Which leaders lead employees to cyberslack?

Abstract

A new measure of cyberslacking was created. The mediational effects of organizational commitment on the relationship between transformational, passive, and abusive leadership styles and cyberslacking were proposed and explained using the social exchange theory. In a two-wave longitudinal study, Data was collected from 399 participants. Time 1 data was divided into sample A (n=199, exploratory factor analysis) and sample B (n=200, confirmatory factor analysis). Using time 2 data (N=253) a second CFA was conducted and tested a structural equation model examining the mediational effects of organizational commitment on the relationship between leadership styles (transformational and passive) and cyberslacking over time. The cyberslacking measure was found to be reliable and to have good fit. It appears to be a strong alternative for researchers who are interested in looking at cyberslacking in the workplace who are interested in collecting data on a wide array of cyberslacking behaviors. Convergent validity was found for the new online sexual behaviors and gaming factors of the measure. Self esteem and external locus of control were found to have different relationships with the factors of cyberslacking. The mediational effects of organizational commitment on the relationship between leadership styles and cyberslacking were found to be non-significant. Transformational leadership was found to have a significant positive relationship with affective organizational commitment, and abusive leadership was found to have a significant positive relationship with cyberslacking. This suggests further research should be conducted to gain a better understanding into the underlying mechanisms of cyberslacking.