ABSTRACT
This study focuses on cyberloafing—the act of employees using their companies’Internet access for personal purposes during work hours. Using the theoreticalframework offered by research on neutralization techniques, we develop a model thatsuggests that when individuals perceive their organizations to be distributively, procedurally, and interactionally unjust, they are likely to invoke a specific neutralizationtechnique, i.e., the metaphor of the ledger, to legitimize their subsequent engagement inthe act of cyberloafing. Data were collected with the use of an electronic questionnaireand focus group interviews from 188 working adults with access to the Internet at theworkplace. Results of moderated regression analyses provide empirical support for themoderating role of neutralization technique on the relationship between cyberloafingand the three types of organizational justice (distributive, procedural, and interactional). This indicates that employees tend to neutralize their cyberloafing behavior. The resultshave important implications for organizational Internet policies on cyberloafing.
