Adoption of the Internet and WAP-enabled Phones: The Case of Singapore

The Internet, and more recently mobile phones, has seen tremendous growth over the past few years. This paper examines the adoption of the Internet and WAP-enabled mobile phones in Singapore. Specifically, we examine the profile of Internet users, Internet activities and issues relating to WAP-enabled mobile phones. The results provide researchers and practitioners with some insights on the adoption of the Internet and WAP-enabled mobile phones. For researchers, such insights would be useful in understanding the adoption phenomenon, while for practitioners, such insights would provide some basis for adopting certain policies to promote adoption

Conciliatory and Non-Conciliatory Responses to Cyber Incivility

This paper examined a) non-conciliatory responses – revenge and avoidance, and b) conciliatory response – reconciliation to cyber incivility. Based on a survey of 192 employees, results showed that (dis)satisfaction with supervisor mediated the relationship between supervisor’s cyber incivility and victim’s responses. Individual responses to cyber incivility were moderated by a) victim’s personality through (dis)satisfaction with supervisor. The victim’s dark personality traits (Machiavellianism) and cyber incivility jointly produced conditional indirect effects on the victim’s responses. Machiavellianism produced a positive indirect effect on revenge and a negative indirect effect on reconciliation. Overall, findings suggested that the victim’s personality had a conditional indirect effect on the victim’s response to cyber incivility through (dis)satisfaction with supervisor

Impact of Daily Commuting on Cyberloafing and Procrastination

This paper examines how commute impedances (crowding and time urgency) are associated with recovery experiences (psychological detachment and relaxation), which in turn are associated with cyberloafing and procrastination. Based on a survey of 106 full-time employees who used public transport (buses and mass rapid transit) to work, we found that relaxation significantly mediated the relationship between crowding and cyberloafing, but did not mediate the relationship between time urgency and cyberloafing. Psychological detachment significantly mediated the relationship between time urgency and procrastination, but did not mediate the relationship between crowding and procrastination. Our results suggest that employees should be cognizant of how their psychological states upon arrival at the workplace can affect their work in the morning. Consequently, employees can incorporate morning workplace rituals that facilitate their psychological transition to work. As well, organizations can implement measures that allow employees reattach back to work in the morning

The IT Way of Idling on the Job: A Preliminary Study of Cyberloafing

The Internet is a useful business tool that is increasingly being made available to employees to enhance their work productivity. Recent reports in the popular literature, however, suggest that the Internet may well be a doubleedged sword that companies should use with caution, since the ease and convenience with which the Internet may be accessed at the workplace lends the potential for it to be abused by employees. This study thus examined the extent to which Internet abuse – termed ‘cyberloafing’ – occurs at the workplace in Singapore. We define cyberloafing as the act of employees using their companies’ Internet access during office hours to surf nonwork related Web sites and to check personal email. Data were collected, using an electronic questionnaire posted on the Internet, from 188 working adults with access to the Internet at their workplace. Results of our study suggest that employees do cyberloaf while at work by surfing non-work related Web sites and checking personal email. Findings further suggest that respondents feel justified in using their companies’ Internet access for personal purposes when they have been treated unfairly, or when they feel that they have expended extra effort to fulfil their job duties. Majority of respondents in our study either worked in organizations where there were no policies regulating workplace Internet usage or were unaware of the existence of such policies. Implications of our findings for organizations are discussed

Introduction to the Special Issue of New Methods in Work and Organizational Health

Collectively, the eight articles included in this special issue examine some of the important methodological issues that affect the future progress and developments of WOHP research. Two papers review methods on research design (Ilies, Aw & Lim; O’Shea, O’Connell, & Gallagher), three advance methods in data collection including measurement (Eatough, Shockley, & Yu; McGonagle, Huang, & Walsh; Sonnentag & Pundt), and three describe important data analytical methods (Ilies et al.; Liu, Mo, Song, & Wang; Wang, Hernandez, Newman, He, & Bian). The last paper by Spector and Pindek discusses the common research methodologies used in WOHP and provided some ideas and directions for future developments