The relationship between job demands, resources, stress, and cyberloafing among administrative staff in Jordanian universities

The emergence of internet technology in the workplace has many desirable effects on organizations and their members, which allows them to communicate easier and work faster. Despite the positive effect, internet technology brings about many undesirable consequences that widely influence organizations' productivity. Cyberloafing is a phenomenon that has recently attracted the researcher's attention, which denotes the idle utilization of technology rather than work. This study, therefore, examined the factors influencing cyberloafing activities amongst administrative staff in Jordanian universities. Drawing upon the JD-R model, conservation of resources theory, and construal level theory, this study examined the moderating effect of consideration of future consequences on the association between job stress and cyberloafing. In addition, the study examined the mediating effect of job stress on the relationship between job demands (role overload, role conflict, and role ambiguity), job resources (task significance, task identity, skill variety, autonomy, and job feedback), and cyberloafing. A quantitative approach was used to study the association between the variables under the study, and the unit of analysis was the individual administrative staff. The study utilized a survey method and questionnaires distributed through purposive sampling to 740 administrative staff at 19 public and private universities in Jordan. Out of 740 questionnaires distributed, 687 were returned, representing a respondent rate of 92.84%. The Partial Least Squares (PLS) Structural Equation Modelling technique was used to test the study hypotheses. The study found significant direct relationships among the tested job demands and job resources variables (except role conflict, skill variety, and feedback) with cyberloafing. In addition, the direct relationship between job demands, resources variables, and job stress was significant except (for role ambiguity). A significant positive correlation was found between job stress and cyberloafing. In contrast, job stress was found to mediate the relationship between job demands and resources variables (except role ambiguity) and cyberloafing. Regarding the moderation effect, consideration of future consequences moderated the relationship between job stress and cyberloafing. Contributions, limitations, and implications of the study are also discussed.