The relationship between servant leadership and cyberloafing: an investigation of meaningful work versus citizenship pressure

ABSTRACT

Cyberloafing is a form of counterproductive work behaviour (CWB), that is increasingly prominent yet easily concealed. This organizational phenomenon poses numerous detrimental effects on organizations, underscoring the importance of understanding the factors that can mitigate employee cyberloafing. Drawing on social exchange theory (SET) and social information processing theory (SIP), this study proposes an integrated model that explores the double-edged sword effect of servant leadership on cyberloafing. We hypothesize that servant leadership may increase meaningful work or citizenship pressure, thereby discouraging or facilitating cyberloafing. Meanwhile, we investigate the moderating effect of regulatory focus (promotion focus and prevention focus). Data were collected from 375 Chinese employees in three waves, with a two-week interval between each wave. The results showed that servant leadership enhanced meaningful work, resulting in a disincentive to cyberloafing. Conversely, servant leadership intensified citizenship pressure, leading to an increase in cyberloafing. The negative indirect effect of servant leadership on cyberloafing via meaningful work was moderated by promotion focus. Specifically, this indirect effect was more pronounced when the promotion focus was higher. Our research offers crucial insights for preventing employee cyberloafing in organizations.

KEYWORDS:

• Servant leadership
• cyberloafing
• meaningful work
• citizenship pressure
• counterproductive work behaviour

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [72372115]; National Social Science Fund of China [23CGL022]; the Shanghai Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science [2023ZGL004].