CYBERLOAFING: AN INVESTIGATION OF THE BENEFICIAL AND DETRIMENTAL EFFECTS ON EMPLOYEES PRODUCTIVITY

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Everyday life is getting easier to use technology, especially the internet, which is getting faster and easier for everyone to access from anywhere at any time. This makes knowledge and communication more useful. Things will change in technology as long as people want them to. But people in Cameroon use the internet more for many things, from work and business to fun (Sudarso et al., 2020). Also, these days, the internet is one of the most important tools that many companies need to run. People who do business online can find the internet more helpful these days, especially when they need to make a business transaction online. It might be easier to do things like make websites, advertise on multiple social media sites, get digital goods ready to sell, and let websites or e-commerce that are already busy sell things on their own. When you do business online, you can send money, also known as internet money. A lot of people also use electronic tools to gather and send data. Everything is easy to buy and sell now that technology is around (Kwilinski et al., 2019; Sridhar, 2018). A lot of good things are also given to staff by businesses and groups, such as computers and Wi-Fi. When a business is online, on the other hand, every worker needs to know about the newest trend, and some workers need to know about it all the time. Take a look at a few different sites or social media. For a business to do better, it needs to have a website. This can help with more sales, better customer service, and giving people faster access to information (Infante & Mardikaningsih, 2022; Le et al., 2022). However, since so many people and businesses need the internet, there must be someone in charge of how it is used. Gupta et al. (2018) say that when a worker joins a company or group, it decides whether the group moves forward or backward. A lot of things affect the growth of the company, and employee success is one of them. The work an employee does for a company also shows how to do something to help the company reach its goal in line with the agreed-upon business plan. An important part of making sure that employees do their best job in a business or organization is putting them in the right situations to do it (Farooqui & Nagendra, 2018). Having self-control is also one of the most important things that each worker needs to do to make things right. Someone who works should be able to control themselves when they use the internet at work, or they might start cyberloafing. Cyberloafing is a form of leaving. It happens when an employee uses the company's internet for something other than work during work hours, or when they use work time to do personal things on the internet. In the same way, cyberloafing is when employees use the internet for personal reasons at work while getting paid for it. Digital tools for communication have made success possible very quickly and by many people. This is why businesses act in this way. New technologies, especially the Internet and computer technologies, play a big role in how people act in this way. Employees can also lose focus when they browse the web at work, and it takes them time and effort to return to their main job. They may be more likely to make mistakes at work because of this (Ross, 2018). Stokel-Walker (2020), on the other hand, says that people move between work and personal email, social networking, and reading. Six out of ten workers say they can't get through the morning without checking social media. With the Facebook app, it takes the most time to use than any other site. Because of this, having self-control is important because it helps someone handle their feelings and actions in different scenarios. In turn, this makes them responsible and able to get along with others, especially with people they work with.

 Hence, a survey will be conducted in order to investigate the beneficial and detrimental effects of cyberloafing on employees productivity.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

A lot of people in Cameroon and many other countries have become much more comfortable with digital technology and the internet in recent years. These technological advances have many benefits for communication, sharing information, and efficiency, but they also bring up new problems with how employees should behave and how much they should work. Even employees who are supposed to be offering important services can get caught up in cyberloafing. Similarly, anything that affects how efficiently and effectively employees do their jobs can have big effects on the services they provide and how the business is run as a whole. There are also effects of cyberloafing that go beyond individual workers and have an effect on how the business works and what it achieves (Feng, 2018). In the same way, too much cyberloafing can hurt staff productivity, morale, and job satisfaction, which can make civil service groups less efficient and effective. (Asskew, 2018) It can also put stress on working relationships, make it harder for workers and managers to trust each other, and create a bad work culture where people are less accountable and motivated. Furthermore, the widespread cyberloafing among Cameroonian government workers could have major effects on larger issues such as the openness and responsibility of the government and the distribution of resources. When a lot of work hours are spent on things that aren't linked to work, it raises questions about how well the organization resources are being used and how well the organization can carry out its duties.Thus, it is in the light of these that the study seeks to investigate the beneficial and detrimental effects of cyberloafing on employees productivity.

1.3  Objectives of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the beneficial and detrimental effects of cyberloafing on employees productivity. Specifically, the study will;

1.Determine the prevalence of cyberloafing behavior among employees in Cameroon.

2.Determine whether there is a relationship between cyberloafing behavior and  employees productivity.

3. Assess the impact of cyberloafing on employees  productivity in Cameroon.

1.4 Research Questions

The following questions have been prepared for the study:

What is the prevalence of cyberloafing behavior among employees in Cameroon?

Is there a relationship between cyberloafing behavior and employees productivity?

What is the impact of cyberloafing on employees  productivity in Cameroon?

1.5  Research Hypotheses

H0: There is no significant effect of cyberloafing on employees productivity.

Ha: There is a significant effect of cyberloafing on employees productivity.

1.6  Significance of the Study

The results of the study will give employees suggestions on how to control themselves and deal with problems that come with cyberloafing. Additionally, it will show workers the different outcomes of cyberloafing, which can be beneficial or detrimental depending on their actions and behaviors. In addition, it will give companies useful information for making plans to handle and lessen the bad effects of cyberloafing while also taking advantage of its possible benefits. Further more, subsequent researchers will use it as a literature review. This means that other students who may decide to conduct studies in this area will have the opportunity to use this study as available literature that can be subjected to critical review. Invariably, the result of the study contributes immensely to the body of academic knowledge with regard to the beneficial and detrimental effects of cyberloafing on employees productivity.

1.7 Scope of the study

The scope of this study is boarded on the beneficial and detrimental effects of cyberloafing on employees productivity. Empirically, the study will determine the prevalence of cyberloafing behavior among employees in Cameroon, determine whether there is a relationship between cyberloafing behavior and  employees productivity and assess the impact of cyberloafing on employees  productivity in Cameroon. 

Geographically, the study will be delimited to employees in Buea, Cameroon.

1.8 Limitation of the study

In the course of carrying out this study, the researcher experienced some constraints, which included time constraints, financial constraints, language barriers, and the attitude of the respondents. In addition, there was the element of researcher bias. Here, the researcher possessed some biases that may have been reflected in the way the data was collected, the type of people interviewed or sampled, and how the data gathered was interpreted thereafter. The potential for all this to influence the findings and conclusions could not be downplayed. More so, the findings of this study are limited to the sample population in the study area, hence they may not be suitable for use in comparison to other schools, local governments, states, and other countries in the world.

 1.9 Definition of Terms

Productivity: the state or quality of being productive. It is the effectiveness of productive effort, especially in an organization, as measured in terms of the rate of output per unit of input.

Cyberloafing: is a terminology which can be described as the action of employees who use the internet for non-work related activities or personal use during their working hours while pretending to do official work.