Cyberloafing in Organizations by Jolanta Babiak

Cyberloafing in Organizations by Jolanta Babiak

This book examines cyberloafing: employees’ use of Internet-enabled technologies for personal purposes during paid working time. It addresses a familiar but often misunderstood feature of contemporary work: checking messages, browsing news, using social media, shopping online, or engaging in other nonwork digital activity while at work. Rather than treating cyberloafing simply as wasted time or misconduct, the book shows that how it should be interpreted depends on context. It may signal boredom, overload, weak engagement, poor role clarity, lack of recovery, or, in some cases, more serious withdrawal from work. The book combines theoretical synthesis, measurement development, cross-cultural comparison, and empirical studies. It develops a clear conceptual framework, develops and validates a 15-item Cyberloafing-Scale (CBLS-15), and examines cyberloafing across different national contexts, including Poland, Italy, and the United States. It also considers how hybrid work, digital monitoring, and artificial intelligence (AI) are changing the boundaries among work, recovery, distraction, and disengagement. The practical contribution is a more balanced approach to managing personal Internet use at work. The book argues that broad restrictions and close monitoring are often insufficient and may create additional problems. Instead, organizations need better diagnosis, work design, leadership practices, recovery structures, and ethically responsible digital governance.

Jolanta Babiak, PhD, is an assistant professor in psychology and organizational psychology at Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Poland. Her research focuses on leadership, organizational behavior, digital workplace behavior, and individual differences in work settings. She has published on cyberloafing, cyberchondria, leadership styles, personality, and psychometric scale development. Before entering academia, she held managerial roles in commercial real estate and the nonprofit sector, which shaped her applied interest in employee behavior, well-being, and organizational functioning.

Beata Bajcar, PhD, is an associate professor at Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, working in the Faculty of Management, Department of Psychology and Ergonomics. Her research interests include the human–technology interaction, causes and consequences of dysfunctional work and organizational behavior, and cyberdeviance, such as cyberloafing and cyberchondria. She has also researched the psychological aspects of AI, especially AI overload and social influence, as well as their determinants and consequences. In addition, she specializes in the development and validation of standardized questionnaires to measure leadership styles, strategic thinking, professional interests, work values, cyberloafing, cyberchondria, and temporal orientation.