafing: the moderating effect of power distance and co-workers' interdependency

Purpose When pluralistic ignorance about cyberloafing is increased, individuals engage more in cyberloafing. Cyberloafing has become a great challenge in business organisations, and it is believed that many organisations do not complete their daily activities as a result of employee cyberloafing. Using the social norms theory as the main theoretical framework, the current study aims to assess the effects of prescriptive social norms on employee cyberloafing with the moderating effects of power distance and co-worker interdependency. Design/methodology/approach The data sample included 237 employees from six large organisations in the service sector. This study used a survey to collect data at different times and analysed the data using hierarchal regression and Hayes Process Macro. Findings Findings revealed that there exists a positive and significant impact of supervisors' approval of cyberloafing on employees' cyberloafing. Co-workers' approval of cyberloafing does not have any impact on employee cyberloafing. Power distance was found to moderate the relationship between supervisors' approval of cyberloafing and employees' cyberloafing. However, co-workers' interdependency did not moderate the relationship between co-workers' approval of cyberloafing and employees' cyberloafing. Originality/value This research examines employees' cyberloafing behaviours and highlights the adverse consequences of prescriptive social norms in a work environment characterised by co-workers' interdependence and power distance.