How Does Performance-Based Monetary Incentive Influence Cyberloafing’s Effects on Task Performance?

Abstract

With the widespread use of computers and the internet in the workplace, computer use for personal reasons during work time, or cyberloafing, has become quite common. Without a clear understanding of the consequences of cyberloafing, practitioners cannot properly design an IT policy aimed at managing employees' cyberloafing. This study aims to develop and test a model of the relationship between cyberloafing and task performance. Specifically, we attempt to demonstrate how performance-based monetary incentives and time change the role of cyberloafing in task performance. Drawing on the theory of goal setting and the capacity theory of attention, we developed research hypotheses on how cyberloafing interacts with incentives and time to influence task performance. To test the hypotheses, we conducted five 2 × 2 experiments repeatedly on 189 subjects. The results of hierarchical linear modeling showed that although cyberloafing generally worsened task performance, this relationship varied with performance-based monetary incentives. Incentives significantly diminished the negative effect of cyberloafing on task performance. However, as our theory predicted, the moderating effect of incentives decreased over time. More specifically, we found that the two-way interaction between cyberloafing and incentives was in effect during earlier phases but gradually disappeared over time. This study contributes to IS research and practice by providing valuable insights into the role of cyberloafing in task performance and how this relationship changes over time with the option of performance-based monetary incentives.